BMI

[Nubboy]

I think you'll find the LHR TBS service is actually LHR GYD TBS.

ie the flight to and from Tblisi is via Baku, both outbound and inbound.

[lexxity]

CSM's wear the gold shirt. Used to be a regular sight at MAN as the CSM's and the longhaul ground co-ordinators wore them.

[INKJET]

Kittywake

Yes many versions going around the airwaves!!

Name was dreamed up in ABZ i understand? it is the name of a local seagull

could have been worse, plover, albatros, greater spotted.........

[11K-AVML]

RE: LHR TBS flight status,
Nubboy, yes I know it goes via GYD but the website doesn't know this: if you search for the flight status by either Arrivals or Departures at TBS it tells you it can't find any.
I've flown this route which is why I encountered this annoyance. It is rather off putting (as well as unhelpful) when you are checking the status of a flight and the website can't find anything!

If you wanted to estimate the status based on the GYD flight even that's troublesome as GYD isn't mentioned in the timetable - it just mentions 1 stop, it doesn't say where or when. The only way is to see it's GYD is to try a dummy booking but even then you don't know when the stop is or for how long. (which is also important information as a passenger when making a booking as you can't sleep during landing and takeoff).

[ayroplain]

ayroplain, how about trying these links on the bmi website.
contact us - refunds
contact us - technical help
The tools are there to be used.

Been there, done that. The ONLY department that will deal with refunds is the Refunds department. Contacting them by phone you get a recorded message to send an email to refunds at flybmi.com You can't talk to anyone. The emails produced no result.

In the early days of the ash crisis the only option to claim refunds was to make a phone call to one of the usual numbers. They hadn't even bothered to set up a special line so being left hanging on was the result.
Every other major airline made it simple and user-friendly to do online AND sent out acknowledgements.

No commercial website should have any links that are broken let alone a host of them. If "spending miles online" option is no longer available then the website should state this clearly and not leave people wondering.
If the bmi IT Dept. doesn't know that these links are broken then that says it all really.

[EI-BUD]

A few of us who had flights cancelled due to volcanic ash in the first couple of days of the crisis have not got any money back nor even any acknowledgement from the airline. With no online refund facility (like all other reputable airlines had) it required an expensive phonecall (and hanging on for ages) to request these. Six weeks later we don't even know whether our claims are going to be processed at all. A bloke I know who had six cancellations in total (with other airlines including FR), some long after ours, has had ALL his money refunded already.

Hi Avroplain; I was cancelled on the very first day of volcanic ash disruption. I was flying Belfast City- London Heathrow. Early in may I got a refund to my credit card of £49.09 the cost of the return flight, and also the 9000 diamond club miles that it cost, the deduction of these from my account was also reversed and quickly too.
I rang the refunds department and i got through easily enough.

EI-BUD

[firstchoice7e7]

yes bmi need to up gears a little, just checked in online for my berlin flight and berlin templehof is still a option in the drop down menu....

[ayroplain]

Originally Posted by EI-BUD

Hi Avroplain; I was cancelled on the very first day of volcanic ash disruption. .... I rang the refunds department and i got through easily enough.

Well, you must be lucky.
When I phoned this was the sequence on every occasion:

A voice indicates that you have reached bmi Revenue Services and:

1. Press 1 for bmibaby refunds or 2 for bmi refunds. I pressed 2.

2. "All our agents are busy". Try email or fax and details and info given how to do this.

I was determined to hang on to try to speak to someone despite the cost. But no. A female voice said "Goodbye" and the line was disconnected.

Email had no result and none of the people at the other phone numbers I tried since the cancelled flights were willing to assist (not even the Diamond Club service).

All of these phone calls are costing a fortune so maybe bmi are hoping that people will just give up and go away. If this was one of the low-cost airlines there'd be ten pages of posts telling me that's what I get for flying with them and how they are.

[Seljuk22]

Turkish Airlines leased a A330-200 from bmi and will use it for flights to Asia and Africa until 30th October.
Turkish Airlines leased bmi A330 routes AIRLINE ROUTE

[ayebmi]

We've heard the Turkish lease is until March...after which point the additional 330 will fingers crossed be employed in some other work (yet to be found!) but our CEO is keen to keep us flying 330s!

[TCX69]

bmi starts to repaint ex-BMED fleet, finally!

After merging with BMED in October 2007 & inheriting their 3 A320s & 5 A321s, the first one has now been repainted into bmi's stunning livery. The rest are to follow in due course with the cabin interiors also being refurbished with new seats/carpets/IFE.

Current livery status of ex-BMED fleet:

A320
G-MEDH: Interim
G-MEDK: Interim

A321
G-MEDF: Interim
G-MEDG: Interim
G-MEDJ: bmi
G-MEDL: bmi
G-MEDM: bmi
G-MEDN: bmi
G-MEDU: bmi

Be ace to see all of those bmi tails instead of the current mish-mash!

[Skipness One Echo]

G-BVKA Red Stripe

I think 16 years of mish mash since BD had a uniform fleet. I would say that the delivery of the above B737 with the red stripe, followed by G-BVKB without the stripe, then G-BVKC with a different width of stripe started the whole shebang. Then we had the dark colours, I wonder was everything painted in those colours before we saw the BMI launch?

G-MEDM does look quite shiny actually !

[bmybaby81]

TCX69 Do you know if there are any plans to change the style and design of the cabin interiors (heard talks about flat beds in business!) or will it remain the same but just refreshed?

[TCX69]

bmibaby81

All of the G-MED a/c now have new grey carpets which match the new headrest covers. I've heard that the seatbelts are going to be changed to this grey too but not sure if that is the case.

The A321s will be getting a deep clean during their time being painted. They are meant to be getting new seats in the Business Cabin which match the A330 Business seats (cream/brown). I don't think they will be flat beds because the configuration is going to stay the same, think they will just be updated (electronic) seats in the same colours as the A330.

The cabin curtains, blankets & pillows will be changing to the same as onboard the A330 too.

When it comes to the Economy Cabin, I'm not sure what is going to happen.

I have heard that the A321s

[bmybaby81]

Thanks for the info TCX69!

The maintenance manager has stated that there is a plan in place to standardise the interiors across the fleet and they are evaluating new seats but its unlikely to be this calender year that we see the changes .

On a brighter note these are good signs that Lufthansa is committed to turning around bmi and we would just have to be patient until these changes are implemented.

Keep us updated.

[Tail-take-off]

Skipness Echo One

The "Dark" colour scheme was implemented quite quickly with the whole fleet of around 30 aircraft done over the winter of 96/97 if my memory serves me right.

[jerboy]

Skipness... You were 13 when you started noticing these subtleties between different a/c within the BD fleet? Just an observation!

[Skipness One Echo]

Closer to ten when I started being that geeky. I wanted my own B737 in the garden from an early age, my parents were alas not too helpful.

[TCX69]

The following four key projects were approved in a Board Meeting held on 3rd September 2010.

• Lease extensions for 24 of our aircraft that were due for renewal. We will be able to conclude these extensions when market prices are still low. This will mean that we will have lower lease rates per annum and therefore benefit from significant savings in the future.

Note:
Lease extensions thought to be on all A319's, all A320's & all but one A321 (DF). This information does not include A330 or B757 leases. The latter of which is due to return to Astraeus Airlines in the near future.

• Improving our short haul onboard experience and create higher revenue potential by increasing the number of seats on 18 of our short haul aircraft (11 x A319 and 7 x A320). The A319 will be standardised with 144 seats per aircraft and the A320 will have 168 seats. The seats on these aircraft will be replaced with the current seats used by Lufthansa in their short haul fleet. This work will be completed during 2011.

Note:
A319's G-DBCA-F currently have a config of 130CY
A320's G-MIDO/S/T/X/Y currently have a config of 156CY
A320's G-MEDH/K currently have a config of 22C 102Y

• Revamping our mid haul A321 fleet - this represents a major fleet refurbishment and includes new generation business class seats and new economy seats. Furthermore the aircraft will be equipped with state of the art in-flight entertainment systems in business and economy cabins. Due to long lead times, the roll-out will commence in 2012. This will enable us to be best in class for our strategically important mid haul markets.

Note:
The remaining one A321 not in bmi livery (DG) will be painted during October/November 2010.

• Our current reservation host system needs to be replaced in the coming years and therefore we have decided to start the migration of our booking inventory, codeshare and ticketing systems now. This is a complex 18 month project and will enable us to realise revenue benefits and cost savings from the beginning of 2012. We are planning to switch to a more modern reservations platform, which will enable us to effectively manage our booking, ticketing and codeshare transactions.

[Spotter LBA]

Thanks for the information TCX69. Where was the info sourced?

Disapointed that bmi are putting more seats on board their aircraft as I have always enjoyed flying bmi. This surely will put them at a disadvantage to BA as this will mean bmi have significantly more seats on their A319's and A320's than BA. Will be interesting to see what the seat pitch will be.