bmibaby review :  28 February 2009 : by Lesley Baker

In Dec 2008 I booked flights for my silver wedding anniversary in June 2009 for 14 people with bmibaby from Birmingham to Cork return at a cost of £940. I had an email to say that bmibaby had cancelled the flights and I was offered a flight out from Manchester, but no flight back. I declined and requested a full refund by email. I had no reply and received just £442.15 refund without a breakdown to say how this figure was worked out. I have rung, emailed three times and only got a reply from one email to say it was BMI not bmibaby and to ring yet another number. Eventually I have found out that you can only enquire about these refunds by post. This is not acceptable - my wedding anniversary party is ruined as there were another 12 people in my party who made their own bookings - all who have received a similar less than 50% refund. Bmibaby are arrogant in the extreme and appear to be run by con merchants who are not even standing by their own terms and conditions.

bmibaby review :  27 February 2009 : by Chris Elms

After being told that my flight to Cork was cancelled because of operational reasons I spent 20 mins on the phone to their customer services who arranged a 'full' refund. Yes - that's right the booking charge was withheld and that incensed me even more. I wrote a rather strong letter for essentially a £7.00 refund but felt that they couldn't get away with such blatant tactics. Low and behold I've checked my online card statement today and the money has been refunded. I'm still awaiting a letter from them but expect that to arrive after my trip in May. The lesson here is to not let them get away with this policy and handling such a volume of refunds will become more costly than aligning the policy to a fair outcome.

bmibaby review :  27 February 2009 : by Anny Gafner

Bmibaby bookings need to come with a health warning! I've booked a flight to Geneva - outward flight 25th March - return flight 27th March as I need to see a specialist in Geneva. Bmibaby have sent me an email advising that the 25th March has been cancelled but that they've booked me on the 27th March flight - return Journey also on 27th March - which leaves 30 mins in Geneva. I sent emails, 2 letters to their headquarters, asking for a refund and like so many others, I've not even had a reply to any of my communications. I'm absolutely frustrated - do we as passengers not deserve a better customer service?

bmibaby review :  13 February 2009 : by Steve Fenton

Manchester Belfast return. Outbound flight was almost empty, the plane was really cold inside and even after 20 minutes of flying it was still cold. The security at Manchester is a joke and always allow a lot of time for this. Return flight was pretty full, again security is very badly organised despite the amount of machines and people who the airport employs. It took 45 minutes to get through security at Belfast, it always seems that you are disturbing their conversations when you go through. Once on board we had the next 45 minutes of constant announcements trying to sell us something. They try to sell you junk food at crazy prices. They try to sell you perfume, junk food, lottery cards and just about anything else they can think of in between many announcements to ask you to clean the plane for them. Overall it would be just nice to get on board, fly and get off without all the constant selling going on, people know how to ask for a drink or duty free you dont need it ramming down your throat

bmibaby review :  12 February 2009 : by Jim Weir

BHX-GLA. Couldn't have gone smoother. Online check-in no problem, through the airport like a breeze. Landed 10 mins early, off the plane and on bus into Glasgow in 10 mins. Couldn't ask for things to go any smoother. Cabin crew friendly, but asking passengers the end repeatedly to clear up around themselves and to make sure the seat belts were crossed and ready for the next passenger. Didn't mind them asking once, but repeating the message and suggesting we were obliged to do was a bit much. When you check-in online, at no point was I asked for my ID. I was ready to present it at the desk before the security checkpoint, but it was never asked for. I thought they would ask for it again but before we boarded the bus over to the plane. Again, boarding pass only. Has the ID check been dispensed with?

bmibaby review :  4 February 2009 : by E Timms

As I mentioned in an earlier review, my flight to Faro was rescheduled to much later in the day, meaning we would miss an important event and the reason for our travelling in the first place. Following another reviewer's success I phoned and asked to be moved to the Malaga flight at no extra cost. The person at the end of the phone did so at once. I'm still left with a long drive at my expense, but at least we can still make our event.

bmibaby review :  1 February 2009 : by L Gee

I booked 2 flights from Manchester to Bordeaux in June 2009. We received an e-mail from BMI stating that they had changed the time of the flight which in essence meant a delay of 9 hours meaning that instead of landing at lunch time the flight now lands after 9pm. As we have to travel at the other end this made things difficult. I have sent 3 e-mails to BMI, I have phoned them and been kept on hold for 1 hour with no success at getting through, I have now written two letters with no reply. I have asked for either a full refund or a transfer to the Saturday flight which doesn't seem unreasonable. How on earth do you communicate with this company if anything goes wrong? I need to book other components of this holiday but can't till they respond to me. I would be very wary about booking with this company - their prices may be cheap but if anything goes wrong you are in trouble!!

bmibaby review :  28 January 2009 : by Robert Bates

I booked flights to Malaga as a result of BMI Baby offering a sale. They subsequently cancelled them for operational reasons, eventually giving me a refund, less £14.00 booking fee. I complained and have received a response from them saying that this is a credit card fee, which they do not get refunded from the bank - this is a totally unfair practice. I would have accepted the loss of the booking fee if it had been me that cancelled the flights but it was them.

bmibaby review :  28 January 2009 : by Calum Curtis

Birmingham to Edinburgh. For the price I paid (under £30) a real bargain. However large swathes of the aircraft were empty and other areas crammed with 3 to a row - why don't they encourage people to "spread out". No airbridge at Birmingham so the usual bus out. On arrival at aircraft only loading from the front - luckily it wasn't too busy. Arrival at Edinburgh ok walked off and up steps into terminal. Also with half empty aircraft why not bring back standby tickets ?

bmibaby review :  26 January 2009 : by Pierre-Marie Bernard

Travelling every weeks from EMA to Glasgow . I found the experience unpleasant, electronic boarding card system unreliable. Automatic seat allocation totally inept (concentrate all passengers in a few rows in an empty plane). Cabin and airport crew unwelcoming, frequent delays by 1-2 hours. Airport crew totally unefficient in EMA taking extra time to board and unboard.

bmibaby review :  24 January 2009 : by David Thomas

bmi Baby are rip off merchants. In Nov 2008 I booked flights with bmi Baby for my family of 5 to Rome, for April 2009, costing £843.60. On 5th January 2009 I received a surprise refund of £818.60 from bmi Baby. No letter, no email, no phone call, simply a refund. I called bmi Baby who advised me that they no longer fly to Rome. No explanation as to why they did not inform me of this before refunding me the payment. Also they kept £25 for themselves as a booking fee. So in essence they have simply taken £25 off me.

bmibaby review :  21 January 2009 : by A Heeks

We recently booked a return flight to Malaga for 13 people, BMI Baby have changed the flight times and agreed to refund the costs of the flights. As per previous customers comments they refunded all apart from the £7 credit card fee totalling £91. My intention is to complain in writing and state that if they do not refund the money that we shall issue county court proceedings to recover the sums including costs. If we all do this they may change their policy.

bmibaby review :  14 January 2009 : by E Timms

Like the previous reviewer my Madrid flight was cancelled by bmibaby. After a lot of insistence, they transferred me at no cost to Alicante, though initially they said it couldn't be done until I read their own Press release to them. I of course had the dubious pleasure of paying for the phone call. I still have to get to Madrid by road/rail at my expense. I have now received notification that another flight I have with them to Faro has been rescheduled for four hours later, completely disrupting my reason for travelling in the first place - we shall now miss an important event. No offer of a free change or free cancellation. I am a regular, though disenchanted user of bmibaby. When will these low service (with all the extra charges they long since ceased to be low cost) airlines realise that most of us would prefer to pay a few pounds more and have decent service? Ironically, one might then be more disposed to spending money on the in flight goods and food.

bmibaby review :  13 January 2009 : by A Brown

GLA-EMA-GLA, flights on time, smooth journey, inflight drinks ok for short journey, Being issued with seat no, cuts out all the hassle with others eg. Ryanair etc. Not really low cost - outward from Glasgow was £2.99, return from East Midlands was £7.99 - total with 1 bag £94.54. You are charged for everything.

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.