British Midland
 

Has anyone ever flown British Midland Airways? If so, would you fly again? Good service? I've never heard of them so please let me know...

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We have used British Midand several times for our daughter and have had no problems. They actually fly in and out of Heathrow. They also fly new Boeing 737's.

Thank you!!!!

We flew them once to connect to and from Rome via LHR. It was a pleasure to fly them as the service was fantastic, seats were comfortable, and the sandwiches were excellent.

Flew with BMI a couple of times from London to Edinburg. Ok service and seats, no complaints. Beware that if you are flying into LHR via a different airline, BMI no longer will allow to check through the luggage (as of August 2005, I've been told). For instance, flying from Boston to Heathrow on Virgin or American, we had to get our luggage in London and then BMI will check it through to Edinburgh. They used to work with Virgin to allow the luggage to be checked in all the way from Boston to Edinburgh.

Not a huge deal, and an unfortunate side effect of having to put both sides of the itinerary together as separate tickets, but something to be aware of if you are connecting through London and getting on your BMI flight there - allow enough time to grab luggage and head out to a different terminal.

I've taken BMI several times from London to Amsterdam. BMI is a discount carrier, but you get the feel of taking regular (non-discount) carrier. Aircraft is new, and flight attendants are very professional. I also like BMI because their hub is Heathrow. They are part of the Star Alliance.

BMI is a very well known, long established airline - and <b>very</b> good. The service of a major and the prices of of a discounter.

bmi (as they are now known) are my airline of choice. Decent service &amp; (most importantly !) their FF mile stack up more quickly than most : I seem to remember my longhaul flight with them paid for a shorthaul flight.

I used them a bunch when I lived in Cardiff. The earlier you book, the better the prices are. The only problem we had with them was coming back from Paris on a SUnday night. Flight was at 6:30 or so, and we didn't leave CDG until nearly 2:30 a.m. Their partner airline was Air Wales (Scare Wales) and they kept telling us the plane was coming from Cardiff, and still coming, just boarding, etc. We have a friend who's house is at the end of the runway, and she could see that the plane wasn't leaving. Finally, an Air Ireland plane arrived at CDG and that was what we flew home on.
Otherwise, good stuff.

Slight corrections. 1) Flights branded bmi baby are the low cost version; flights branded bmi (e.g. LHR-EDI) are full service &amp; attract FF miles. 2) bmi &amp; United are both members of the Star Alliance &amp; you can check luggage through when using a combo of both.

Hi Caroline,

Thank you for the update - we fly to Edinburgh every other yeat and usually end up flying BMI out of Heathrow, so it's good to know the exact check through policies.

I was looking at BMI website to book tickets for our September 2006 travel and saw the following with regards to check through policies:

&quot;Passengers with connecting journeys using separate tickets will no longer be offered the facility of through check-in or through tagging of baggage. This means that only customers on connecting flights with itineraries issued on a single ticket with one booking reference will qualify for the through check service subject to minimum connection times. This policy applies to all connecting flights (bmi to bmi, bmi to other carriers and code-share flights).&quot;

Does the above mean that flying to London on a separate ticket on a Star Alliance carrier will qualify for a checked through luggage? I interpreted the above as a no, and decided to try a different carrier than BMI for our 2006 plans for that reason. Hopefully I misunderstood the policy...

Hi kasperdoggie. Ah, sorry, you've evidently looked into it in more detail than I have. I'd interpret this as meaning that if you book US-UK with United plus UK domestic with bmi *at the same time*, as one booking, you can check luggage through; but if you book them separately you can't. (It seems extraordinary that this would be the cae even with 2 bmi flights, though, doesn't it ?) Is that how you interpret it ?

I've booked EDI-LHR-NAP &amp; back for May/June, all as one booking, so I'm assuming this means we'll be able to check our bags through.