PatJordan flew bmi Economy (short haul), on a A320-200 (all economy) (15/04/2012 08:09)

DUB-LHR-DUB (Economy Flexible)

Booking and check in

Given the current uncertainty surrounding the future of the BMI Diamond Club, I decided to use some of my destination miles to get a reward flight. There was availability for the dates I wanted, and little trouble in making the booking. The total charges and fees were 63euro.

I later tried to select my seats on line, which is a feature of economy flexible tickets, however this does not apply to redemption bookings, Not a problem, a quick call to the BMI call centre and my preferred seats were allocated. Unusually, the day following this call, I received an email from BMI requesting feedback on my experience of their call centre.

On line check-in is available 24 hours prior to travel, and I used this facility to print my boarding passes the day before I travelled.

I arrived at Dublin Terminal 1 just after 8.30am for my 10.50am flight and proceeded straight to security. Since Aer Lingus and transatlantic operators have migrated to Terminal 2, there is a lower number of passengers using T1 which makes it far less crowded than heretofore. BMI economy flexible includes use of the fast track security lane which is useful. I was airside within a minute.

There is a good range of shops and cafes, and I was pleasantly surprised to find cooked breakfast available from 5euro, pretty good value.

Lounge (Dublin)

The Diamond Club lounge is adjacent to the main shopping area and is furnished in the usual BMI manner: bright colour sofas with a business section for those who wish to work. Restrooms are outside the lounge and are shared with the Dublin Airport Authority lounge.

There is a limited range of food: biscuits, sweets and packaged pastries. The coffee is good and strong (perfect for early morning!) with a good range of soft and alcoholic drinks.

The lounge is a short walk from gates 301-313 (the old B pier) and makes boarding quite easy.

Boarding

Boarding is through an airbridge and rearmost rows are called first to minimize delays. Diamond Club Gold holders and economy flexible passengers are invited to board at their leisure. Being in row 1 my hand baggage has to be stowed in the overhead bins, so if the flight is busy it can be worthwhile boarding early to ensure space is available close to the seat.

A new addition was the provision of a separate entrance to the boarding desks for Gold/Silver Diamond club members and those traveling in flexible economy

The Airbus 319 was immaculate and cabin crew warmly welcomed passengers.
The aircraft was configured in full economy mode, all seats 3-3. The first rows were reserved for economy flexible. Seats were in the newer BMI brown colour, and very attractive.

Inflight

The Captain gave a brief welcome and details of flight times, followed by a safety announcement from the cabin crew. We pushed back shortly after 10.45am and were airborne shortly afterwards.

Economy flexible passengers are offered a choice of snacks (crisps, muffin, chocolate bar and drink of choice. The usual hot wrap or cake slice would have been nice, and it is a reminder of how good the old business class service used to be.

Return Check in and security

Having my boarding pass already printed, I went directly to security at Heathrow T1 and was processed very quickly. I was airside within 5 minutes.

Lounge Heathrow

Being Diamond Club Gold, I visited the Star Alliance lounge. Once BMI leave the Star Alliance this facility will no longer be available so it was with some degree of sadness that I visite.d today

This is a large, very comfortable facility with on site restrooms and excellent showers.

The food consists of soup, rolls,salads, sandwiches, cold meats, hot savoury snacks, rice crackers. Additionally, there was a chicken dish with rice. I had a very pleasant lunch, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

As this lounge is quite a long walk from the BMI boarding area, I went to the BMI lounge shortly before boarding. The Great British Lounge is very big with plenty of natural light. Staff are very welcoming and tend to greet passengers by name, which is always a nice touch .

The food is soup, rolls, cheese, crackers, biscuits, crisps, nuts, good quality cheesecake and gateaux. I particularly like the jars of old fashioned sweets, always brings me back to my childhood!! There is a full bar service.

Boarding

Dublin bound flight boarded at gate 8b, almost beside the lounge.

Boarding was by rows, and was quite efficient, with the usual invitation to flexible economy and elite diamond club members to board at their leisure. The Cabin crew were very welcoming indeed.

The Airbus 320 was configured in full economy mode, identical to the outbound aircraft.

After a welcome announcement from the Captain, the cabin crew gave a safety demonstration.We pushed back shortly after our scheduled time of 7.35pm, and were airborne shortly afterwards.

I was offered a hot wrap which was quite tasty, as was the merlot I had with it.

Conclusion

A very acceptable return flight. Good service, punctuality and pleasant lounges make BMI a very pleasure to travel with.

I chatted with the flight supervisor on the homeward flight and complimented her and all her colleagues (in cabin crew and lounges) for remaining so positive during what has been a time of great uncertainty for them. She said that even though IAG have indicated that frontline jobs are mostly secure, there was a feeling of sadness amongst the staff at the demise of the “BMI family”, so close were the working relationships forged over the years. Only time will tell what the future holds for BMI staff and customers.

PatJordan flew bmi Economy (short haul), on a A320-200 (all economy) (28/11/2010 20:59)

DUB-LHR. Booked online as usual, I find the BMI website a little slow to open, but once opened, is easy to navigate.

I used the online check-in and was initially surprised to find my default seat allocation at row 20: usually it is at the front of the economy cabin. It took little effort to change, and I changed to 7D.

As it was snowing lightly, I left home a little early and arrived at Dublin around 6.30 am for my 8.40am flight. BMI use what used to be the "B" Pier at Dublin, and is a short distance form the Diamond Club Lounge. I went to security and noted a new innovation: seperate entrances for web check-in and desk check-in. This makes for swifter progress for those with web passes, and combined with fewer pax in Terminal 1 (now that T2 is in use) I was through security within a few minutes.

The BMI lounge is beside the main shopping area and is a pleasant place to wait for flights. There is a good range of reading material, drinks, but not much food. The lady in the lounge was very pleasant, and when it became apparent that the flight would be delayed due to snow on the runway, she spoke to everyone individually and explained the reasons and expected time.

We boarded shortly after 9.00am, and were warmly welcomed by the cabin crew. The captain spoke to us twice before take off, apologising for the delay and explaining the timeframe for closing doors, de-icing etc. We took off just before 10.00am, and landed promptly in LHR with a short taxi to T1.

In flight service in economy is a small range of snacks and drinks. I had Kenco coffee (quite good) and a twix bar. I would like to have the option of buying something a bit more substantial, eg scone, muffin, sandwich. Surely as sandwiches are onboard for premium economy, taking on a few more would be easy and generate some revenue?

I must commend the cabin crew for their attentive and professional service. Two pax were asked to vacate premium seats and moved to the rear of the aircraft. This was done very discreetly, and it can't be pleasant for the staff, but wholly necessary in deference to pax who have paid for those rows.

Another passenger was facilitated with a seat near the front as he was on crutches. A small thing but an example of cabin crew going the extra mile for pax.

A very pleasant flight experience despite the (unavoidable) delay which was handled very well by an excellent crew.

kathcake10 flew bmi Economy (short haul), on a A320-200 (all economy) (01/01/2010 15:49)

I recently travelled on BMI on a short haul trip to Edinburgh. Luckily we had self-service check in which meant we didn't have to take our place in the normal queues. The line for check in was very long, and would probably have taken around 20 mins-half hour to get through. When flying with other airlines I have not seen a line as long as this one was.

The gate didn't open at the time it was supposed to and ended up opening around 10 minutes later. The queue for boarding wasn't too bad however and it was relatively quick to get on the plane. On my return again the boarding was very quick and I found no problem with this. The flight left well on time, in fact it was about 5 minutes early, which is definitely a positive. When taking my seat on the plane I found it to be very uncomfortable an quite hard, like there was some wood directly under it. There is very little leg room on cheap flights such as these which unfortunately can be a negative if you need to stretch your legs.

As we were only flying for a hour I didn't order any breakfast but the hostesses were coming around with small snacks and hot/cold drinks for passengers quite quickly.

The toilets were very small, as is expected on a airline restroom, but they were clean and didn't smell at all.

There was no entertainment offered on this flight, for example no head phones, TV programmes etc which may have made it quite boring for some people. Although the flight was too short for a film, a general short tv programme may have made the journey more interesting.

The flight back was delayed by 5 hours but I have to say this was not BMI's fault. Thanks to the snowy conditions planes were delayed for hours, and they did offer a £5 food/drink voucher to make up for this delay.

Overall for a no thrills cheap airline, BMI offered what it said on the tin! Basically it go you from A to B without giving you much back in return.