I am fortunate enough to live within easy driving distance of Manchester Airport and as such am able to take advantage of the increasing number of cheaper flights on offer from Manchester. I recently flew from Manchester to Prague with BMI Baby (my first trip with them) and this is my opinion!!
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Booking?
I booked directly using the BMI website (www.bmibaby.com) which is very easy to use and navigate. One the first page you get options to chose your departure airport, destination as well as the dates that you wish to travel on. Once you have selected these the site displays the flight times available including prices. You then choose the times that you want to fly before the final price of your flight is displayed. Some nice touches are that the site displays the Web price and the price for phone bookings (the web price is always cheaper) so that you know you are getting the best available price. You also have the option of easily searching the days before and after your original dates so if you travel plans are flexile then you are able to choose the cheapest fares.
Other options available to you are to register your seating preferences; you are able to pre-reserve your seats for a cost of £2.50 per person, per journey (this does not include emergency exit seats or those at the front of the plane). The seats at the front of the plane are known as extra leg-room seats are those are priced at £15 per person, per journey. (On the outward flight, however, these had not been booked and they were offered for the princely sum of £10 and then £5 which made the airline sound a little desperate to me!)
It's then simply a matter of putting the names etc of people travelling as well as credit card details. You do not receive printed tickets but an email confirmation is sent to your email address immediately, all you then need to do is print and keep this in a safe place!!
Check in at Manchester is at Terminal One where you will find all of the usual airport amenities including short and long stay car parking, shops, duty free, restaurants etc. The BMI Baby check in consisted of three desks just for the Prague flight and check in was very fast and efficient and our pre-booked seats had been reserved. Having arrived at the airport 1h45 minutes before the flight we then had time to look around the shops. (The minimum recommended check-in time is 1 hour before the flight leaves and the check in closes ½ an hour before the flight leaves).
We then arrived at the gat about 35 minutes before the flight was due to leave. We waited approximately 10 minutes before we were allowed to board. Rather than be crushed we waited until most other people had boarded, our tickets and passports were checked, one flight of stairs, quick walk across the runway and we were on the 757. We had reserved two aisle seats and after a bit of confusion with people sitting in our seats managed to squash into the seats! I am over 6 feet tall (6'2" to be precise) and I could just about sit down so if you are any taller than me I would certainly recommend paying for the extra leg room seats! The cabin crew quickly helped passengers with baggage etc and were very efficient and we took off more or less on time.
The safety announcement was through and there were safety instructions in the back seat pocket as well as the in flight magazine. The seats although not huge were quite comfy and the plane (as well as the staff) is done in pale blue which is the company's colour. The cabin crew are dressed quite causally compared to British Airways for example in short sleeved blouses and shirts but looked quite smart nevertheless.
There is no in-flight service included in the price of the ticket, but you can purchase soft drinks, alcohol as well as snack such as sandwiches, bacon sandwiches, crisps etc. It was £1.50 for a luke warm cup of coffee (not highly recommended) and £3.50 for a cheese and tomato sandwich which was fine but certainly would not win any culinary awards! My advice would be to BYO food and soft drinks and just buy something if you need to!
In addition, you could purchase tax free goods (limited stock of alcohol perfumes etc. although cigarettes are only available on the Jersey route). You may let lucky with the limited selection but advice would be to shop abroad especially in Prague where the prices are MUCH cheaper!
Only being a two hour flight there was no entertainment on board but the magazine offered information about what was available to buy on board as well as several interesting articles about the countries that the airline fly to; amusing enough to pass a few minutes of the flight!
The plane overall was very clean and seemed very modern.. The seating configuration was 3 - 3 (you can check this when booking if you are a family./group who wish to seat together) and there were plenty of toilets (3) for the number of people on board which were also clean. All in all the flight was excellent with very good staff and my only criticism would be the limited seat room!
The return flight?
The return flight was pretty much the same as going out as the plane seemed to be identical! The flight was very smooth and on time although we did arrive at Prague airport just 2 hours before the flight left and then we had to wait 25 minutes for the check-in desk to open! (P.S. make sure that you get to gate in plenty of time as our flight closed for boarding 20 minutes before it was due to take off!!!)
In the UK BMI baby fly from: Manchester, Nottingham, Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Durham Tees Valley and a few smaller places!
They fly to a range of European destinations including: Prague, Paris (CDG), Alicante, Malaga, Bordeaux
If you want to see particular combinations of departure airports and destinations, then check out the BMI Baby website.
The airline does seem to offer a good range of flight time and for example offers between 3 and 4 flights per day to Prague from Manchester varying from early morning to mid evening; perfect for business or leisure travellers.
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Special offers?
If you sign up for BMI baby emails then they send you details of special offer flights and prices via email. Although I haven't been able to take up the opportunity of these yet I have done a few test bookings, and did manage to find flights from Manchester to Prague for £5 per person (excluding taxes) for September 2005 which is a great deal!!
I paid almost £100 each for the two tickets that I purchased for Prague. The trick with booking with airlines such as BMI Baby is to book your tickets as far in advice as possible; if you do you will be bale to pick up some real bargain flights and if not you will end up paying fare prices which are comparable to those offered by British Airways ad the like. I did quite a lot of hunting around for flight prices and the BMI baby website was the cheapest so I would save yourselves some time and just book directly!
Happy flying!
More details
Class flown most frequently
Economy
How often do you travel with this airline
First time
Where did you book
Directly with this airline
Safety
Very safe
How well does it cater for disabled people
Don't know
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