Get British Airways lounge access by matching your non-oneworld Gold card to airberlin

A couple of days, I wrote that the Turkish Airline status match still seems to be active.  If you have a Gold card issued by any other airline, Turkish may be willing to give you one of their Gold cards for free – and that means that you would get 2 years of Gold status, including lounge access, across all 20+ Star Alliance airlines.

Mr Tibbs posted something very interesting in the comments.

He had managed to get airberlin‘s frequent flyer scheme, Top Bonus, to give him 5 months of Gold status as a match to his existing Gold card.

Now, airberlin is – like British Airways – a member of the oneworld alliance.  This means that you can use an airberlin Gold card to get you most of the benefits of a British Airways Silver card, including:

• access to BA lounges when flying on BA or another oneworld airline
• use of business class check in desks
• free seat selection on BA flights

This is no different to the benefits that those people who get the free Cathay Pacific Marco Polo Gold card from American Express Platinum enjoy when flying BA.

If you want to try to match your Star Alliance or Flying Blue status to airberlin Top Bonus, you should open a Top Bonus account and then email service [at] topbonus.de and ask for a match.

You should include as much documentation as you can, including a colour scan of your current card and (if you have flight activity on the card) a copy of your statement.  You may also want to give some reason why you would be flying on airberlin in the future – or perhaps even book a cancellable airberlin ticket! – although this should not be necessary.

Note that there is no point bothering to match an existing Silver card for Top Bonus Silver.  Top Bonus Silver is equivalent to British Airways Executive Club Bronze, and that doesn’t get you anything of value, frankly!

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

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 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

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.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

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