bmi is not known for the functionality of its website.

Many of its systems were "sellotape and string" as the carrier awaited a sale to Lufthansa.

Login access has been intermittent since last week (Jan 27) and for the past few days, no access has been possible at all.

Instead, users get a notice:

"Due to a technical error we are unable to log you in at the moment. We are working to fix the error and you will be able to log in soon. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused."

Apparently, many users (including me!) have logged in to find other people's accounts displayed after inputting our own login details.

This level of incompetence is not rare at bmi, and is not a good reflection on Star Alliance as a whole.

www.flybmi.com

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While I agree largely VintageKrug on this one (and it is not very often I do) I'm not sure how this reflects on Star Alliance. It's bmi's problem and bmi's alone.

I recall when EI were a member of Oneworld there website was appalling and had continuous problems. I would not have seen this as a reflection on the alliance.

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I would have agreed with you had this occurred last year. However, now bmi is owned by Lufthansa, this is more serious.

Aer Lingus was always on the periphery of oneworld, as bmi *was* on the periphery of star.

The bmi login has now been down for days, and while we all understand this happens from time to time, the underlying reason (that we were all getting visibility of each other's private accounts, is most serious, beyond just an inaccessibility issue.

All this following bmi's much berated "systems upgrade" last year, see passim on that.

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System STILL down today.....

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Yes still down I tried to book a redempion flight for my daughter to no avail ended up paying real money. Maybe this is the dreaded change over to the Lufthansa miles and more !

Bmi is not too good just now after the Flexible Economy rip off !

Flexible economy this week BHD / LHR £ 210

Club Europe same day LHR / AGP £ 176 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Come back to Belfast BA !

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Chaos reigns in the lounges now; this doesn't seem just to be affecting back end systems.

Boarding passes are now not showing accurate elite status, and people who are not carrying the right Frequent Flyer card with them are being turned away from the lounges...........

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Certainly is frustrating! Niot knowing it was a general problem, I e-mailed in to bmi technical support four days ago and, innocently, expected a reply!! No such luck - I am still waiting. The alternative to online award booking is via the Diamond Club off-shore help line but that is an experience and a trail of discussion for another day!!

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I actually find the Pune-based helpline just that - helpful.

You must do you own homework on availability using sites like expertflyer.com and the ANA tool first.

If you know the flight numbers and timings of the airlines you want, know there is availability and can speak slowly and clearly to help them along, I have always had excellent service from them.

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Tuesday morning Diamond Club Members area still a no go area. Making sure we have our Silver cards for flights tomorrow !

RE call centre, on first using I found them pedantic however this should really be construed as graceful, polite and genuinely helpful.

When I book ( when I used to be able to that is ) redemption flights seat allocation is not possible - the call centre always allocated them immediately on phoning.

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I can't agree more with people's comments about the poor service bmi are providing on their website. I have Gold status with both BMI and BA and the service levels are worlds apart.

I travel domestically twice a week with BMI and I have to say the "new" flexible economy in my experience doesn't seem to be going down well. On a trip to Manchester this week this section at the front of the aircraft was completely empty!

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The fact that we cannot access our online DC accounts via the bmi website is an absolute disgrace in this day and age.

More to the point, why aren't the journalists at Business Traveller covering this story? If you go to Flyertalk, you will get a sense of the frustration that DC members are feeling. Made worse by the fact that bmi have not released a statement to its members advising them on what is going on.

Come on Tom and crew - use your press leverage and get us members some answers! Surely this is news that we want to read about?

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Many users think bmi should be more open and honest about this failure.

Perhaps they might consider an update such as the one below on their website:

http://tiny.cc/mWcC2

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Hello seanyjmuclhr,

Thanks for your post on the forum, we have been following this story for the past few weeks.

Initially, as you know, it appeared to be just a simple login problem. You mentioned the Flyertalk thread, and you may have noted that on the first page off it Tom appeared confirming that problem with the login, being a Bmi Diamond Club member himself.

We have contacted Bmi once again this morning and they have promised that the problem will be rectified by this afternoon.

We asked Bmi about the possibility of members seeing other members’ details but the airline could give no response to this, only that the problem lay within the Diamond Club and its e-commerce department was working to rectify the problem.

Business Traveller was told by Bmi that no-one within Diamond Club was available for comment.

We will continue to try to get an answer from Bmi on this. Bmi has said it will let us know when the login problem is fixed.

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Thanks guys - good to see you are aware and on bmi's case.

I am comtemplating firing off a missive myself to the powers that be at Donnington Hall, but think the power that the press has would be better for all of us concerned.

Looking forward to seeing the website rectified, but I won't hold my breath.

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Hello again,

We've just had a phone call from Bmi to say the website should be up and running again, as per normal.

As to the reasons why this should have happened, Bmi could not comment other than to say it was a general "technical problem".

Bmi also said that as far as it's aware, there should be no more problems with boarding passes showing incorrect membership information.

We will endeavour to verify this from our end, but if you do experience any more problems please let us know on here.

Many thanks

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The Diamond Club website is back as at Tuesday evening.

I am a Diamond Club Gold Card holder and on the rare occasions I have had to contact their personnel I found them to be very helpful, more so than other airlines.

Like many, I mourn the loss of Business Class on DUB-LHR, but needs must and who knows, maybe that policy may change in the future. I always enjoyed the servce and would love to see it return. However like all businesses, BMI have to make difficult decisions to remain viable. Let's hope they can make it.

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Once again I haven't been able to log into the members area today - has anyone else had issues?

Disappointing to see no mention of the log-in issue last week in the Diamond Club Newsletter sent out today - nice to have seen an apology for the inconvenience!

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We've just spoken to Bmi again, and have been advised that the site is working, but that it is currently running slowly (between 15-20 seconds to login once you have clicked submit).

They are looking to rectify this, but in the meantime have advised members not to reclick the "Login" button, as this will retstart username and password submission and slow down the login process further. They are also looking at adding a line to this effect on the login page.

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Still only working patchily this morning.

I have removed much of my personal information from the bmi site, as having been granted total access to someone else's account, including being able to read home address and telephone numbers, book flights using miles and change login details, I have no confidence in the security of the site.

A very serious matter, and I am surprised (actually, I am not surprised) that bmi deny that the cause of this was compromised data, in violation of the DPA.

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The bmi Diamond Club site is still problematic. Tried to access Missing Miles claim form a few times over the past couple of days and it shows as unobtainable. I need this because Star Alliance partner miles are not showing a long time after flights - SQ in this case although is MAY not be a bmi problem....

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Received a moment ago by email:

"Dear continentalclub,

Over the last couple of weeks you may have noticed we've been experiencing some problems with the Diamond Club login on our website. To protect your data and personal details we immediately disabled the login functionality.

Diamond Club login has now been reinstated. We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused you and as a goodwill gesture have credited your Diamond Club account with 1,000 destinations miles."

This message may finally explain the curious "Bonus: Campaign Flight Y1K - APO" which appeared in (apparently Silver & Gold card) members' accounts last week.

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No E mail but 1000 in my account same description.

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Interesting - i've neither received the email nor the 1,000 miles. Maybe they don't care about lowly Blue Plus members, despite the fact I've had the same problems logging in over the last few weeks.

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excessbaggage: you're correct that it does appear that it is only Silver and Gold cardholders who have received the ex-gratia credit.

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Blue Plus level was abolished last month.

So you are now loved even less... :(

However, they should have made up for this by giving you 3,000 status miles.

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Nope - not received the 3,000 status miles either. I thought the Blue Plus tier was being phased out rather than abolished straight away. Mind you, if they've stopped giving free food to Blue Plus and above cardholders, then there isn't really any benefits to this tier anymore anyway.

BT - maybe you could look into this for us?

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Blue Plus was abolished almost instantly - on January 27.

There is now no free food on bmi for elite status holders of any grade, unless booked into the new Economy Plus "business" class.

Blue Plus would have therefore have been worthless, hence its elimination.

You should chase for your 3k bmi miles, though.

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Is that strictly speaking true Vintage? This article says that "In addition the Blue Plus membership tier is to be phased out altogether, although existing members will retain their status until the end of the membership year".

I'm possibly being pedantic though, as i don't know if there are actually any other benefits of the Blue Plus tier so effectively i'm now just a Blue member anyway - for instance did Blue Plus members get extra miles over and above Blue members?

Also i'm not sure if i'm due the 3,000 miles or not - the article goes on to say that "members will only have to earn 16,000 status miles to move from Blue to Silver rather than 3,000 from Blue to Blue Plus and a further 16,000 from Blue Plus to Silver."

I'm assuming the 3,000 status miles mentioned above would be what Bmi is giving to members to compensate for Blue Plus being abolished, but if i'm already Blue Plus, then would they need to give me the 3,000 miles?

http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/bmi-drops-remaining-short-haul-business-cabins

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We'll put these queries to Bmi and let you know when we get a response.

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You are right to state you retain Blue Plus to the end of your membership year, but it carries no benefits above regular Blue status:

Q: I'm currently a Blue Plus member, what benefits do I still receive?

A: As an existing Blue Plus member you'll continue to earn destinations and status miles and you'll now receive the same benefits as a Blue member. View all Blue tier benefits

Q: How many membership status miles will I now need to move through the Diamond Club tiers?

A: As Blue Plus tier will no longer exist, although if you're an existing Blue Plus member you'll retain your status until the end of your membership year. This means that you'll only have to earn 16,000 status miles to move from Blue to Silver rather than 3,000 from Blue to Blue Plus and a further 16,000 from Blue Plus to Silver.

Q: What will happen at the end of my Blue Plus membership year?

A: At the end of your membership year, if you've earned 16,000 membership status miles or more you'll receive Silver membership status. If you earn less than 16,000 membership status miles you'll continue to be a Blue member.

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We have obtained the following response from Bmi regarding some of the queries above:

"The vast majority of those affected [by the login issues] were Gold and Silver members, who regularly login to manage their accounts and so were most affected by the problem, hence the decision to give them the bonus miles. Blue/Blue Plus members will not receive the bonus miles.

"Blue Plus is being removed as a tier due to the short-haul relaunch. The only difference in terms of member benefits between Blue and Blue Plus was complimentary catering which Blue Plus members received on short-haul mainline flights out of London Heathrow, which now isn’t the case due to the short-haul relaunch."

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