Economy Class & Beyond

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...]

The New Diamond Club Pack – umm.. Where does it say BMI?

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So a nice black package arrvied in the post for me today... but what's in it? Ah. BMI wishes to communicate with me. Oooh... Airport codes... and subtle bit of BMI Advertising. Oh bugger. Eco credentials down the pan with lots of little advertising things.  Nice idea, but a booklet would had been cuter, and no doubt easier to print. Still - that's our … [Read more...]

BMI Diamond Club – Big Changes ahead – for the BETTER.

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For those of you signed up with BMI Diamond Club as your Star Alliance Frequent flier programme, there are some BIG changes as of today. Lets go through them... The end of the Gold Upgrade Voucher (GUV's) - These paper based vouchers could be used to upgrade a ticket from Economy to Premium or Business dependant on routes. These have been replaced with Complimentary … [Read more...]

The Autumn Run – Mixing Business with Pleasure with UA and US LHR-ORD-LAX-LAS-(LAS-PHX-LAX-LAS)-SFO-LHR

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The Autumn Run - Mixing Business with Pleasure with UA and US LHR-ORD-LAX-LAS-(LAS-PHX-LAX-LAS)-SFO-LHR Or "Go on... add me to the volunteer list please" ---- WARNING: This is a LOT longer than I thought it would be when I started putting keyboard to screen. Sorry! Do I really need to introduce this report? Oh very well then!  This was going to be the usual … [Read more...]

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