Members of Malév Hungarian Airlines Duna Club are able to retain their oneworld frequent flyer status, thanks to special offers being made by a number of the alliance’s other airlines.

With Malév suspending all services indefinitely earlier this month (for further details, click here), Finnair and Japan Airlines are inviting Duna Club members to switch frequent flyer programmes, and enjoy the same level of services and benefits within the oneworld programme to which they were entitled as Malév Duna Club members. So too is airberlin, which will join oneworld on 20 March.

This means that:

• Malév Duna Club Platinum cardholders are being offered Platinum membership of Finnair Plus, Japan Airlines JAL Mileage Bank (JMB) Diamond or the equivalent tier in airberlin’s topbonus scheme, enabling them to retain their top level Emerald status in oneworld.
• Malév Duna Club Gold members can transfer to Finnair Plus Gold, Japan Airlines JMB Sapphire or the equivalent airberlin topbonus tier, enabling them to continue to enjoy oneworld Sapphire services and benefits.
• Malév Duna Club Silver members can transfer to Finnair Plus Silver, Japan Airlines JMB Crystal or the equivalent airberlin topbonus tier, enabling them to continue to enjoy oneworld Ruby services and benefits.

Details of which airberlin topbonus tier will be equivalent to which oneworld gemstone tier will be announced soon.

Frequent flyers with oneworld Emerald and Sapphire status have access to the 550 plus lounges offered by oneworld airlines worldwide when they are flying in any class on any oneworld airline flight – and these include lounges regularly voted best in the various industry award schemes.

When they check-in, cardholders with Emerald, Sapphire or Ruby status can use Business Class desks (or First Class for Emerald cardholders) no matter what cabin class they are flying. Emerald and Sapphire cardholders can board their flight at their convenience and are offered priority standby and waitlisting if their chosen flight is fully booked.

For full details of oneworld frequent flyer services and benefits, see http://www.oneworld.com/ffp/oneworld-benefits/

Finnair serves Budapest from its Helsinki hub twice daily with the smoothest of connections to and from its extensive Asian networks. airberlin launched daily flights between its Berlin hub and Budapest last week, with excellent connections to and from its network serving Europe, the Mediterranean and North America. Japan Airlines offers convenient connections between Budapest and Japan via its London, Frankfurt and Paris flights to Tokyo Narita.

How to take advantage of these offers

airberlin: Malév Duna Club cardholders registering as airberlin topbonus members before 31 May 2012 are being offered the same oneworld tier status in the German airline’s programme. For full details, see airberlin.com/dunaclub

Finnair: To take advantage of the Finnair offer, Malév Duna Club members must:

• Register with Finnair Plus (see http://www.finnair.com/INT/GB/join).
• Fly at least once on a Finnair-marketed flight between 13 February 2012 and 31 May 2012 on an eligible fare (Business Class J/C/D or I, or Economy Class Y/B/H/V/L/N/S/Q/O/K/M/P/T/Z/R/A).
• Send to plus.special@finnair.fi by 30 June 2012 a scan of your Malév Duna Club card to Finnair Plus with the boarding card stub or electronic ticket from your Finnair flight.

Japan Airlines: Malév Duna Club cardholders registering as JAL Mileage Bank (JMB) members before 31 December 2012 are being offered the same oneworld tier status in Japan Airlines’ loyalty programme that they enjoyed within Duna Club. To take advantage of this offer, follow these steps:

• Register with JAL’s JMB programme, at https://www121.jal.co.jp/JmbWeb/JR/EnrollProposal_en.do
• Fly at least once on a Japan Airlines-marketed flight between 1 March 2012 and 31 December 2012 on an eligible fare (see http://www.er.jal.com/world/en/jalmile/flight/jal.html)
• Contact JMB Europe (see http://www.jal.co.jp/en/information/jmb/index_er.html) by 31 December 2012 and quote your Malév Duna Club card membership number and details of the JAL flight taken (as above).
• The oneworld tier status granted will apply to 31 March 2013 and will then be subject to normal reactivation rules.

About oneworld

oneworld is the world’s premier global airline alliance. It brings together some of the best and biggest names in the airline business – American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Qantas, Royal Jordanian and S7 Airlines, and around 20 affiliates including American Eagle, Dragonair, LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador and LAN Peru. airberlin will join on 20 March 2012 and Malaysia Airlines later in 2012. India’s Kingfisher Airlines is also a oneworld member elect. Malév Hungarian Airlines and Mexicana are inactive members of the alliance.

With airberlin, oneworld’s active airlines:

• Serve some 800 destinations in 150 countries, with around 9,000 daily departures.
• Offer more than 550 airport lounges for premium customers.
• Carry almost a million passengers a day on a combined fleet of nearly 2,500 aircraft.
• Generate almost US$ 100 billion annual revenues in total.

oneworld enables its members to offer their customers more services and benefits than any airline can provide on its own. These include a broader route network, opportunities to earn and redeem frequent flyer miles and points across the combined oneworld network and more airport lounges. oneworld also offers one of the most extensive ranges of alliance fares.

oneworld was named the Best Airline Alliance by Global Traveler in its GT Tested Reader Survey 2011 Awards for the second year running, the World’s Leading Airline Alliance in the 2011 World Travel Awards, retaining that title for the ninth consecutive year, and the World’s Best Alliance in the 2011 debut Australian Business Traveller awards.

News Update! Refer http://www.oneworld.com/news-information/oneworldnews/details/?objectID=28487

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