On August 15, 2017, airberlin filed for insolvency, and then a bit over a week later, airberlin's spun off loyalty program, topbonus, filed for insolvency. Even though topbonus is technically a separate company, they more or less closed up shop, as it was no longer possible to earn or redeem their miles. I explained the…
Continue reading: Airberlin’s Topbonus Program Is Making A Bizarre Comeback
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What happens with my ~200,000 points which I booked two return flights in business class DUS-CUR-DUS in November which are worth ~€4,000 ????????????
I've been robbed.
As has my mother of her 70th birthday treat.
Your cents-per-point example is off by a decimal -- should be 0.24 cents per mile rather than 0.024. Still terrible of course.
I can see the logic for opening (poor) redemption opportunities from the insolvency administrator's perspective. Like this they can get rid of liabilities at a low cost.
However, I really struggle to see why anyone would credit miles flown on EY to Topbonus, now. If I had any EY flights booked, I would certainly credit them to any other program, but not to Topbonus - where I can only redeem them at a very poor rate for vouchers ... This would only make sense to me, if EY plans to buy Topbonus out of administration (which could make sense for them, if the price is right).
It looks like that there is not a single item in the whole shop that generates any financial benefit at all.
Sixt-Vouchers are useless as you have to book via the topbonus portal at higher rates (no discount codes/corporate rates). Minimum rental days requirements will absorb any potential savings even at the 50 EUR level. Instead: topbonus most likely will get some referral income from your booking plus some miles of the balance sheet.
Cash&Points items are also a bad idea as you get all of the items cheaper or at the same cash price than the cash portion alone by searching the web. Shopping via any cashback portal most likely drop the final price of the higher priced items further.
Discounts for delivery start ups or online travel agency's? Give me a break, just look around for free coupons or use their promos for new customers. Zero value to be had again.
One must applaud the topbonus team though. Reducing the outstanding miles plus generating "klick"-revenue at near to zero cost to them is a smart move.
Whatever the future holds for topbonus anyone who isn't completely new to the points & miles scene and ever has heard about things like cash-back or knows how to shop the web should rather stick to the miles and wait.
Even if you have to go all the way through the whole insolvency process for years. Your miles most likely are worth more than ZERO after that. One can only guess if the topbonus management act in favor for the programm members when it comes to register their outstanding assets in the insolvency claims towards airberlin once the process is started. Basing that guess on the facts one has seen in the past six months there is certainly high doubt that either airberlin itself nor topbonus or our former partners from the Middle East are having any real interest in generating real value for topbonus members without generating new cash-flow.
Just in case you have missed it: There is another highly questionable offer online:
www.flopbonus.com (in german only)
Stating "alternate facts" about the insolvency process to lure some poor souls into paying them a 25% commission.
Your remarks about "what Aeroplan will look like" is so far off the mark as to be beneath you (and possibly libellous). Air Miles is a Canadian rewards program that is not directly affiliated with any airline but offers redemptions on AC, WS, PD, AA, DL, LH, NZ at reasonable rates. Aeroplan will be able to negotiate similar redemption arrangements with many airlines outside STAR, so I have no fear that my Aeroplan Miles in 2020 will be as worthless as AB's have become. If anything it will be a challenge for AC to satisfy its regular flyers who could start the new program with no Miles in their account and have to start from scratch while either holding huge numbers of Aeroplan Miles or having rushed to burn them off...but nonetheless have nothing in their new AltitudeMiles account.
I think you missed a key piece of information: Buried in the (German) FAQ they announce that all award tickets issued on other carriers remain valid and have already been paid for! This is counter to your earlier analysis and my understanding that award tickets are paid after the flight is complete!
This puts the spot light on Etihad and OneWorld partners - how can they now deny carriage (legally or morally), if topbonus has already paid them! Especiall Etihad will have a hard time explaining why they would deny transport to a passenger on a ticket issued by their majority-owned subsidiary!
I put the translation and details in my post:
https://dreamtravelonpoints.com/good-news-or-deceptive-marketing-topbonus-open-to-earn-redeem-miles-reward-tickets-valid/
Diamond Vargas and Andy:
.24 cents is just under a quarter of a penny.
A cent is 1/100ths of a dollar.
If your point, as it should be, is that the cost-per-mile is 24 cents, drop the decimal point. Otherwise, you are stating the cost is 24/100 of a penny, which would be an amazing deal. According to your challenged statement, you get 417 miles for a buck.
I'm better with numbers than names... I meant to address my comment to Diamond Vargas and Ben, aka 'Lucky'.
The name I'm most familiar with tonight is Captain Morgan.
An interesting side note: https://reisetopia.de/lufthansa-airberlin-langstrecke/
It seems that Lufthansa won't get any of the AB long haul routes. Yet, who gets those? LEVEL? Condor?
That is a joke 🙁
Should be worth ~€3,000.
You could have done a return in business class Dusseldorf to Curacao and another DUS-CUR one-way.
🙁
That is VERY interesting Rupert.
That needs to be followed up.
Gutted I used my points for AirBerlin flights for November instead of Etihad 🙁
As if the above wasn't bad enough, they stretch the pain further by giving you less as you redeem more points!
You get 50EUR 'benefit' for 20,000 points - but need an extra 25% to get 100EUR, at 50,000 points. Normally redemptions are better, or at least consistent, at higher levels.