How to get FREE British Airways Bronze status (equivalent) for four months

airberlin is a partner with British Airways in the oneworld alliance.  This means that anyone who has status with airberlin will receive reciprocal status benefits with BA, and vice versa.

Why does this matter?  Because airberlin is currently offering four months of free Silver status if you sign up for topbonus, their frequent flyer programme.

Silver on airberlin does NOT match Silver on British Airways.  It matches British Airways Bronze status instead because these are both ‘Ruby’ tiers in the oneworld hierarchy.

The benefits of British Airways Bronze status, or any other oneworld Ruby status, are not huge but are certainly better than nothing.

As per this page of ba.com you will get:

Business Class check-in desk use

Priority Boarding

Free seat selection from seven days prior to departure

This (click) is the page of the airberlin website you need to access.

If your German isn’t up to much you can use Chrome to open the page and it will offer to translate it.  However, here are the key points (thank you Anika!):

• sign up for topbonus by 30th November 2016
• make sure to add a company email address
• verify your email address once registered
• enjoy 4 months of silver status (this may take a few days to update)

Existing topbonus members can also take advantage of this offer by clicking the button in the bottom right hand corner.

If you earn 8,500 topbonus status miles or take 8 airberlin or NIKI flights during your first 4 months, your Silver status will be extended for another 12 months. In comparison you usually need 24 flights or 25,000 topbonus status miles to gain silver status.

When signing up you can also get 500 bonus miles when opting in for email offers and news.

Using your new airberlin status with BA

In order to get free seat selection, you will need to physically put your airberlin topbonus number into your booking.  If it isn’t a redemption, you will need to swap it over to your BA number at a ticket desk in the airport – and have your boarding pass reissued – if you don’t want the miles to be credited to topbonus.

For the purposes of priority boarding and business class check-in, simply flashing your airberlin card (if they send you one – hopefully it is available via their app if not) should do the trick.

PS.  It is possible that airberlin will not be too keen on lots of UK residents taking advantage of this deal and may not honour it.  If not, don’t complain.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2023)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 9th January 2024, you will receive 30,000 Membership Rewards points (convertible to 30,000 Avios) with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold. You receive 25,000 points if you spend £3,000 in three months and a further 5,000 points if you hold the card for 15 months. You can apply here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 9th January 2024, you will receive a huge 100,000 Membership Rewards points (convertible to 100,000 Avios) with The Platinum Card. You receive 75,000 points if you spend £10,000 in six months and a further 25,000 points if you hold the card for 15 months. You can apply here.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.