Those of you who were hoping to match to Miles and More from BMI Diamond Club – some very bad news for you (and if truth be told, I’ve sort of known this after chatting to a few people last week).
From http://forum.airliners.de/index.php?showtopic=44637&view=findpost&p=607297 and translated by Google:
The sale of bmi IAG (the parent company of BA) – shall be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2012 – subject to regulatory approval. Further details are not yet known.
A mile or transfer status of bmi Miles & More is not provided.
Whether the frequent flyer program is transferred from bmi to BA and on what terms are negotiated bilaterally between bmi and BA. Unfortunately we have no information about the status of talks.
And there it is. Those of you who were hoping to be matched to Miles and More had better start Start hunting for a decent Star Alliance programme.. Ooh. Now.
And those sitting on piles of BMI Diamond Club destination miles – there proviso that you should be aware of in the terms and conditions (Section 9 for those who want to scroll past and think I haven’t copy and pasted directly):
9) Length of programme
- In the event that the Diamond Club programme should be closed, bmi shall use every reasonable endeavour to publicise at least three months’ notice of the closure of the Diamond Club programme. At the end of that period members shall no longer be able to earn Destinations Miles or Membership Status Miles, redeem Destinations Miles or utilise Membership Status Miles nor shall the member be entitled to any benefits under the Diamond Club programme other than flights or other services already redeemed but not yet utilised prior to the end of such period.
Those of you with mileage piles – if you haven’t started burning already, you’re being a bit foolish – certainly I’m not expecting every mile to be converted into an Avios. It’s a remote possibility (and did happen when Aer Lingus left OneWorld – 3 months notice was given to burn redemptions off before it was impossible to redeem on OneWorld metal), but it exists.
The advice from GhettoIFE towers is clearer than ever.
Got BMI Miles? Burn them. Now.
(There was going to be a what happens if we move to IAG’s BA Avios Programme, but I’m icing that for today as I haven’t written it in a way that makes sense yet – more on the BMI futures tomorrow)
