Sweeping changes have been made to airberlin topbonus. As of April 1, 2009, airberlin topbonus members will now collect more status and award miles on flights with airberlin and NIKI depending on the cost of the flight. For example, for direct flights on national routes booked on airberlin.com with an airfare of more than 49 euro (plus service charge) such as Berlin to Munich, you will now earn 500 miles instead of 125 miles and for direct flights to European cities with an airfare of more than 79 euro (plus service charge), such as Dusseldorf to Barcelona, you will earn 1,000 miles instead of 250.

A new companion award ticket is available when a member books a coach ticket for a flight operated by airberlin. The member can obtain an additional ticket for a flight companion at 50 percent fewer miles. Both award tickets must be booked at the same time, and must be booked under the same conditions in terms of payment of taxes, charges and fuel surcharge.

An interesting twist for elite members, Silver and Gold members can now designate their favorite route and will earn double miles when flying their favorite route roundtrip. The offer is only valid for national routes and routes within Europe and North Africa/Middle East.

And topbonus members are now upgraded to Silver status, irrespective of the number of status miles they have collected, if they have flown with airberlin at least 24 times in the previous 12 months. This corresponds to one roundtrip flight a month.

From April onwards, Gold customers (from 40,000 status miles within 12 months) receive an additional 40 percent bonus on the award and status miles for their flights; they can also use an exclusive service hotline at local call rates and their award miles will not expire as long as they retain their Gold status. The airline is also launching a new airberlin Visa Card, which is replacing the airberlin MasterCard from May onwards, and new upgrade awards. For complete information, visit http://www.airberlin.com