As
shafted@work mentions, the business passenger has been killed off by getting rid of the nightstops. I'm sure £420 is a
very small price to pay to get some of those passengers back. You wouldn't need to sell many more tickets to cover that cost. Plus, I'd bet my Granny that bmi don't spend anything like £70 on a hotel room. Certainly not the hotels I've ever had to stay in.
Keyboard Flier:
Instead of moaning have you tried talking to the ones that matter.
Yes, I have and (surprise, surprise) it got me nowhere. Talking to management gets you a bad name and a note in your training file to have your chops busted next time you go in the sim. That is the problem with bmi - you can't talk to anyone. I had a serious issue to raise recently & e-mailed several managers about it. Not one replied. Sadly, most (if not all) the pilot management are puppets on Bishop's string - they just do what they're told for the least amount of money. If they don't, he'll find someone else who will.
The line of communication is appaling in both directions. Before ARs attempt at a morale-booster a couple of weeks ago, I can't remember the last time we heard from ANY manager with an update of what's going on in the company, what the plans are, how we're doing, etc. That's half the problem in bmi - it's like working blindfolded. "Just keep working and we'll tell you when you can stop. In the meantime, you won't hear from us."
Computer rostering - another joke. At least AR has admitted wasting £5m on it. A good mate of mine works for one of the biggest IT companies around and, having spoken to him about the rostering system in bmi, (once he stopped laughing) I asked how much his company would charge to go to Donington, throw out all the computers they've got up there and implement a rostering system to the point that it's fully functional. He reckoned about £1m!
The lack of productivity is becoming ridiculous. I spoke to an Airbus F/O the other day who reckoned that he did so much sitting around in the crew room last week that, in between sectors, he could have taken the Paddington Express into town, seen a West End show, and returned to LHR in time to do his next flight. Every day.
There
will be a mass exodus. As soon as Virgin get the nod from the EU for their Sydney route, that'll be it. I know of a
lot of F/Os who have applied to them & they'll all get in. Several will go to Easy and when BA start recruiting again, well.......
It is
such a shame because the people in bmi are fantastic and know how to have a really good time despite the company's best efforts to stop them. bmi could really stand out if the management wasn't based around penny-pinching, secret-keeping, back-stabbing and brown-nosing.