Anyone Flown bmi Airlines?
Sep 1st, 2004, 11:50 AM
#1
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Anyone Flown bmi Airlines?
I've never heard of this airline. They are offering a $399 fall winter special from San Francisco to London. Are they any good (comfort, service, safety) or should I just stick to the airlines I usually fly and get my f. f. miles?
Sep 1st, 2004, 12:03 PM
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We flew bmi in June/July from Chicago to Edinburgh and back (via Manchester). I thought service was very good and comfort was pretty much average. No complaints re: safety, and I am not aware that bmi has any issues in this area. FYI, bmi is part of the Star Alliance, and you can earn FF miles with United and possibly USAirways.
The following is copied from our trip report:
This trip gave us a chance to try out yet another member of the Star Alliance -- bmi. We flew Chicago to Manchester to Edinburgh, and the same in reverse. No splurging on airfare this time. We paid $650 for economy seats, purchased through united.com back in January, and never saw the fare go below $950 after that.
Overall, we were favorably impressed with bmi and absolutely would fly with them again. For the transatlantic route, they use well-maintained A330s with the full entertainment system (extensive film and television choices and video games) at every seat. Nothing like a little game of Centipede to pass the time at 38,000 feet. Seat pitch was pretty average (read: tight), but seats include footrests. Service was professional, efficient and very pleasant. The food wasn't very good, but you do have to respect the little tubs of Ben & Jerry's cookie dough ice cream. Beer, wine and cocktails were free. Even the lowly economy passengers got amenity kits.
Connecting at Manchester was far preferable to Heathrow, although we can safely say we'd rather pass the time at United's Red Carpet Club at Heathrow than bmi's lounge at Manchester.
Our one travel glitch came courtesy of a pothole on the runway at O'Hare, which suddenly needed attention as we were queued up and ready to take off. As a result, we were an hour late arriving in Manchester and missed our connection to Edinburgh. No problem. A bmi agent met us in the jetway as we were deplaning, with new boarding cards that she already had prepared as well as a £15 voucher for food in the terminal -- nice, considering bmi had nothing to do with the delay. We had a couple of hours to kill, but since it was raining in Edinburgh, it probably didn't matter much.
The following is copied from our trip report:
This trip gave us a chance to try out yet another member of the Star Alliance -- bmi. We flew Chicago to Manchester to Edinburgh, and the same in reverse. No splurging on airfare this time. We paid $650 for economy seats, purchased through united.com back in January, and never saw the fare go below $950 after that.
Overall, we were favorably impressed with bmi and absolutely would fly with them again. For the transatlantic route, they use well-maintained A330s with the full entertainment system (extensive film and television choices and video games) at every seat. Nothing like a little game of Centipede to pass the time at 38,000 feet. Seat pitch was pretty average (read: tight), but seats include footrests. Service was professional, efficient and very pleasant. The food wasn't very good, but you do have to respect the little tubs of Ben & Jerry's cookie dough ice cream. Beer, wine and cocktails were free. Even the lowly economy passengers got amenity kits.
Connecting at Manchester was far preferable to Heathrow, although we can safely say we'd rather pass the time at United's Red Carpet Club at Heathrow than bmi's lounge at Manchester.
Our one travel glitch came courtesy of a pothole on the runway at O'Hare, which suddenly needed attention as we were queued up and ready to take off. As a result, we were an hour late arriving in Manchester and missed our connection to Edinburgh. No problem. A bmi agent met us in the jetway as we were deplaning, with new boarding cards that she already had prepared as well as a £15 voucher for food in the terminal -- nice, considering bmi had nothing to do with the delay. We had a couple of hours to kill, but since it was raining in Edinburgh, it probably didn't matter much.
Sep 1st, 2004, 05:36 PM
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Yes BMI is British Midland International. They go by BMI now to get away from the small local airline image. I have flown them once from Amsterdam to Heathrow. No problems. Got my ff points for Star Alliance partner Air Canada. Seat pitch a little less than we are used to but this may not apply to long haul flights.
Sep 1st, 2004, 05:36 PM
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Yes, I believe BMI stands for British Midland Airways. We flew them Chicago to Paris and Copenhagen to Chicago. They use Airbus planes with individual entertainment unit on each seat (lots of choices including kids games) plus a foot rest. My son couldn't believe the number of nintendo games that he didn't sleep or rest for the whole flight from CPH to ORD!! Anyway I was VERY satisfied with their service, the type of plane they have (I Love Airbus) and the configuration of seats that I will not hesitate to use them again.
