Air Berlin has announced three new longhaul routes to North America from its Dusseldorf hub; Dallas, San Francisco, and Boston. The new longhaul routes will commence next spring and feature fully lie-flat seats in business class.
Schedules have been loaded into the system and award space is now bookable with a variety of oneworld currencies. Use either your British Airways or American miles for travel on Air Berlin with no fuel surcharges. All new flights have two business class seats loaded, though no economy class seats yet.
Dusseldorf to Boston – begins 07 May 2016
AB7472 Dusseldorf to Boston dep 1350 arr 1530
AB7473 Boston to Dusseldorf dep 1750 arr 0645+1
- 07 May 2016 – 11 June 2016 – 3x weekly (Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays)
- from 12 June 2016 – 4x weekly (Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays)
Dusseldorf to Dallas – begins 06 May 2016
AB7010 Dusseldorf to Dallas dep 0915 arr 1250
AB7011 Dallas to Dusseldorf dep 1440 arr 0705+1
- from 06 May 2016 – 4x weekly in both directions (Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays)
Dusseldorf to San Francisco – begins 06 May 2016
AB7392 Dusseldorf to San Francisco dep 1320 arr 1555+1
AB7393 San Francisco to Dusseldorf dep 1755 arr 1335+1
- 07 May 2016 – 08 June 2016 – 3x weekly (Sundays, Wednesdays, Fridays)
- from June 9, 2016 – 5x weekly (Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays)
A couple things to keep in mind. First, AA has not yet loaded the space online, so you will need to call to book it. If you have Qantas or BA points, the space is now bookable online. Second, Air Berlin is one of those carriers that is great about releasing space in advance — usually 350 days in advance if you have BA or QF points — but not very good at opening up additional space, particularly close-in to travel. Do not count on additional last minute seats opening up.
Nevertheless, a great way to score transatlantic business class class and especially lucrative from the West Coast. The Road More Traveled has more on the new Dallas service.
Matthew: Have OW miles to burn long-haul NA-EU. Of Aer Lingus, Air Berlin, and Iberia (all which I have never flown and want to try, but…) J class how would you stack them? Berlin’s seats seem awfully narrow, hit or miss Teutonic cabin crew while Iberia’s service isn’t great (‘the personality of an olive pit’ I once read) via reviews but they are getting a new seats; Lingus with their new seat and service seems the best according to reports, incl. yours. Ultimately the decision will be made on availability, but I don’t necessarily want to take the least favorable carrier. On NA return I want to fly Qatar, do they have any Fifth routes from EU to NA or vice versa?. Thanks.
@Steve: I would rank the seats —
All are actually quite similar
But I like all three — you can check out my recent review of Aer Lingus here (I know you’ve seen it, but for others):
http://upgrd.com/matthew/dublin-to-boston-in-aer-lingus-business-class.html
People complain about these type of business class seats because of the constrained foot space, but I find them to be no problem.
On the way back, you can fly via DOH on Qatar, but extra miles will be needed — you’ll need 30K for business form Europe to Doha and then 67.5K back to the States versus just 50K on Finnair, Iberia, Air Berlin, AA, or BA.