bmi BRITISH MIDLAND   Customer Reviews and Passenger Trip Reports

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bmi BRITISH MIDLAND customer review :  7 March 2010 by S Clark   (UK)

EDI-LHR-EDI. Online check in southbound worked fine, but had to change pre-allocated seats. Not sure why, when booking made for 2 people they pre-allocated us seats 6 rows apart on a half full flight. No queue at EDI bag drop. Couldn't check-in for northbound due problem with website, but efficient desk check-in at LHR. Flights great, clean aircraft, friendly crew and on-time both ways.

bmi BRITISH MIDLAND customer review :  27 February 2010 by Carolyn Lowthorpe   (England)

Heathrow to Manchester with BMI on the 3rd leg of our journey back from San Diego. We booked the flight as soon as it came available, almost a year in advance. Our group of 11 people were all split up, not just into twos but singularly. We weren't the only ones, we saw very young children who had been split up from their parents - the air stewards had to reshuffle everyone so they were seated together. It was utter chaos trying to sort all the families out and one young child had been seated in an exit seat minus his mum and dad! We, having teenagers felt we had to keep quiet under the circumstances otherwise we would have missed our slot to take off. Prior to travelling we had tried in vain to be seated together, as two years ago on our way back from Chicago to Manchester with BMI our party of 10 were all split up. Again we had booked as soon as the seats became available and we were told which seats we would be sat in. But when we arrived at the airport some of our group weren't given any seats at all! We were told that we would be allocated seats at the Gate. When we arrived at the Gate we were told that we were on Standby and we might not even get a seat at all! The airport staff made us wait until everyone had boarded and then they just filled us in wherever there was room! We were absolutely disgusted with their attitude and it ruined what had been a lovely Silver Wedding Anniversary holiday. We said then that we would never fly with BMI again, but we thought we would give them another chance, what a mistake! It appears there is no consideration to seat families together. So it doesn't matter how far ahead you book in advance, or what emails you receive back confirming which seats you are in, you probably won't be seated together. It will be down to the air stewards, goodwill of passengers and a lot of reshuffling, and that's if you are lucky enough to get on the plane!

bmi BRITISH MIDLAND customer review :  27 February 2010 by Derek Adams   (Thailand)

LHR-BHD-LHR. The recent completed take-over of BMI by Lufthansa appears to have resulted in drastic reductions of overheads at both LHR and BHD with the closure of Gold card lounges at both airports. At BHD the downsizing of the lounge, by about 60% means they appear to have swapped lounges with Fly Be. At LHR the upper level Gold Card lounge in T1 has quite simply been sealed off by newspaper stands! Flights left and arrived punctually and were uneventful.

bmi BRITISH MIDLAND customer review :  12 February 2010 by E Chang   (UK)

LHR-EDI return booked online in January for April 2010. Had an email around weeks ago saying the inward flight time has been changed to earlier. Today, had another email from BMI saying the inward flight time has changed again and its even earlier. I rang up customer services to verify that, but the lady on the phone transferred me to the Schedule Change dept, which sounded like the call was in India as the line was so faint. Basically BMI has cancelled all the flights back to London and the only one flight is available which I cannot make. I originally booked 2030 but now landed with a 1615 flight. I asked if any later flights, the agent said no and nothing they can do. So I asked for a full refund after a long while of explaining. The agent will not let me speak to a manager to deal with this and most of the time he was silent. BMI is so unreliable and their customer services are poorly handled.

bmi BRITISH MIDLAND customer review :  2 February 2010 by David Worcester   (UK)

Cairo to Heathrow in Business. Brilliant service, crew were great. Boarding was slow because of security at the gate. Once onboard champagne and menus served. Food good, albeit in small portions. Good wines and great service. The crew were very attentive. I will be sorry to see the A330 depart.

bmi BRITISH MIDLAND customer review :  20 January 2010 by A Ricketts   (Ireland)

DUB-LHR Business Class. Travelling on a Virgin Upper Class ticket we were booked to use the BMI business Class service to connect between DUB and Heathrow - five of us travelling. We had a number of bags to check in and I was aware that I would need to pay for 2 additional pieces. Discovered that my scheduled flight was cancelled due to snow and told to return home with my 18 pieces of luggage and come back the next day! I explained there was now way I was hauling all this luggage back home and they had better check me in to whatever flight will be leaving. This was done, but trying to check in I had to stomach what seems to be a post 9/11 attitude that if you so much as speak to the check in staff they will threaten you with Airport Police - quiet scary! You hand over huge amounts of money to the airline for what used to be an enjoyable experience - now you are not allowed to expect any level of service! The check in staff in Dublin behave disgracefully and you have no power to complain!

bmi BRITISH MIDLAND customer review :  24 December 2009 by David Russell   (UK)

LHR-BRU-LHR on Embraer 145 regional jet. Booked the flights via a code share with Lufthansa. Lufthansa online check in a joke as was the customer service so had to check in at the airport. Only two desks open for economy check in so bit of a wait. BMI Check in staff totally uninterested should be happy to have a job! Flight full both ways and this is one of the routes being axed by BMI in the new year. Flights ok but cannot understand why a full price airline insists on charging for beverages. Should at least be a comp tea or coffee. Or are they really the same as Ryanair and easy jet? Return flight crew better than outward but obviously rushed on a 45 minute flight.

bmi BRITISH MIDLAND customer review :  7 December 2009 by Phil Duncan   (UK)

GLA-LHR This was the return leg of my earlier report. Check in at Glasgow was speedy with no one in front of me at the bag drop. I had my boarding pass on my mobile phone but was told that the scanner at Glasgow wasn't working so they printed me one. Security was swift and the staff pleasant when compared to other BAA airports. The offering in the lounge was as disappointing as at Heathrow. Presumably when the gin bottle is empty it will not be replaced but in the absence of tonic, that may be a while. The A319 operating the service was a newer one without seats in business class configuration so the B & E seats are blocked. It did not make much difference, there were only two of us in C for which three rows were blocked off. Departure was a few minutes late. After take off, all crew but the purser disappeared to economy class, she served in business class. Considering there were only two of us, it was amazing the level of disinterest and contempt she managed to show, drinks were virtually thrown at us. The food offering was a beef stew. Without a doubt, it was the most disgusting thing I've ever been served anywhere. The purser had returned to the galley and it took her 30 minutes to reappear to clear the trays which she did without a word. I just hope she is at the top of the redundancy list at British Midland. Arrival was on time, disembarkation swift - from 1D it ought to be! Baggage delivery took 25 minutes, again unacceptable. I have decided that I will not fly British Midland again until there is a significant improvement in their levels of service and the conduct of their staff so no I've joined the ranks of people who 'used to fly bmi'.

bmi BRITISH MIDLAND customer review :  5 December 2009 by Phil Duncan   (UK)

LHR-GLA. Check in at LHR was chaotic. British Midland have far more space than they used to have in Terminal one but if they don't open the desks then you can wait even longer than you used to and that was bad. I didn't need to check in, just drop my bag at the business class desks, it took nearly fifteen minutes which was not acceptable. They have made much of their new lounge at LHR but on a domestic flight you are directed to the old one at gate 4. This is much smaller than it used to be and the food and drink offering has been downgraded if that was possible. There are some strange offerings, gin is offered but as a result of cut backs, no tonic. It seems mad. Departure was on time, the crew were pleasant but not really well presented. Their current uniform needs a revamp, the previous one was smarter. The food offering was a sandwich and some fruit with a choice of drinks - they had tonic for the gin. The offering was much less than the offering used to be and in line with what they offered in economy class about three years ago. Arrival was a couple of minutes early, negated by the twenty minutes I waited for my priority tagged bag which came almost last. Overall a poor experience at a fare of over £400.

bmi BRITISH MIDLAND customer review :  4 December 2009 by R Slade   (UK)

Cairo to Heathrow in Business Class - disappointing as not much more legroom than in Premium Economy. The only real difference was a choice of 3 main courses - all of which were pretty disgusting. All in all, this was a poor experience and well below standard.

bmi BRITISH MIDLAND customer review :  4 December 2009 by R Slade   (UK)

Heathrow to Cairo in Premium Economy. Seat pitch 50", priority boarding, champagne and friendly staff.

bmi BRITISH MIDLAND customer review :  26 November 2009 by S Bonnici   (Malta)

Brussels to London Heathrow in Economy Class, first flight out of Brussels. The online check- in system easy. Plane an Embraer RJ145. Despite the bad weather at Brussels and Heathrow, plane took off and landed on time. Cabin tidy, although the seats are a little bit cramped, however service was okay. Cabin crew efficient and helpful. For the price paid, I couldn’t expect a better service. Appreciated that the baggage was readily available to all passengers after Passport check at Heathrow T1, which is very courteous of bmi.

bmi BRITISH MIDLAND customer review :  15 November 2009 by A Sahakyan   (Italy)

Yerevan to London Heathrow in Business class. The check-in was quick and easy, plane took off on time and landed earlier. Business class was comfortable with spacious seats and leg room. During the flight a menu with several options and selection of wines was offered. Food delicious. The crew was helpful yet a bit stiff. During a 5.5h flight numerous channels were available to passengers.

bmi BRITISH MIDLAND customer review :  3 November 2009 by D Woollams   (UK)

Flew with bmi to Dalaman return to Manchester (Charter flights operated on behalf of Custom Flights). Outbound was delayed around 90 minutes, no explanation or apology given on the aircraft or at the departure gate. No inflight meal (Which we knew about) no inflight entertainment for a 4hour 30 mins flight. Cabin crew did 4 drinks services and 2 duty free service, just too many. Return flight delayed around 3 hours due to a technical fault with the emergency exit chute. Not a very good impression for our first flight with bmi.

bmi BRITISH MIDLAND customer review :  20 October 2009 by D Ward   (UK)

Heathrow-Damascus return, business class. Amazing business lounge, nice food and well stocked bar. Flight left early in both directions with helpful staff on board. In both direction had newer aircraft with on demand IFE.