BMIBABY   Passenger Reviews     bmibaby 2-Star "low-cost" ranking   Add your bmibaby Review   Airline Reviews : A-Z Index   World Airline Awards   Passenger Trip Reports = 180   BMIBABY "QUICK" GUIDE OFFICIAL STAR RATING   2-STAR QUALITY APPROVED   NO PASSENGER GUIDE   DETAILS

bmibaby review :  27 December 2008 : by Bill Ferguson

BMI cancelled flights I had booked and paid for from Birmingham to Madrid for 'operational reasons.' I only found out they had cancelled this route because I called their customer service line. I did get a refund - but like some of your other contribuors- a £10 credit card charge was not refunded. So someone is making about £600 per flight cancelled - and I am out of pocket to the tune of £10 for something BMI have cancelled. Appalling customer service and attitude from this airline!

bmibaby review :  24 December 2008 : by P Bolitho

A month ago I booked flights for 6 people for a short-break in Edinburgh in February. BMI Baby have just cancelled these flights probably because they are no longer economic to run. They suggested flights on other days which were unsuitable - I therefore called for a refund. I was atonished to hear that they would not refund my debit card fees of £30 (6 people at £2.50 per flight). The BMI representative even said that BMI do not receive the fee and would not get it refunded from the debit card company. The reality is that BMI Baby make money on these fees and in all likelihood will get most if not all of the fee back from the debit card company. How can they be entitled to this money when they chose to cancel the flights in the first place?

bmibaby review :  19 December 2008 : by Christine Pugh

On the evening of December 15th 2008 I was booked on a flight from Cork to Birmingham with BMI Baby (bookings made in August 2008). On going through the check-in process we were informed that our journey would be extended by two hours as the plane would be travelling to Manchester and then Birmingham. Accepted this change with a few moans but within such a short time afterwards we were then informed that the plane had been cancelled - no reason given at all. No help was given to the passengers - I estimate that there must have been approximately 100 of us affected. No assistance was given to us in respect of overnight accommodation and another flight - we were told it was down to us to make our own arrangements. It has been a very expensive week-end - hotel accommodation, book a seat with Ryanair and travel up to Shannon to get home today (Tuesday 16th) as the next available plane from Cork to Birmingham was on Wednesday 16th! Customer service - what customer service - BMI Baby do not know the meaning of the word!

bmibaby review :  18 December 2008 : by J de Jong

I had a flight canceled and was automatically booked on another flight. That did not suit me and I called BMIbaby and canceled for a refund. They did issue the refund, but not the credit card fee. That is supposed to be not part of the flight cost. That is of course crazy. They cancel a flight and keep £4. I could not get hold of them again and I e-mailed a consumers support group that said that this is the argument and so far they get away with it. They can cancel a plane load of people and keep £600. It is insane.

bmibaby review :  19 November 2008 : by Gordon Price

I am currently having a nightmare experience with bmibaby. My wife and I were booked on a flight from Birmingham to Faro but bmibaby cancelled the flight. Having paid on line they promised a full refund but only made a partial repayment, still owing us £195.00. The problem is that they do not take any phone calls re complaints and tell us to write to their customer services dept. I wrote 6 weeks ago and got no reply so I wrote again to their Managing Director . This last letter was 3 weeks ago and still no reply! We can't phone, we can't fax and we can't email because these numbers are unavailable to us. Can anyone tell us anyway of getting to talk to bmibaby admin staff about problems like these?

bmibaby review :  19 November 2008 : by Alex Stewart

I and/or my wife fly several times per year between Aberdeen and Birmingham. Because it is a short flight we usually travel as early as possible in the morning and travel home in the evenings several days later. The problem has been with rescheduling flights to a time which is of no use to us. The Customer Services department has most recently failed to respond to telephone calls (several at different times in the day over 2 days). They failed to respond to emailed details sent. They also failed to respond to a letter written to them. My only consolation has been than a sum of money has been refunded to my credit card statement. I have no problems with the air crew only the reliability of the flight schedule and Customer Services.

bmibaby review :  4 November 2008 : by Colin Wright

Flown 2 times from Manchester T3 this year - same old delays, delay going out and back. The last time in October it was 3 in the morning when we got home. Delays at East Midlands have been just as bad, once on the plane on time we had to go back and wait one and half hour until they got parts for an aircraft in Alicante - no drinks were offered ... nothing.

bmibaby review :  4 November 2008 : by S Oakley

Tried these as an alternative to the much hated Ryanair on a return flight from Birmingham to Cork and found it acceptable for the price we paid. On time leaving, 10 mins late on way back. Plane clean and tidy, crew efficient. Like the online check facility and being able to pick your own seats, and there was no hard sale of unwanted goods onboard.

bmibaby review :  21 October 2008 : by John McKenzie

I have never been treated so unfairly by an airline and I fly quite regularly. Three of us flew to Warsaw from East Midlands - going was fine but on the way back we got to the airport, and flight had been cancelled with no explanation. After queuing for 3 hours, we were given a piece of paper and told they will see if they can get us on a flight tomorrow. Due to business reasons I had to be back in the UK and was forced to pay for 3 flights at a cost of over £600 to fly to Luton. No reason has been given to the nature of the cancellation. BMI handled this situation very poorly indeed - never again.

bmibaby review :  21 October 2008 : by Anthony Elleray

We were booked to fly with BMI Baby in March 2009 from Manchester to Prague. We received an email on Friday evening cancelling the return flight - email told us bluntly BMI were not responsible for any additional costs we might incur throug their failure to honour an agreement. We've now cancelled the flights and hotel (£20 admin charge) and rebooked with Easyjet to go to Madrid on the same dates and saved £200. Never used BMI previously and will not look at them again.

bmibaby review :  18 October 2008 : by Jeff Michel

Customer Rating :  1/5

Booked a flight from Glasgow to Birmingham and the flight price: £21.98 which is bumped up to £64.93 with just taxes. Then the final sting in the tail: £7 for a credit card fee. How can they justify charging over 10% CC fees?! The OFT should investigate this rip-off. Never again.

bmibaby review :  18 October 2008 : by J Turner

Trip Rating :  2/5

I am getting so sick of this airline. I fly often from Birmingham to Belfast with work. 5 years ago they were great but in the last year their service has become really bad. You are almost guaranteed to be delayed by at least an hour on both flights. Check in and boarding is slow, the planes are old and uncomfortable. I have lost count how many times I have sat on a torn seat with rubbish all over the floor and there is always something very uncomfortable about the flight itself. If I had the choice I would not fly with them.

bmibaby review :  16 October 2008 : by E Daly

Customer Rating :  3/5

I travel from Amsterdam to EMA frequently and have always found the service very reliable. Today when I purchased my flight I was not only charged 6 Euros for checking in at the airport (online check in at Schipol is not available) but a further 12 Euros for paying with a credit card. This charge is 12 euros per seat booked under one transaction! I find this charge outrageous and a blatant attempt to get people to pay with a bmi baby credit card, for which the charge is waived.

bmibaby review :  10 October 2008 : by David Holden

Customer Rating :  5/5

EMA-JER return. On time or slightly early. Reasonably priced, clean planes and pleasant crew. Avoid row 7 though -; no windows and makes you very disorientated when on the ground / final approach. Other than that, a refreshing change from other low cost carriers.

bmibaby review :  3 October 2008 : by H Jonas

Customer Rating :  1/5

The excitement of travelling with BMI Baby! I've only used them twice and on both occasions they have lost my luggage. I'm still awaiting the luggage that should have arrived last weekend. No point of contact just the usual answer machine messages. In future, I would rather spend more money on a better airline than spending a fortune on replacing luggage and clothes etc every time I fly BMI.

bmibaby review :  1 October 2008 : by H Matthews

Customer Rating :  1/5

My flight to Edinburgh cancelled without notice, booked on next flight some five hours later. As compensation? I was given a voucher for £3 for refreshments on board the plane. Never mind the five hours at the airport. When previously I changed my ticket for a later flight they took £60, when they bump me back a flight I get barely an apology. Attitude of staff poor, airline - poor.

bmibaby review :  1 October 2008 : by J McEvoy

Customer Rating :  1/5

MAN-BCN. Told at check-in that the flight would be delayed by 3hr 40 mins due to technical problems. Were told where to get our £3.00 refreshment vouchers (not enough to even buy a sandwich at the terminal) Were prepared to pay to use the executive lounge but were told that was not possible as we had not pre-booked. Flight eventually took off more than five hours late. As for the return flight on 28th Sept, we had received an email from BMI Baby about 1 month before telling us that the flight had been brought forward from 18.25 to 16.55. Arrived at the airport at 15.00 to find that the only flight back to Manchester was indeed at 18.25. The earlier flight was not mentioned at all on the departure boards, until about 18.00 when it suddenly appeared as cancelled. Once on board we were informed that there were no sandwiches due to problems at Manchester and that it wasn't the staff's fault. We won't be travelling BMI Baby again.

bmibaby review :  23 September 2008 : by G Harber

Customer Rating :  5/5

Excellent experience flying Cardiff-Jersey return earlier this year. Admittedly we took only hand luggage, but couldn't fault anything. We only booked about 4 weeks before departure and got good prices as well. Would use bmibaby again.

bmibaby review :  22 September 2008 : by E Stuart

Customer Rating :  3/5

Manchester to Malaga return, far from cheap but they had the best flight times. Annoyed at the extras for baggage etc - especially as paying for the baggage forces you to pay extra (again) for airport check in. We beat the system partially by taking lots of hand baggage (you can take 10kg each) and sharing a suitcase. Aircraft was a newish bmi A321. Plenty of snacks and drinks available, and not as expensive as other airlines. Both flights left late but made up some time enroute. Staff efficient without being spectacular, though I saw one of them dealing extremely professionally with a nervous flier. On the return trip Malaga airport was chaotic. Would fly them again, hopefully it will be a bit cheaper next time.

bmibaby review : 12 September 2008 : by Julie Hunt

Customer Rating : 2/5

East Midlands to Edinburgh was cancelled due to a technical fault with the plane after we had checked in. Alternative flights were from a different airport, or more than 24 hours later, and we had to hire a car and drive to Edinburgh in order to make a connecting flight the following morning. We even offered a lift to drive an elderly passenger travelling on her own, because the BMIbaby ground crew offered no advice or assistance. This was on 26th July and I am still awaiting response to my letters trying to claim for a refund. Customer relations are only handled by post, and although I tried to navigate through their IVR to talk to an agent, if you take the option for customer relations, it just tells you an address and then cuts you off. I tried a different route through the voice tree, and after more than one hour in a queue, I did not believe I was ever going to speak to anyone. In short, if you travel with BMIbaby and something goes wrong with your flight, don't expect to hear from them again or get your money back. In my opinion, a rating of 1 star is far too generous.

bmibaby review : 8 September 2008 : by I Wong

Customer Rating : 2/5

Have travelled on BMIBaby on many occasions from BFS to BHX/ MAN over last three years. Never had bad experience until my previous flights with them from BHX to BFS and return. Outboard flight was delayed and we missed our connecting train/ bus services from city centre to North Belfast. Return flight was delayed for one hour and we arrived at BHX after 11:30pm. No train and bus services at that time and we had to pay extra GBP for a taxi to go back to our home at Coventry. Service was ok (for a low cost airline), but they need to operate on time.

bmibaby review : 7 September 2008 : by E Price

Customer Rating : 2/5

I have had my schedule altered twice since original booking. Now the departing airport has been changed which is unfeasible as well as unacceptable. It is impossible to get through by telephone and no answer to e-mails. I can only assume BMI Baby is on it's way out as customer service levels are non existent.