Is BMI online booking better?

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  • Anonymous
    Guest

    Corporate-gal
    Participant

    Getting a little anxious about my BMI miles festering in my account and not knowing what is going to happen come January with Lufthansa, I took a quick peek at their online miles booking system, which up until recently has, quite frankly, been dire.
    To my suprise, you can now see whether there is economy, business or mixed class availability. Unfortunately you still cannot see other Star Alliance members, but even so…what an improvement on the previous system.
    Whether I can actually use my miles is yet to be seen, but if Diamond Club is going to be no more in the New Year, what a shame BMI have left it this late to provide it’s customers with a decent miles booking system.


    Bunnahabhain
    Participant

    … especially as it has just binned the longhaul flights from Manchester, so (even) less routes to blast the miles on before they risk being turned into M&S vouchers (for what that’s worth) as a last resort. British Midland used to have a good European network as a competitor to BA, but it’s a bit thin on lines these days, and LHR – Naples seems to have no miles bookings availability even well into next year. Palma isn’t quite far south enough for winter sun escape, looks like it will have to be Moscow after all…

    Most people on previous posts advise getting rid of BMI miles while (and if) you can? Anyone feel it might be worth holding on to them to see if Lufthansa will transfer them to Miles & More at a decent exchange rate? I’m tempted to sell out now for some M&S Xmas wine which is about as much as my 40k will get!


    20-Horse
    Participant

    If I were you, I would hang on or try and redeem with the Call Centre, 40K can get you somewhere nice with the miles and cash. It is by no means clear what will happen after January 12, apparently, so it might well be worth seeing if you get a one 2 one conversion – should the DC become M&M, or if not, and DC remains, then you can redeem for somewhere nice in C with some cash. I am hanging onto mine at present.


    r ryan
    Participant

    All I can say is I really like Miles & More. I use it to redeem points for Euro travel frequently, and almost always get a flight on the day I want, regardless business/economy. I moved to M&M after the fiasco called AirNewZealand airpoints – there it really IS impossible to redeem points, not because of availability but because of numerous and bizarre conditions: on M&M i have got a ticket for a friend to fly independently within europe {ANZ allows only other persons that live at the same address]; with M&M you can book and confirm an e-ticket within minutes online [ANZ quote 10 days to confirm] M&M use point to point to calculate points cost eg 30,000 points anywhere within in Europe regardless of routing [ANZ use sectors, so if it requires a transit in Frankfurt for eg,it’s DOUBLE the points. Only airline I know that does this] and ANZ use a bizarre AirDollars scheme that converts by some convoluted methods to dollars, so it’s hard to compare with other Star Alliance. I took a trip last year Zurich to Athens, business class for two. By booking within 2 weeks of travel it was a 50% discount in points, as I am Senator status [Star Gold] , I got a further 50% discount for my companion. total: 45,000 points. When I rang AirNZ redemption, they ran a calculation on their Air Dollars meaning I would need [equivalent] 108,000 points for 2 x economy tickets.
    So maybe BMI are not as odd as ANZ, all I can say is that I have found M&M to be great. Of course as long as there isn’t too much lost in converting over…and anyone want my ANZ points? they age too, by the way, and can’t be refreshed, so dwindling fast.


    andrewwong4
    Participant

    redeeming on the BD programme is not obvious or easy at all. the worth of the programme is not redeeming on BD but on the star alliance airlines. it is ridiculous how generous their programme really is. you need to go to http://www.flytalk.com to read all about it and put your miles to use. don’t be lazy!!

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