BMIBABY   Passenger Reviews and Passenger Trip Reports

bmibaby customer review :  21 November 2009 by I Warrington   (UK)

I will never fly with this shower again. If you want to be fleeced then use this lot. I have returned from a business trip yesterday from Paris and over half of the passengers on the flight were charged extras. These extras were in the small print and was explained that these were new extras - ie. not extras when you booked your original flight. I had checked in online on the outward journey but was returning the following day and had no access to a computer to check in online for the return journey, I tried on a PDA 2 hours before take off, but you can only do it 3 hours before. The staff were extremely rude when paying the fine of €10, just waived a hand at me beckoning for the cash, whilst talking to someone else. bmibaby will not survive without a close look at this fines policy and the way they communicate with customers.

bmibaby customer review :  21 November 2009 by M Parkinson   (UK)

Flew bmibaby for the first time last week. There was a hold up on the M6 and our check in had closed when we got there. They got us on to the flight, were very polite and helpful and I cannot fault them. No extra charges were made for luggage or anything and we got coffee and biscuits on the flight.

bmibaby customer review :  11 November 2009 by M Pascoe   (UK)

Got the last flight back from Majorca and I could not believe it. More than half the passengers had to pay something extra to board. This ranges from 1 Kg over (£14) have not checked in online while on holiday (cannot print out return boarding pass before you leave), charging for kids luggage. The passport Id is another scam - they emailed some people on holiday - so charged another £10. Empty seats on the plane so I think it was the end of season whip-round.

bmibaby customer review :  3 November 2009 by C Roe   (UK)

MAN-LIS not the best experience. Firstly, it took nearly an hour and a half to check in and we only just made it on to the flight. The check-in queue was ridiculously long and only two desks open. The flight was on time, and that's the best I can say about it. The plane was dirty, seats narrow and uncomfortable and the crew look dishevelled and fed up. Because of bmibaby's hold luggage charging policy, most of the passengers had massive hand luggage with them and there simply wasn't enough room in the aircraft for it. As a consequence, a dozen or so cases had to be put in the hold which didn't please those of us who had paid £20 per case to put ours in the hold. The gate staff are supposed to check all hand luggage for size and weight by putting it into a measuring basket, but as long as passengers could ram some of the bag into the basket, then it was allowed through. Yes you get what you pay for, but I've flown with other budget airlines who offer a far better product and a more comfortable journey. By the time you have paid for your luggage, your seat and all the other extras, bmibaby work out no cheaper than a standard schedule airline.

bmibaby customer review :  29 October 2009 by L Scally   (UK)

We booked in May to fly Manchester to Cork as a family of six last Friday evening 20.30pm flight. Came up on screen delayed, more info soon, next info soon etc. Finally flight cancelled without explanation. Conflicting info from BMI, weather in Cork, technical problem with aircraft, although all other flights left Manchester and all other flights from wherever destination into Cork landed. BMI said flight out next day but could not book it until next morning, only 11 seats left and 175 + passengers trying to book, some on internet that night. Not offered accomodation, so we booked in hotel for the night and booked with BMI on the internet at a much higher high cost for the next day. Just got the last few seats so heaven help any passengers that try to book over the phone (as BMI suggested) the next day. The next day we were told the flight was overbooked and offered a bribe to change our flights again! Luck has it that I had already booked the seats and they couldn't bump us. Has cost me over £1000 extra! We will never use this airline again.

bmibaby customer review :  5 October 2009 by K Adams   (UK)

No problem with flight or service just very slow check in. We arrived at East Midlands for a 10.50 flight at 9.15am and found a long queue and 2 desks open1. We spent 45 mins waiting until finally they realised that people might not make their flights several, and more desks were opened. the airport shops or have a coffee, this surely cannot help the airportto miss out financially!

bmibaby customer review :  22 September 2009 by Simon Boxall   (UK)

My second return journey with bmibaby, and a better experience. Cardiff to Malaga return. Check-in staff at Cardiff friendly and no problems seating 6 of us together. B737-300 showing it's age but relatively clean. Legroom not great but better than Ryanair. Cabin crew friendly. Captain made inflight announcements quite humourous. Inflight food and drink expensive but similar prices to other low-cost airlines. (5 Euros for a panini and a coffee - eat before you fly.) Check-in at Malaga on return journey is handled by a company called FlightCare Spain, who were unaware that bmibaby give you an extra 5kg luggage allowance if you travel with an infant, and tried to charge us. Return flight not so great. 2 out of 3 toilets were not working. Flight was slightly delayed (although still managed to arrive on time). Crew seemed stressed and rarely smiled. Seems to be a bit hit-and-miss with this airline, although for a return price of £130, including all charges and baggage, during peak season, I won't complain too much.

bmibaby customer review :  22 September 2009 by Edward Impey   (UK)

CWL-EDI-CWL. Basically ok, as the flights were nearly empty, however they use all opportunities to sting you even after a fairly expensive basic price. I had a frank exchange of views with an overly officious member of staff when she thought my hand baggage was too big! It is standard size but was well packed, so it was a squeeze into her sizing unit, but we went on board with it in the end.

bmibaby customer review :  4 September 2009 by Graham Fairclough   (Netherlands)

I've flown twice with bmibaby recently and both times I've been stung with excess charges that I consider to have been tricked out of me. First time, I was hand baggage only and online check in, but the online check in kept freezing (both on PC and mac), so couldn't print the boarding pass. I was then charged to manually check in online. Many people were in the same situation. I wrote to them to explain and ask for a refund, but never received even a reply. I decided to give them another chance, so just flew MAN-AMS. I knew I'd have a fair bit of luggage, so I selected airport check in and two bags, to be on the safe side. At the airport, I was told by the check in agent (who seemed to be bracing himself for some grief from me) that the 2 bags booked just meant that I could split my 18kg meagre limit between two bags. Why would you do that? He was very upfront about how he also felt that this was deliberately misleading on the website in order to dupe more cash out of people. £10 per kilo is a stiff excess baggage charge, I feel for a 45 minute flight. I had no choice but to pay £70 on the spot, but I resent every penny. Onboard, I have found standards good and the ground crew okay. Sadly, all the tricks played by other low cost operators are also employed by bmibaby. I'd rather pay a fair price for the flight and not be deliberately misled. bmibaby can be great value, but if it goes wrong, it goes very wrong indeed. I will be avoiding them in future.

bmibaby review :  2 September 2009 by Alex McArthur   (UK)

Online booking is fine unless you wish to make changes. It is not intuitive nor clear and leads you to pay for additional changes even when you are trying to change only one aspect of your flight. bmibaby cancelled my original flight and I have since paid almost double due to their changes. Also be careful of not booking online before departing, particularly with the 72 hour rule as, for long weekends, you will be charged for checking in because you might not be able to print off a boarding pass at your destination. My experience is that any opportunity to take unnecessary cash out of you - they will. I am a frequent bmibaby user and thought I knew how they operated. There has been a recent change in how they see passengers.

bmibaby review :  29 August 2009 by Graham Wilson   (UK)

Turned up at Belfast International 60 mins before departure only to be told that the flight had been cancelled and that the later Manchester flight was fully booked. Total chaos at the check-in desks with two staff attempting to deal with the cancelled passengers and all later bmi baby flights. Lots of people with onward connecting flights from Manchester were screwed. Eventually gave some of us a choice of going to East Midlands or Birmingham but emphasised that they would not be liable for onward travel to final destination. Chose Birmingham because of the rail links to Manchester. Planes old and grubby but probably safe enough. From reading these reviews it seems like bmi baby have a tendency to cancel flights at short (or in my case no) notice. Would be hesitant to book with them again.

bmibaby review :  18 August 2009 by N Bones   (UK)

I had the misfortune of booking a flight to Ireland with BMI Baby, only to have the flight cancelled just 5 minutes before boarding. To add insult to injury, they did not refund the full cost of the flight, and when added to the consequential costs of cancellation (lost hotel deposit, lost car hire costs, lost pre-paid car parking costs etc,) selecting BMI Baby was an expensive mistake, and not one I intend to repeat.

bmibaby review :  9 August 2009 by C Martin   (UK)

A horrible experience. The bmibaby website clearly states that passengers who have booked baggage and check in together can pool their luggage allowance. Myself, my husband and my son had each booked a bag for our flight home from Jersey to Manchester, but we only packed two bags - having read we can pool our allowance. BMIbaby obviously hadnt told the Station Manager in Jersey of the clear facts stated on the website as the Station Manager would only check us in if we split our luggage into 3 bags! We were told it was a new policy and we could either leave the check in area to repack or she would call the police! Thankfully we then managed to speak to a Customer Service agent at Jersey who checked the website and agreed we were in fact correct and should have been permitted to travel with two bags! If the station manager doesnt know the rules - what hope does this airline have!

bmibaby review :  7 August 2009 by J Martin   (UK)

Edinburgh to Cardiff. Overall good experience. Good drinks offers on board. One qualm would be that the regulated hand luggage is lower than that of other similar airlines.

bmibaby review :  7 August 2009 by Helen Trevitt   (UK)

After a slight mix up with the baggage allowance-being informed on the helpline that 2 bags booked under the same name allows you 36kg and finding out at check-in that it still only allows that person 18kg(staff being fantastic at Manchester and altering it on the computer free of charge! could have cost us a further £130!) we had no reason to be worried. Both flights were spot on time, cabin crew all friendly and polite.

bmibaby review :  30 July 2009 by V Daley   (UK)

Birmingham to Nice and plane was clean and comfortable. Food was ok and cabin crew friendly. On the way back there was a half hour delay but this was caused by late passengers on another airline so not the fault of BMI Baby. Overall we were very happy.

bmibaby review :  30 July 2009 by S Walsh   (Netherlands)

I fly quite regularly with BMI Baby. About half of the time, the flights are late, I've had possessions ruined by my luggage being left in what must have be a substantial pool of water, I've been redirected (although they did offer a bus service to the original destination), and some of the charges re changing and cancelling are ridiculous. But you do get what you pay for. Sometimes, I travel with only hand luggage, check in online, and am not fussy about seating. In these instances, it is value for money. Other times, I grumble a bit, but it's the cheapest way to travel to the places I want to go.

bmibaby review :  18 July 2009 by R Grout   (UK)

I booked for my wife and I to fly to Nice for a weekend break and paid £287 inclusive. My wife decided a week before the flight that she couldn't leave our 3 year old with the outlaws so I went online and booked her an outbound flight with the intention of giving her my inbound flight and staying longer myself to visit customers. I called the 65 pence per minute number to change names inbound and pay the £100 name change charge. The call centre said that they could only change names for the whole journey and not just the inbound. I explained that my 3 year old was already travelling out with us so only required my seat for the return journey. This was refused by the operator and her manager. It was now too late to get her an inbound flight as there were no seats left. They told me to write to the customer services as they only accept written correspondence but we were due to fly in a couple of days so nothing would have been changed. I have since written to customer services twice over the period of 5 weeks and not heard a thing! I stayed on with my 3 year old until the next day when we both flew back with easy jet. If you are lucky find a cheap flight, are able to travel and require no changes then its bearable but have a problem then its less stressful to write of the money and start again.

bmibaby review :  15 July 2009 by C Barrow   (France)

Having been a regular user of bmibaby we had not been too disappointed. However good luck if you want to claim anything back due to not taking a flight. Decided to try and claim back through my credit card, but to do this you need proof that you have cancelled your flight, something that bmi charges you £10 for, amazingly its £15 if they send you this by email! Also was told that we could claim the £10 tax back, but that this would cost us £20! Again truly amazing policy! The final straw is that, as another complainer wrote, you cannot speak to someone in customer services, you have to write on paper! bmibaby is ok if all goes well - but if you spend 300€ on a flight, cannot fly and are polite enough to ring up and inform them you will not be flying, and try to claim some money back - good luck to you.