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BMI / Qatar Airways partnership to end on 27th October

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I wrote last week that reports of the death of BMI Diamond Club were greatly exaggerated.

However, here is another nail in the coffin, from the Qatar Airways website:

This is to inform you that effective 28th October 2012, British Midland Airlines will no longer be our Airline Partner. Therefore, Privilege Club members can no longer earn Qmiles or request an award ticket on bmi from 28th October 2012.

If you have flown with bmi on or prior to 27th October 2012 and still haven’t received your Qmiles, you can claim for these Qmiles up to six months from your date of travel.

Award tickets requested for travel on or beyond 28th October 2012 must be issued by 27th  October 2012. Any changes to the tickets will not be permitted  from 28th October 2012 onwards.

Please note that in the event a bmi flight number is changed to another airline flight number,you will not be able to earn Qmiles for travel on this flight or request for redemption even if travel date is before 27th October 2012. For any further queries regarding the above, please contact our Member Service Centre at +974 44496449 or write to membersvc@qmiles.com

You should assume that this works both ways, and that any redemptions using BMI Diamond Club miles on Qatar Airways must be made by 27th October.  You should be able to book up to 11 months ahead, though, which covers next Summer.

Once Qatar is gone, I will move my DC miles over to BAEC.  I can’t see any reason why I would be redeeming on Jet or Transaero, BMI’s remaining partners.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

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 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 card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

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

25,000 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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a 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, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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

40,000 points sign-up bonus 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.

Comments (3)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Dominic says:

    On the subject of BMI Diamond Club, I just logged onto my Worldpoints account, and see that I have a choice of 250 Worldpoints = 300 BA Avios (0.83 WP per Avios), or 500 Worldpoints = 750 Diamond Club miles (0.67 WP per DC mile).

    Since you can (I think) still transfer DC miles to Avios at 1:1 this is actually a pretty good deal!

    Am I missing something?

    • Raffles says:

      No, this is a known quirk. They will transfer fine to DC and you can then move them to Avios. However, you may also want to wait in case there is another 100% bonus on WP to Avios conversions – there have been two in the last year. That would be better than the DC option, but of course you are taking a risk on the promo coming back.

  • Dev says:

    Just a quick note about Jet Airways. They are a fantastic airline with a solid F and J product. Unfortunately they are the stingiest airline when it comes to releasing award seats. Their own Jet Privilege members cannot find premium seats to redeem so I do not think that Bmi are going to have any luck…..rumour has it that every premium redemption has to be personally ok’d by the owners wife. I would not rely on DC miles to redeem on Jet.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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