THIS IS ONE BABY I WON'T BE DROPPING!
 Jun 15th, 2003
(Jun 17th, 2003)
Advantages:
Fly from local airports, low fares if booked early, friendly staff
Disadvantages:
It could be me but the planes seemed old
Recommendable:
Yes
Detailed rating:
Food Quality
Customer Service
Punctuality
Space
Value for Money
more
  sue.51
About me:
Sheesh - seems like ages since I've been here. So many changes, business up and running - bred my f...
Member since:20.03.2001
Reviews:275
Members who trust:170
Review rated by 49 Ciao members on average: very helpful 
One of the last main stream budget carriers I had left to try – after a number of years trading exclusively out of East Midlands airport, BMI Baby found themselves a second passenger hub out of Cardiff Wales Airport, with the powers that be indicating an increase in passenger numbers of some 1m per year – the outcome has been that Cardiff have built a new car-park and re-organised their whole set up, and doubled short term parking charges in the process, but back to the topic in hand. WHO IS BMI BABY?
They are the baby budget airline of BMI, more commonly known by many as British Midland, probably the main UK competitor to British Airways.
Their main passenger hub since inception has been East Midlands airport, not a particularly easy place for me to get to, plus until recently, my need for flights has been primarily restricted to annual holidays, whereby a few early trips to Gatwick during my student days in order to take advantage of rock bottom prices make me very grateful that these days I can afford the extortionate supplements imposed by the charter Airlines for the privilege of flying from Cardiff. About 2 years ago, BMI Baby started looking around for their second hub and decided upon, yep, you’ve guessed it Cardiff Wales Airport, they now also have a third hub at Manchester, although the best locations can still be found by departing from East Midlands – for all you lucky souls that live in the area, you have a choice of 23 European and domestic destinations, if you live near Cardiff, then you are limited to a choice of 12 including airports in: • Scotland
• Northern Ireland (be aware they fly to Belfast International not City, where a taxi into town will cost you c. £26 rather than £7 from City (Air Wales fly into City)
• Eire
• France
• Spain
• Italy
• Jersey
My first experience of wanting to fly with BMI was back in December when I needed to get to Glasgow, a forthcoming trip to Lanzarote meant that time was precious, however the flights offered did not suit my
needs, getting me into Glasgow about 9 in the evening, way to late to take advantage of the ‘eat as much as you can’ curry, and not getting me back into Cardiff until around 10 in the evening, far too much hassle when you have to be back in the office the following morning. Then came the trip to Edinburgh in June – flight times here were far more sociable – leaving Cardiff at 5 in the evening and returning around 8pm back into Cardiff the following day – great what more could I ask for? Well price for one thing – for the privilege of this journey I paid the massive sum of £34 which included airport taxes, insurance and £4 credit card charge, I cannot even get a train to London for that. My colleagues travelling with me booked separately and later, one costing £44 the other £49, so still within the confines of most people’s budgets. I could have travelled with EasyJet from Bristol for £30 (incl booking fee), but then I would have had the added hassle of getting there and the extra cost of parking (£5 per day more), plus overall the facilities at Cardiff and the beer are far nicer than Bristol.
BOOKING
BMI Baby is yet another ticket-less airline, you are actively encouraged to book on-line at http://www.bmibaby.com/bmibaby/en-gb/index.aspx and for the privilege you will normally receive a £5 discount each way- I say normally as occasionally they do have offers that make all ways of booking the same price. Their website used to be highly erratic and therefore unreliable, but it has improved considerably over the last 6 months. You select the airport you want to fly from, your destination, the dates you want to travel and the number of people travelling. Another interesting point you may want to note here, extensive dummy testing of this website has established that, unlike the old GO system (now EasyJet), bookings for more than one person at the same time do not usually make a significant differences to the prices on offer.
Once you have been given details of available flights and associated costs, you then make your selection and proceed to book – for this you will require your personal details, correct names (as identified on passports) for all people travelling and your credit card details, you will be subjected to a £4 surcharge for credit card bookings (not applicable to Switch or Delta) – credit card surcharges are fairly typical in the travel industry, although it generally tends to be around 1½ - 2% with tour operators, for my flight it was a whapping 13%, but I guess it doesn’t really matter when the prices are so low. Once you have completed the process you will receive a confirmation e-mail with a .TXT file attached containing details of your flight schedule, booking reference and payment record, you will require the booking reference to be presented at Check-in. it is also worth remembering that even for domestic flights, as is now the case with all airlines, you will require photographic ID such as your passport or photo driving licence.
TICKET AMENDMENTS
Tickets are non-refundable, however, you can change the name of passengers for a £30 fee, or other details for £15 per amendment, plus the difference in ticket price - one of our colleagues travelling with us was inadvertently booked on as a Mrs. rather than Mr. a swift call to their booking centre established that there would be no charge for the amendment, however, no re-confirmation was issued, and there was a hair-raising moment whilst queueing at check-in, but no problems were encountered EXTRA CHARGES
Some of you may have gathered by now that, despite being a 5 foot 2 inch midget, I hate flying and for some ungodly reason I can’t explain, I feel happier sitting somewhere I can stretch out in m panic, therefore I nearly always request an extra leg-room seat, in the case of BMI Baby, this will set you back another £15 per seat, payable at check-in , OK, I could live with that, both ways would still only set me back £64, however, on the return journey, all these extra leg-rooms seats were taken and I was allocated seat 2D which does have more leg room than your standard seat because there are only 2 seats rather than the usual 3 in front of you – so if really do object to paying the extra money, it is worth asking whether eats 2D or 2F are free. You should also note that children under 16 and those with disabilities are not legally allowed to sit in extra legroom seats adjacent to emergency exits, this is not being discriminatory (although it can be very frustrating when travelling with kids), it is because in the event of an emergency, you could be expected to work the emergency exit, and most airlines will move you if you are not prepared to agree to this. Also, all hand-baggage for people in these seats must be stowed in the overhead lockers during take-off and landing rather than below the seats, you are not even allowed to hold anything.
CHECK-IN
As is typical for most scheduled airlines, check-in desks open 2 hours before departure and close promptly 1-½ hours later.
This was, I have to say, a surprisingly pleasurable experience, the lady at Cardiff was humorous, funny and friendly, and apologetic in the extreme when she quoted me the £15 additional charge for the extra leg-room seat, the process was swift and efficient, incorporating all the standard questions you normally get these days at check-in such as ‘Did you pack your bag yourself’ and ‘has your bag been left unattended where anyone could interfere with it’
I would, following an experience at Belfast City Airport offer a word of advice here – an early arrival at the airport, followed by a 5 hour wait that saw me visiting the loo, left me with little option but to ask the gentleman seated opposite me to reciprocate in the favour to watch my bag for 2 minutes while I nipped to the loo, at check-in I nearly didn’t mention it, but thought better of it, and as a result my luggage was subjected to additional security checks – this a slight inconvenience but a safer option than finding you have something unwanted in your luggage – naturally if avoidable you really shouldn’t leave it, however, when travelling alone, sometimes things can become difficult. Both myself and my travelling companions were asked what type of seat they wanted, i.e. aisle, window, middle, although we were quite early for check-in both times, and I suspect it could be a different story if you were late, particularly if the plane was busy.
The ground staff in Cardiff have always been, in my experience, Servisair, but BMI Baby use Aviance, they were much friendlier and more helpful than the not so happy Servisair staff. BOARDING
At Cardiff this was a straight walk on, and apparently is pretty common on BMI Baby flights and on the departing journey was bang on time, 30 minutes before our scheduled departure. BMI Baby planes don’t have their own steps like many of EasyJet’s planes, although the stewardess advised me this was because they had trialled them and encountered numerous problems which had often seen passengers stranded on the plane for considerable periods of time.
In Edinburgh we were hooked up to a ramp for a straight walk on, the flight was delayed by around 40 minutes on the return journey and we finally arrived back in Cardiff some 30 minutes late – it does appear that BMI Baby will do everything they can to minimise delays as turnaround at Edinburgh was around 10 minutes, naturally, being the baby of what is now probably the second biggest UK airliner they probably have considerable clout with the air traffic controllers at Brussels – nice to know we are being closely watched eh!! THE FLIGHT
I have to say, having used a number of operators with new fleets, that these planes look old, making me wonder if they are old British Midland planes that have been reused rather than retired – this particular plane was a 737-300 seating 131 passengers and it rattled like hell on take off and landing, with the exception of the Airbus 320, worse than any other plane I have been on.
As my colleagues were sitting in normal seats, the legroom got an extra check and was found to be adequate, certainly more than EasyJet and Britannia, although not as much as FlyBE and Air Wales. Unlike many airlines, stewardesses were smartly but casually dressed in black trousers and T-Shirts. After the obligatory safety demonstration and eventual take-off, we were then subjected to the usual extortionate prices of the drinks trolley – outward bound a large Gordons G&T and mini packet of Pringles set me back £4.50, on the return a black coffee and large packet of Cheddars cost me £2.10. I would note that I was quite taken aback by the fact that lids were not supplied with the coffee which was boiling hot, something you should be aware of, particularly if travelling with young children or you have been warned the flight is likely to be bumpy.
Having undertaken numerous flights on both large and small planes, this experience was weird in that we actually felt like we were moving, often with the exception of take off, landing and turbulence I often feel that we are going nowhere in the sky, the captain did warn us we were in for a bumpy ride because of bad weather conditions in Cardiff, but I have had much, much worse. The flight time was scheduled as 1 hour 10 minutes, however, on the way up we took about 50 minutes as we had a tail wind, on the way back we were around an hour in the air.
SUMMARY
Would I use them again? Is the Pope a Catholic? If the price and flight timings were right then without a shadow of a doubt, fast efficient and friendly, and (are you listening EasyJet) they provide you with a seat number. That said, I have, many times in the past, checked BMI Baby for oversea flights, and I do not believe that their claim that they are the cheapest as I have always been able to find cheaper flights, and not just through EasyJet, however for domestic flights, there is no doubt that this company is helping to revolutionise the market, evident in the fact that a my flight cost me less than 10% of what it would have done in the old BA days, who noteably have now pulled out of flying from Cardiff altogether. A LITTLE TIP:
The earlier you book, the cheaper it will be – with these budget airlines, gone are the days of holding out at the airport to get the cheapest flights.
If flying to Edinburgh, a taxi into the old town near the Princes Street Garden will cost you around £18. http://www.bmibaby.com/bmibaby/en-gb/index.aspx
Sue
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20.11.2004 23:36
An excellent review and the planes are older (and noisier). They use old bmi planes (737s) because bmi itself has changed to an all-Airbus fleet
17.07.2004 13:34
The first time that I have given an exceptional to a review - this review simply goes beyond the rest in explaining, in detail, every point that you would need to consider right down to the coffee cup lid! Very well done
15.07.2004 19:38
An excellent review, my experience wasn't as good but won't hold that against them