BMIBABY  Passenger Reviews and Passenger Trip Reports

bmibaby customer review :  17 March 2010 by S Havens   (UK)

Manchester to Amsterdam. Booked the flights 3 months in advance and BMI baby cancelled them via email 2 weeks before departure with no explanation. The email was very clear to state that BMI baby are not responsible for any personal inconvenience or financial loss incurred. Re- booked with KLM, no hidden costs and friendly staff available via email and phone - a totally different experience.

bmibaby customer review :  4 March 2010 by C Roe   (UK)

MAN-BFS and return in one day. Both flights on time. Boeing 737s a bit weary looking, as were the crew. Why don't bmibaby give their crew something a bit smarter to wear? Inflight service OK although I can't understand why a hot meal of Chicken Curry was offered at 7.15 in the morning. One point to note - bmibaby offer online check-in up to 8 days before departure, so it is possible to check in for both the outward and the return flight before you go. This avoids any problems with online check in at your destination.

bmibaby customer review :  3 March 2010 by Graham Fairclough   (UK)

I've flown with bmibaby between Manchester and Amsterdam a few times now, each time giving them a chance to redeem themselves. I've now given up. Inflight, the service is fine and they seem generally to be punctual. But expect to be fleeced for extras, especially relating to baggage. The standard allowance is only 18kg, which is very easy to exceed on a business trip. The excess baggage fees of £12 per kilo are simply weird when you consider that my actual seat cost £15. I weigh more than 1.25kg, I an assure you. Don't try to book an extra bag ahead - when you read the small print (who does?) the cost for an extra bag doesn't increase your luggage allowance by an ounce - it simply means you get to split it between bags. This mistake cost me £70 in on the spot charges. Who on earth would want to split 18kg between two bags? This is a dirty trick. If you try to check in online with hand baggage only but their server is down, you'll be charged an airport check in fine, no matter that it's not your fault. If you write a polite letter of complaint, don't expect to get any reply. By the time you add on some fairly ordinary stuff, you will end up paying more than if you fly with a full service airline. To be fair, if you are flying hand baggage only, accept hidden charges like credit card payment fees that have a huge mark up in them and are happy to take your own sandwiches on board, bmibaby are great value. But if you have to take luggage, avoid them. If this airline had ever so slightly higher fares and removed the trickery, it could be great. But they'd rather fleece you. It's a shame.

bmibaby customer review :  28 February 2010 by Anny Gafner   (UK)

Addendum to my review - refunded the fare minus creditcard charge and satisfied. It did involve some correspondence as it wasn't possible to speak to a person from customer service. I wish that bmibaby would have an immediate full refund policy if they cannot fulfil their part of the contract - eliminating a lot of grief! There still exists that doubt at the back of my mind - will it be another cancellation if I decide to book again.

bmibaby customer review :  30 January 2010 by S Cordon   (UK)

Paris-East Midlands in December. Check-in agents at Paris CDG were asking passengers for a 6 euro fee for seating. When I protested that this was an option with online booking I was sent to their customer service desk with a receipt that mentioned an excess baggage fee - they cancelled the charge when they checked my booking. East Midlands- Paris in January - Was charged £5 for supposedly not submitting API - and how can you prove otherwise? I took up both issues with customer services whose response in respect of the Paris incident was essentially you didn't have to pay so why are you complaining!

bmibaby customer review :  29 January 2010 by J Crichton   (UK)

Flew BMIBaby from Edinburgh to Cardiff return at the weekend. Checked in online and with no hold luggage on way down. Flight was okay, only 20 people on the 737 on Saturday 8am flight. On return, we couldn't check in online, our hotels net access wasn't working. Checked in at airport and charged £20 for this. Check in clerk was very offhand and really couldn't care less. Paid at counter and asked for address to complain too. We were given address on a pre- printed slip of paper. We asked if requests for this was regular where she laughed and said "Yes". Flight only had 34 people on it back to Edinburgh. No wonder with this standard of service with all the terms and conditions in small print.

bmibaby customer review :  28 January 2010 by Brian Sore   (UK)

Cancelled Flight bmibaby Belfast-Prague 15th February 2010. Having booked a flight and hotel to Prague through bmibaby website on the seat/hotel sale promotion. We received a cancellation email 19 days before the flight (operational issues!). A full refund is promised for the flight (but minus the £15 credit card charge) but no refund on the hotel as bmibaby use last- minute.com and they are denying liability. BMI do not provide a means of customer contact other than in writing. Customers of the bmibaby seat sale promotion should be aware of this practice and that bmibaby can deny liability. I will never book with this airline again and be very wary of seat/hotel sale promotions from this company you could lose your money.

bmibaby customer review :  20 January 2010 by V Celiberti   (Jersey)

Booked on a return flight Manchester-Jersey. Checked in and overheard another customer asking whether flights were okay as she had heard about fog in Jersey and no movement in or out. Check in staff said that it was the first they'd heard of it and checked all passengers in. Were told 15 mins before due departure that flight had been cancelled and handed us a piece of paper with telephone numbers on to re-book or cancel flight. Informed that next available flight was 4 days later! Basically, just told to ring the numbers and to go away and organise ourselves. Total lack of customer care. We ended up re-booking with Easyjet from Liverpool but cost us about another £400 (including 2 nights hotel). BMIBaby need to look at their procedures when cancelling flights. Okay, not their fault about the weather but to offer an alternative flight 4 days later is totally unacceptable, as is their 'go sort yourself out' attitude.

bmibaby customer review :  16 December 2009 by Dave Jaros   (Czech Republic)

PRG-MAN return. First experience, ticket for GBP 150 . Checked on-line, no hold bags. Departure from PRG delayed for about 75 mins due to broken radio in cockpit, but informed by the airport staff. A bit chaotic boarding, flight smooth, not many adverts per PA. Disembarking from plane slower (elderly pax searching for their belongings up and down the plane) and parked far away from T3, so missed the last train from MAN to city at 1:20 am and forced to take cab. Return same day evening, due to mist in MAN many other T3 flights cancelled but BMI luckily ran the service, though some 30 mins delayed. Leather seats in B733 a bit cramped and worn, but plane rather clean and maintained. Crew pacified a noisy group in the rear cabin so that even short nap possible, a half capacity occupation (overhead lockers packed though). Good that their planes are capable to cope with common fog (unlike Flybe, Ryanair etc.). Competitor announced to start on this route in spring 2010.

bmibaby customer review :  14 December 2009 by C Alexander   (Spain)

In August we booked a flight from Malaga to Cardiff for 18th December and received confirmation and the booking reference by e-mail. A few days before the flight we went to check our flight details on-line and found there was no flight scheduled from Malaga to Cardiff on 18th December! We contacted BMIbaby and they told us that they had emailed us in November and again in December about the cancellation of the flight on the 18th, but they had sent the e-mail to the wrong address! They had left a dot out of our address. They said we had provided them with the incorrect address in August which clearly is not true as they had e- mailed us correctly afterwards! We have important appointments booked for 19th December and so have had to make an expensive last minute booking with another company. We are just so thankful that we tried to check our booking online before we flew as it would have been a much bigger problem and a huge amount of stress if we had turned up at Malaga to discover there was no flight to Cardiff.

bmibaby customer review :  14 December 2009 by D Long   (Australia)

Cardiff to Edinburgh. Originally booked on a midday flight, were advised about a month or so out that this flight had been cancelled and that we were put onto an 0800 flight. This was communicated to us via email well in advance - so no concerns there. We were visiting from Australia, and were dreading how much we might get charged for excess baggage. My bag was slightly overweight and my partners was slightly under. Common sense evidently prevailed and there was no charge. Check-in staff friendly. Cabin crew efficient and pleasant. Aircraft (Boeing 737-300) looked like it had seen better days. Would fly them again, as on the Cardiff- Edinburgh route there's not much alternative.

bmibaby customer review :  9 December 2009 by S Hough   (UK)

My mum travelled from Alicante on the 1st Dec, was checked in no problem as we had paid for her to check in, was told on the flight that some bags had to be removed as the plane was too heavy (resurfacing work on the runway was being carried out at the time-can only think it was to stop the plane sinking in to it) arrived in East Midlands only to find her bag with her medication had ben removed along with 37 other bags. She was given paperwork with a number to ring and was assured that her bag would be delivered the next day. I rang at 3.30 the next day after waiting in all day ,only to be told a. that the phone call cost 65p per minute. Her bag would be with us within 24 hours, managed after much rudeness from the women to get the couriers no and found out it would be delivered by 7pm,it turned up at 7.30pm,any later and I would have had to take her to hospital to get her some medication. She flew back out today, checking in this am only to find that the name she was booked in was her initial and surname, the airline had all her passport details and called them up on the computer including photo, but was told she couldn't fly unless she paid a name change fee and paid for a full fareticket-a cost of nearly 400 euros, luckily my husband managed to sort out to pay only the difference between the original ticket and she paid 148 euros. I am sure when I booked the flight in September the booking form on the internet was different. My mother suffers from high blood pressure and I am sure the stress she suffered today is not good for her health, it certainly wasn't for mine. Needless to say I would not recommend them and certainly won't be flying with them again. I have flown with them in the past and had good service, but now feel that they will fleece you at every opportunity.

bmibaby customer review :  8 December 2009 by C Gates   (UK)

My wife and I travel to and from Spain about six times a year and never had any trouble until now. We returned from Alicante on 3rd December. When we got to Birmingham about ten cases came off the carousel and then it stopped. After about 20 minutes waiting we were all told to go to the information desk where we were told that 34 cases had been left at Alicante as there was no room for them. Surely an aircraft can take more than 10 suitcases in the hold, especially as some people had to put their hand luggage in the hold as there was too much. We were told that we would be contacted when the luggage was put on another plane and would be delivered to the house. It is now Monday afternoon and still no luggage. No-one seems to know where it is or when we will get it. The attitude of the staff that we speak to on the telephone is appalling. They seem to think that we have nothing better to do than to sit and wait patiently until they decide to deliver it. Disgusting !