Here are my recent experiences of BMI for what its worth:-
- hit and miss whether the self service check in machine pulls up your reservation even when you have the correct card that you paid with! So you go queue behind 10 people for the 1 man that has a terminal at the side in the check in area at LHR. Whatever you do don't attempt to try and get to the check in desk as that is only for people that are checking in bags....which brings me to...
- fast drop of bags? It doesn't exist with BMI. Go check what BA does for a clue as to how it is done!
- don't use the new facility of printing out boarding cards and expect to hand it to security at Dublin and go through with no hassle. I found out later that I should have read the fine print buried on the flybmi website to avail myself of that fact that this is not yet available at Dublin. Question has to be asked why did the little button show up when I checked in online to print my boarding card if I can't use it! Come on this is a basic IT solution and is pure amateurism.
- the self service check in rollout has been amaterish. A few months ago on a tiny fare you could select a seat. Now you can't. The message from BMI to the punter is you are 2nd class to us and should feel lucky flying with us. Wrong wrong wrong message to send out. Come on its basic 101 marketing folks.
Now what I would do if I was in charge of BMI
- offer through checking of bags on the premise that we have a limited range of long haul options for our pax so it is surely better to at least grab some point to point traffic and help punters on their way in the hope that they use us again on our domestic routes or on the few long haul routes we offer
- give people a coffee - it only costs 10p! Charge for booze and the like if you really want to as people will be prepared to pay for it.
- why treat economy pax as 2nd class citizens by preventing anyone with a tiny fare from selecting their seat. Why not do what BA does and allow BA card holders online check in a few days before the regular punter?
- write to all of your loyalty card holders admitting you got things wrong and entice them back whilst detailing how you are going to turn things around. Make them feel that they are valued.