Well a little PDF of the presentation given by Wolfgang Prock-Schauer – the Chief Executive Officer of bmi, and whilst it takes a little reading, I draw your attention to
The good news to take away is that Lufthansa will be keeping BMI more or less in its current form, however for frequent flyers, the news is not so great with on throwaway line in the presentation.
I quote:
“Roadmap for integration „Diamond Club“ in M&M; agreed”
Now if you’re a BMI Diamond Club member, that sound you heard was the Fat Lady warming up to sing the last part of the aria – in other words the closure of Diamond Club is getting close.
So what are my thoughts?
On Miles
- The advice is simple: START REDEEMING THOSE MILES NOW.
- If you have BMI miles, Lufthansa Miles and More miles are not cheap to redeem (eg 30,000+Tax in Economy between London and Frankfurt, where as 37500 miles can get you a Business Class redemption to the United States).
- If you’re a few miles short of a reward, now is the time to buy, then redeem those miles.
- If you have family members that are Diamond Club members, you need to safeguard those miles – form them up into a Family Account if possible, then transfer them into the master account for spending
- If you have the MBNA BMI Credit Card, it could be time to consider the Lufthansa variation of it.
On Status
- If you’re a BMI Gold or wanting to retrain BMI Gold or a BMI Silver heading to gold, you need to getting your miles in now and aiming for a early to mid 2011 qualification period. If you time it incorrectly, you’ll be migrated over to Miles and More, but you’ll feel mugged when everyone has the same time to re-qualify and you’re having to do it all over again.
- Start to consider other airlines to get status on. Whilst Lufthansa is generous with 2 years of Star Gold at it’s Senator status (or 2 years of Frequent Traveller – Star Silver), you’ve got to get your backside on a seat for 100,000 miles within a year to retain it. Which for a low flyer on cheap fares is nigh on impossible
- If the migration takes place, don’t expect a single status mile to transfer over. In other words, a standing start of 100,000 miles to hit Senator will be needed (or 35,000 if you’re aiming for FTL).
- GhettoIFE.com will be doing a review of the low qualification Star Golds/Star Silvers in a couple of weeks for us Super-Cheap travellers.
Well, I can’t say this wasn’t expected after the move of members from Ukraine, Israel and the Netherlands. What it does mean, the clock is now formally ticking.
As a Diamond Club Gold myself, I’ll be keeping a very close eye on this as BMI Diamond Club folds into Miles and More.
