Amazingly, the old bmi credit cards just got better!

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

• James67 says:

  15 May15 May 08:20

  I wonder if the discount will apply to money and avios redemptions. Wish I had held on to my mastercard. Would be cool if they would now offer bonus miles for threshold spends. Seems like they are trying to liquidate theif stash of miles.

• Mark says:

  15 May15 May 08:37

  Apologies for this elementary question. I still have the original free bmi mc (before it got twinned with the Amex card), but perhaps foolishly haven’t used it in ages as put majority of my spend through various Amex cards. Question is, do I need to do anything to link/set up this old card to my BA Exec account?

• larryflyer says:

  15 May15 May 09:05

  Just got off the phone with MBNA. I have (what is now called) the standard “Diamond Club Credit Card Account” (that’s the no-fee account, with dual Amex and Visa cards, that many of us applied for just before the deadline – thanks Raffles!). Initially I was told (by the MBNA Diamond Club dept!) that my card IS eligible for the 10% discount on BA flight bookings, but after pressing (and the MBNA assistant checked the Diamond Club website) it was confirmed my card is not – only the “Plus” cards, and the Mastercard with annual fee (as indicated).

  No surprise there. I then asked about upgrading to the “Diamond Club Plus Credit Card Account” – not possible, would need a new appplication from scratch. Okay – how do I do that? At which point I was transferred to the Applications Dept.

  Got the standard advice to “apply via the website”. I pointed out that there were no application forms for ANY of the Diamond Club branded cards on the MBNA website, nor any links to application forms from the Diamond Club website. Assistant was flummuxed at that point, and I spent 10 minutes on hold while he consulted colleagues.

  The definitive answer (eventually) was “We’re not accepting any applications”, but nuanced with “at the present time”, and reference to a transitional period following the acquisition of BMI by BA. There was a definite hint that this could change in due course, and implication that the recently announced (low key) benefit enhancements might be tied to the more substantive launch of a new product in the future.

  Disappointed not to find some back-door way of upgrading, but it was always a long-shot.

  Meanwhile, the 2 Avios/£ on Amex, and 1 Avios/£ on Visa will be enough to divert most of my spend from the BA Amex. MBNA have probably figured that out already!

• Matt says:

  15 May15 May 09:08

  So if I buy a BA flight with the Amex, does that mean I get x2 x2, i.e. x4 miles per pound???

  • Rob says:

    15 May15 May 09:33

    Yes

• Roger says:

  15 May15 May 09:16

  Thanks to larryflyer for asking similar questions to mine.

  According to the MBNA website, my fee-free platinum MC is now the Diamond Club MasterCard Platinum Mastercard. (Their repetition.) This description does not tally with any of those on the DC webpage mentioned above so I don’t know how many miles I will be earning. It was 1.5/£ and has been 2/£ for a couple of months now. I hope it stays that way. No 10% on BA flights for me, but I get that as a former BA shareholder.

  I’d be a candidate fo upgrading my card, and larryflyer gives me a hope.

  • Rob says:

    15 May15 May 09:34

    My understanding is that discussions are taking place about allowing card upgrades, as confirmed by the telephone call described elsewhere in these comments. They will not be opened to new applicants as that would break the terms of BA’s deal with Amex.

    • Roger says:

      15 May15 May 10:06

      Thanks, Raffles. Good to know! (Especially as I missed out on the LTSB Avios bonanza because I had already had the Airmiles card.)

      I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

• Godot says:

  15 May15 May 10:03

  Interestingly, if you go to the blank ‘News and Offers’ page and select ‘View Source’, you’ll see some headers such as “Great deals on British Airways flights”, “Great deals on British Airways flight & hotel packages” and “Executive Club Avios offers”. Not sure if that’s leading up to some targeted deals for cardholders or it’s just going to link the existing BA deals from here.

  • Trevor says:

    15 May15 May 12:25

    No need to view source code for me – the page loaded and was populated with the headings you mention, and they all just link to existing BA offers, so no excitement there.

• whitenoise says:

  15 May15 May 10:12

  I only have the ‘free’ BMI Amex and Visa cards when I signed up to get the 20k bonus last year. However I’m still smiling that I can get 2 points per £1 on the Amex and 1 point per £1 on the Visa. Looks like I shall be booking any future BA flights on the Amex card at 4 points per £1 then 🙂

• Gordon says:

  15 May15 May 10:59

  I’m not sure if this is a change but yesterday late afternoon i made some payment to my old platinum fee card. Normally it takes one or two days for these to credit the card. However, these credits showed when i logged back in a couple of hours later. Slightly better than amex which seems to take about 5 days to credit!

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