BMI LHR-DUB aircraft type

[forbesy]

Good afternoon all. My first time contributing here (but not viewing, I've been here a lot as an observer) so I'll keep it succinct and to the point, reducing speculation and rumour to the bare minimum!

My question refers to aircraft type on the above route - ever since I started flying to Dublin on a weekly basis from my home in the UK, we've flown on Airbus A320s, some in the 2-2 business class configuration, some in the 3-2 configuration, with the very occasional A319 thrown in to keep us on our toes.

Recently though the type seems to have changed comprehensively to A319s, which, although fine, seem to lack something else that the A320 had, and, maybe it's my imagination, but the journey feels further in an A319 than an A320.

Does anyone (either internal BMI or someone equally well-informed) know if and when the airline might reintroduce the A320s?

Cheers.

[Endeavour]

Forbesy

In the last week the Dublin route has been operated by bmi A319, A320 and A321 aircraft.

Apart from the config variations of which there are many (too many!) they all fly at the same speed, so I think it must be your imagination. :ok:

[WHBM]

I know what you mean here. The practial side of me knows that the block time is the same. But the feeling you get is somewhat different, and I find this on other routes, and indeed carriers I use, like Finnair London to Helsinki, where to be on the A321 somehow feels more impressive (it can only be the cabin length, there is nothing else). London to Dublin, where I generally use Aer Lingus, also feels definitely downgraded now that the A320 is much more common than a few years ago when it was all A321. This all works through to the perception that things are more spartan and the trip seems to take longer.

The 2+2 seating is generally in the medium-haul aircraft configured for Moscow or the Middle East routes, misapplied on short-haul routes, which BMI seem to specialise in doing in recnt times.

[eliptic]

Any BMI Diamond Gold here??

If so,,how are you recognized and treated ?

[forbesy]

Endeavour, very good - what I probably meant to say was that on a A319 you really feel you've done the journey, rather than an A320 which is possibly a slightly smoother ride.
Oh, and on a 319 there are less cabin crew, so if one has the misfortune of sitting at the back (which I did yesterday, the online check-in system having been down for the whole of Sunday....), the economy drinks cart starts at the front of economy and works its slow, tortuous way back through all the diamond club cardholders, and by the time they get to me, it's time for arse up, nose down over the Irish Sea. Whereas on the 320 they have two carts in economy, starting at front and back and meeting in the middle.
Small things I know. But when you use it on a weekly basis back and forwards it makes all the difference...

[6chimes]

You're quite right, the loss of one crew member does have a significant impact on the quality of service we can offer. We have been telling the company this for the last 3-4 years, but for costs we must crew to mandatory levels. There can be no increase in crew numbers for service standards. Although the company does have a point in that these routes are served well from the LO CO carriers who also crew to mandatory levels. On routes where a business class of sorts still exits there will always be 'problem' in achieving the service that all pax are happy with on all the flights. Unfortunately there will be flights were the pax split loads will cause problems for the crew.

We hear that there are to be some significant changes that will counter your issues coming over the next few months. It does seem that we have a new team in place that are going to enhance your travel. So we are told .....

As regards to Gold members, to be honest we just don't have time these days to always check on the manifest. If you show us your card then we will know, and believe me, we know how much you spend so we would want to look after you.

As for the differences in 319,320,321, the 319 definitely feels more 'unstable' on approach (unstable not unsafe!!! that means it just rolls a bit more). But then compared to Boeings all the airbus's feel like that.

6

[forbesy]

Thanks for that, very enlightening. I look forward to these changes!

I guess the smaller the plane, the more one notices the external influences, although I've just seen video of an aborted LH A320 landing at Hamburg in severe crosswinds and sometimes it just doesn't matter which plane you're in!