Economy Class & Beyond

BMI takes another step to becoming Lemming Airways…

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BMI today announced it's to drop it's Business Class product on the following routes London Heathrow - Glasgow London Heathrow - Edinburgh London Heathrow - Dublin London Heathrow - Belfast and instead to introduce a "Flexible Economy" product instead. For long time readers, you've guessed correct - BMI have once again to been to the Strategy Boutique and picked … [Read more...]

Airplane p0rn – BMI A330 at Manchester

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It's Sunday again, so it's time for some more airplane p0rn.  This time another one from the archive, and one that will pass into history soon with a BMI Airbus A330-200 taxing for a Barbados departure from Manchester Airport. The A330 fleet was shifting in its entirety to London, where one will remain to serve the Saudi routes, and the remaining two will be returned to … [Read more...]

Maximing LHR-ORD – Part II – Segmentally Yours.

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Ok - I'm behind schedule (as usual) so here's part two of the LHR-ORD post. So you remember the numbers? Good.  I skipped Code shares for one reason - I wasn't willing to handle them at this juncture. BMI offer the UA flights of LHR-IAD-ORD and back for £362, with a £2 discount for going direct. CO is one who also offers cheaper fares - £330 on … [Read more...]

BMI continues its downsizing stratagy – Kills off Dublin crew

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BMI is a funny old beast of an airline.  It launches into brand new markets guns ablazing, only to pull out less than a year later, or it kills routes at random. It's preferred method of doing this is to: Let Revenue management take over setting wild prices Realising no one want to travel because prices are to wild Cancelling the route citing load and yield … [Read more...]

Maxmising LHR-ORD (The Spring Commute) – Part I….

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So it's coming up to that time of year again when I visit the USA. As I'm on limited time to, there will be little time for mileage running, or doing great hops here and there. So what's the obvious answer? Either nest a trip inside a trip (which 9/10 times isn't allowed) ... or try to maximise mileage vs cost. So whilst A) is a nice idea - it isn't going to happen (least of … [Read more...]

Paddy Power takes bets… Monarch gets pissed.

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The thing with the British is that we love a flutter on anything - from the Grand National (a horse steeplechase), the winner of Strictly Come Dancing (Dancing with the Stars for our US viewers)  to the Christmas Number 1 Record (or sticking one in the eye for Simon Cowell). It seems there also seems to be the question of "Which airline will go bust next?" To which … [Read more...]

Welcome to Star Alliance Brussels Airlines!

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Today, Star Alliance has taken another growth, and has added Brussels Airlines into the Alliance. But who are they? A Boeing 737-400 in Brussels Airlines livery. The IATA identifier might provide a clue: SN. SN was the original identifier of Sabena, which went bankrupt in 2001. SN Brussels Airlines was reorganised to take over as the national carrier. With the merger of … [Read more...]

What’s in the Matching pack from Continental?

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In the last waning days of Continental in SkyTeam, I found out that status matches were still being offered to all commers. As a BMI Gold with a slim chance of NOT re-qualifying for BMI Gold (it was very close at one point), I decided to make contingency plans "just in case" Taking a punt (and in some seriousness, I am thinking to switching to Continental - least of all … [Read more...]

Visa Electron starting to dissapear…. what next?

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GhettoIFE.com towers would like to apologise this week - I'm down with a cold... the joy of work. Things could be more odder than normal... It's been reported that Abbey (Santander) and Travelex will be stopping issuing Visa Electron cards. Why is this remotely important? For those who buy tickets on Aer Lingus, BMIbaby, Easyjet, Flybe Jet2, Ryanair and a lot of the … [Read more...]

BMI slices more of itself up… what is there left?

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Well even though I go a new Diamond Club Pack, it seems BMI is downsizing itself... With the PR Spin distilled - it's bad news. AMS (Amsterdam) to be suspended from 27 March 2010 TLV (Tel Aviv) suspended from London on 9 January 2010, and the last flight departing Tel Aviv on 10 January 2010 KPB (Kiev) suspended on 10 January 2010 ALP - (Aleppo), with the last … [Read more...]