Save 10% on BMI Regional flights

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• Paul says:

  9 Mar9 March 06:20

  If LH make this family pooling really compelling this could make a big difference.

  BAs dominance is in part due to their frequent flyer programme which does allow pooling. There is no similar scheme with any other EU carrier and one reason I continue to use BA is because all the family earned miles can be used by anyone.

  This potentially opens up the very real prospect of using Star Alliance from LHR.

  Just hope LH get this right.

  • Stewie says:

    10 Mar10 March 09:44

    Actually Aegean do something similar if you have status with them (*S or *G) – you can have a household account with up to 6 (iirc) members who don’t need to live at the same address.

• Oli says:

  9 Mar9 March 06:41

  OT – I successfully applied applied to a Lloyd’s Avios credit card yesterday in branch. It took almost an hour, including watching 2 videos. The bank manager had not been made aware that online application could not been made any more

  • Mikeact says:

    9 Mar9 March 08:40

    Two videos? About what ?
    Is this going to be the future trend when applying for a credit/debit card ?

  • Rob says:

    9 Mar9 March 08:52

    What was the video about?!

    You can still apply by phone, 2 readers have told me this week that they did it.

    • Anna says:

      9 Mar9 March 08:59

      Last time I opened an account in a branch (just a little savings account for my son!) I had to endure a 45 minute lecture on financial practices including money laundering. I’ve been banking by phone for the past 25 years and things have obviously changed quite a bit in that time!

  • Oli says:

    9 Mar9 March 12:30

    The first video was before starting the application – that applying might affect my credit rating, about fraud and other general credit card stuff. The second video was after my application was accepted and was about the Lloyds Avios card specificities, about the interest rate, how to pay the card balance, the Avios earing rates and other rewards etc

• Save East Coast Rewards says:

  9 Mar9 March 07:16

  bmi regional (they always write it lower case) seem to be referring to themselves as just bmi these days. They’ve used flybmi.com for quite a while now, but more recently on Twitter they’ve gone from @bmiregional to @flybmi (unfortunately in the process they deleted all of the original bmi Tweets from that account)

  Back when bmi regional launched they promised a frequent flyer scheme coming soon, it never seemed to happen. As they codeshare with Star Alliance on some flights on solution would be if they joined the alliance as an affiliate and then hooked up with Miles and More. Wouldn’t exactly be back to the Diamond Club days but would be better than nothing.

  • RussellH says:

    9 Mar9 March 11:21

    You have been able to credit bmi flights to topbonus since 17 Dec 2017. Hardly as good as Sta Alliance, I know. And at present it seems that you cannot redeem on bmi, only on Germania and Condor.

    My partner had a disastrous experience with bmi last month – she had booked an overnight trip to Bruxelles. Got to Newcastle airport at around 0430 for a pre 0600 departure. Check-in desk unstaffed, just a notice to say that the flight was cancelled, and for help to phone the number below – which had a recorded message to say that the office opened at 0630. No one at the airport had a clue as to what was going on, later she was given the option of rebooking via Amsterdam on KLM late in the day and at vastly increased cost.
    They refunded her fare quickly, but so far no help with the cost of the airport hotel, train fares to/from Newcastle and from Bruxelles.

    • Lady London says:

      9 Mar9 March 11:27

      They are meant to rebook her even on a more expensive route without cost to her. She should not have had to pay out, not even to get reimbursed later.

      Absolutely outrageous. Hearing this I’ll definitely not ever consider bmi regional in future even though NCL is a very convenient airport and I’ve often considered them..

      • Genghis says:

        9 Mar9 March 15:04

        So bmi didn’t offer a re-routing under comparable transport conditions but your partner had to pay for the rerouting? I’d have a good read of the ec261 thread on FT:
        https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1885572-2018-ba-compensation-thread-your-guide-regulation-ec261-2004-a.html
        Fair enough they don’t use ADR. There’s always MCOL if needed…

  • Lady London says:

    9 Mar9 March 11:24

    I so wish I’d been in this hobby in the Diamond Club glory days! I only joined as BMI was closing. It seems like every couple of months I hear about some outrageously good deal someone found on there… ! The gaming aspect is what got me into this hobby.

    • Rob says:

      9 Mar9 March 11:44

      It was totally outrageous, although the more extreme stuff was also dodgy, eg sending in boarding passes from redemptions for retro credit ….

      2.5 miles per £1 on the Mastercard and a VERY cheap redemption chart (as BMI flyers were mainly short haul and did not earn many) were unbeatable. Swiss and LH F were also freely bookable at this time, I think LH F to Dubai was 50k return.

      HMRC also charged 0% card fees at this time and it coincided with the best years of my banking career ….

      • Save East Coast Rewards says:

        9 Mar9 March 12:15

        I was late to the game and missed the BD Mastercard but did get the duo Amex and Visa combo. Was really surprised how long they kept it going after being taken over by BA. Earning 2.5 miles/£ on the Amex towards the end was great. I never expected BA to do much to appease bmi flyers but they status matched, kept the credit card going for a long time and even offered us online discounts (they weren’t usually that big but there seemed to be a bug that got me some really cheap flights)

        • Rob says:

          9 Mar9 March 12:19

          They didn’t do much to appease BMI ‘Golds for Life’ did they?!

          The card deal was contractual as MBNA had agreed to buy a fixed volume of miles. The 10% online discount was a generous perk admittedly.

          By the way, G-MEDN – the first densified A321 – is one of the old BMI mid-haul A321 planes.

      • Lumma says:

        9 Mar9 March 13:45

        Rob, does this mean that the mid haul A321s will be disappearing? Any idea what is likely to happen to the routes that they’re used on? Widebody planes or club Europe seating?

      • RussellH says:

        9 Mar9 March 14:55

        I thought that sending in boarding passes was standard practice last century?

      • Michael Jennings says:

        9 Mar9 March 15:38

        I had some Jet airways flights in India last year for which the miles didn’t track. When they asked me to send in the boarding passes, I gave up.

      • John says:

        9 Mar9 March 16:15

        Rob, did you decide to forego the rat race of your banking career? (or was there another reason?)

        (not sure if you’ve written about this before or indeed whether its ‘personal thus private’, in which case just ignore this)

        • Rob says:

          9 Mar9 March 18:15

          I had got old and very expensive at a time (2010) when my sector had been dead for a couple of years. Left with a 2-year non-compete and fancied a change after that.

• Scallder says:

  9 Mar9 March 07:20

  OT as bits – had an email from SPG overnight offering 500 points just for registering for ‘Your World Rewards’ which is their the up with Emirates. Targeted email – valid up until 1uth April. 4-6 weeks for points to post

  • Scallder says:

    9 Mar9 March 07:39

    *16th April. My wife hasn’t had an email so not sure how they’re picking out people (both Gold from Amex Plat)

  • RussellH says:

    9 Mar9 March 11:23

    I got this last year. I had to open an Emirates a/c, then link it with SPG. Points did post – yes it was around 5-6 weeks.

    Perhaps they are offering this in batches.

• ebungle says:

  9 Mar9 March 07:30

  “You still get complimentary drinks, snacks and checked baggage with BMI Regional ” Talk about living in the past!

  • sunguy says:

    9 Mar9 March 12:28

    …dont you mean the future ….. 😉

• Jovanna says:

  9 Mar9 March 07:57

  OT: I was in a hire car last week. I wasn’t on a trip anywhere, I’d just hired something a little bigger than my two-seater because we had friends over. Anyway, the car was damaged down the local supermarket.

  I’m trying to claim on my Amex Plat insurance. The online form wants to know what type of trip I was on – a flight; travelling abroad; or in hotel accommodation. It also wants an upload of my itinerary (as well as my rental agreement etc.) That’s a mandatory field.

  Is the cover limited to trips / holidays / nights away? Am I stuffed?

  • Rob says:

    9 Mar9 March 08:45

    There USED to be a clause in the Amex insurance that UK rentals needed to be linked to a hotel booking. This was presumably to stop me, for example, claiming Zipcar damage. Not sure if the clause is still there (Amex did make some changes a few years ago to the car hire wording) but you can download the policy document from the card application website if you don’t have it anyway.

  • Radiata says:

    9 Mar9 March 13:56

    Please do update us as to the outcome Jovanna.

    I have regularly used rental cars domestically when car in for service and otherwise and had relied on the Play cover being valid..

    • Radiata says:

      9 Mar9 March 13:57

      Plat..

    • Jovanna says:

      9 Mar9 March 18:19

      Yes, covered but had to call (mainly because I couldn’t upload my driving licence). Had to email that separately. AXA called back this afternoon to say the claim was approved and the payment should be in my account within the next 10 days.

• Mike L says:

  9 Mar9 March 08:01

  Been pricing the aspire lounge, Edinburgh for next week and the cheapest I can get is £18,89 pp after a 10% discount via RBS, does anyone know of any better deals out there ?

  • Sandgrounder says:

    9 Mar9 March 08:43

    It is available with Dragonpass, so the deals mentioned in the article will apply.

  • Martin says:

    9 Mar9 March 13:36

    The mastercard/Lounge Pass site has No 1 at £23.40 and again the Aspire at £18.89.

    https://www.loungepass.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=findyourlounge.lounges&1520602336074#lp

• Sh83 says:

  9 Mar9 March 09:04

  OT re: Accor. Got email the other day about earning points via their shopping portal. Not seen this before but brilliant way of topping up Accor balance to get the 40€ off voucher. Is this a new facility?

  • Stuart_f says:

    9 Mar9 March 09:17

    It would be very interesting if it reset the expiry date on the points too.

    • Rob says:

      9 Mar9 March 09:27

      Someone said last week that Club Opinions no longer worked in resetting the expiry date. Not sure if there is a wide clampdown. To be fair the rules say you must do a stay even though historically any earning did the trick.

  • RussellH says:

    9 Mar9 March 11:33

    I was not aware of this either – potentially useful as I need just 14 points to reach 2000.

    A quick browse did not show anything of even vague interest though. Maybe I need to look harder?

    • Lady London says:

      9 Mar9 March 11:41

      I deleted it. Now I’m interested. If anyone still has the link could they post it please?

      • Lady London says:

        9 Mar9 March 12:11

        Thank you @SH83

      • Lady London says:

        9 Mar9 March 12:21

        Hum. Just spotted this one available at Gatwick.
        CLOUD SPA nails & beauty
        Airside- North Terminal, International Departure, opposite Harrods

        •04:00-22:00
        •Maximum 2 hours stay. .Exchange a lounge visit for a spa treatment of up to £20.

  • Relaxo says:

    9 Mar9 March 14:24

    As an aside – Accor dont issue vouchers anymore.

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