Does anyone know why I can't book a flight from DUS to LHR on bmi's site in economy class? It gives me a message saying that it must be booked in business or business flexible. But when I check other online sites like travelocity, I can find economy fares for the same flights and dates? I also can't seem to find an email contact on the bmi site. Thanks.

I arbitrarily plugged in a couple of dates in May and I was able to book an economy class ticket DUS to LHR. I did not get an error message saying it must be booked in business class. I don't see an e-mail address on the site, only a street address and phone numbers for within and outside of the UK.

Perhaps it was a temporary glitch. The site worked properly for me, so if you try it again now, it may work for you also.

What date did you try? I tried May 5th, 10th, 15th, 25th, & 30th and here's what I get each time:

"Please note that due to certain fare restrictions, it is only possible to purchase the following tickets on your requested route:

Business or Business Flexible

Please amend your flight requests and resubmit your search."

I tried both one way and roundtrip. It only happens on the DUS-LHR flights, for example, AMS-LHR is fine. Could it have anything to do with the fact that I'm checking from the U.S.?

I find it very ironic that their website tech support department has no email address.

I originally plugged in May 20, returning on May 28. After reading your message I plugged in outbound dates from May 5 through May 31. May 5 and 6 were the only two dates on which I got the same error message you did. I was able to get a "Cheapest Fare" for all other dates in May.

Availability and pricing can fluctuate greatly on any given day. Perhaps it's just a matter of timing. If you keep checking, you should get similar results to mine.

Accessing the site from the US should not affect your results. (I live in San Diego). Good luck!

I tried plugging in the same dates as your original (5/20-5/28) as well as six more dates and came up with the same error message still. I posted this same question on the airline boards, and someone there had an interesting theory:

Author: BeachBoi
Date: 04/30/2003, 10:31 am
Message: I'll venture a guess.All of BMI's service between DUS and LHR are codeshare with Lufthansa.Codeshare among all airlines are different.But in most cases the "host" airline in this case LH, wants to maintain control over the codeshare situation.Thus guarding against oversale by the codeshare partner.Thats what I've run into in the past.Why you can do it on some sights and not on others,well its just a "thing" with BMI and their website.

I'm going to call their UK number right now if it's not too late.

Well, I spoke with both tech support and reservations at bmi and they also came up with only business class fares when pricing DUS-LHR one way but were able to price a roundtrip in economy. The reservations agent said he too suspects that it has something to do with the fact that it's a codeshare flight with Lufthansa and to contact Lufthansa to book the one way economy. But neither agent was really sure of the reason. Nor did they have any idea why I'm able to price a one way economy on travelocity.

Booking thru Lufthansa site works - it is giving me a one way economy fare for the same flights.

Excuse me, but am I missing something? You've got the fares you want on the Travelocity site. So why are you trying to get them from bmi?

I mean, I'm interested too in why the bmi site isn't delivering. But there's a simple answer: it's a web site. Designed by web designers. So it's bound not to work

Is there some reason why a bmi ticket is better when bought from bmi? This is a serious - well, frivolous - request for information. No sarcasm is intended. Honest.

Not sure about all Travelocity sites, but travelocity.ca charges a C$20 booking fee (even for e-tickets). So it would make sense to look on Travelocity to find the cheapest fare and then book it directly with the airline to avoid this extra fee.

Well, my experience in Europe is sort of the precise opposite. When I get a really good fare on a consolidator site, I can never match it on the airline's - and the odd 10 quid or so booking fee makes no difference. So I just don't bother with airline sites anymore. I don't know whether that's a local market peculiarity.

flanneruk,
I wanted to check the bmi site for 2 reasons:

1. To see if a lower fare was available directly thru bmi

2. So I don't have to pay the transaction fee

In any case, I've found that I can book directly thru the Lufthansa site now.

Well, this is intriguing me more and more.

I tested your journey on bmi, lufthansa, BA and the leading consolidator sites. As I suspected: the consolidators were consistently 20-30 pounds cheaper than the airlines.After the transaction fee.

Maybe that's not typically the case in North America. But in Europe it has been so so often, I simply don't use airline sites any more. I'll use two or three consolidators, and select just from them. The only exception I've found is "web-only" specials on long-haul

Which consolidator sites do you use? Will they accept bookings with U.S. based credit cards? I know BA's site doesn't accept U.S. based cards for intra-European bookings.

ebookers, expedia, lastminute.com, travelocity, opodo (though they seem always to throw up high prices) Also cheapflights.co.uk although they work slightly differently.
Google "cheap flights uk" and you can waste a weekend finding others.
I've no idea about their credit card policy (why would I?). I do know there can be complications with overseas addresses if they use hard-copy tickets, which some of them do surprisingly often.