British Midland Airways - BD > Reviews > A perfectly acceptable carrier

Author's product rating:   

Food Quality	Good
Customer Service	Friendly and attentive
Punctuality	Always on time
Space	Comfortable
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	good service, good choice of routes, large no .  of partners in Star Alliance
Disadvantages:	bad personal experiences regarding baggage

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Having previously used British Midland for several flights from Heathrow to Edinburgh and back (special offers made it as cheap to fly as take the train…) and not having any recollection of the flights being out of the ordinary (thereby presumably indicating that the flights were neither eventful, nor was the service so exemplary or so shocking that the flight was memorable…) that this opinion is based solely on my experiences of a recent return flight between London Heathrow and Belfast City airport. Unfortunately the flying experience was somewhat tarnished by baggage related problems, although ultimately it would be hard to attribute all blame upon British Midland. I booked my tickets via Expedia, and got a paper ticket, there not being any e-ticketing possibility (unlike BA), and the price of my return flight was 69 quid return (not bad really although not as cheap as say Easyjet would have been had I flown London Luton to Belfast (International).

Check-in was the usual affair – although they of course wanted to bill me for excess luggage (in all fairness 57kg is a bit much really ;-) ) but after explaining that I had tried to notify them in advance when booking via Expedia (big white lie :-p ) that I was a sportsman and would have excess luggage and telling them that I would gladly pay excess luggage if they could guarantee my baggage arriving intact and with me at my destination – something they maintained they could do, they let me off. In the event it was just as well they did as my distinctive green Carlton suitcase ended up leaving Belfast City airport with someone else.

Whilst this was not British Midland’s fault directly, they did say that they would of course follow it up, issued me with baggage forms for an insurance claim, took my mobile numbers and said that had someone else picked it up by mistake, they would ensure that the person responsible would deliver it personally to my hotel, before they could claim their own baggage. This duly happened and there were several courtesy calls throughout the afternoon before the “culprits” – a elderly couple who had decided to have a nap before unpacking delivered it to me in my hotel with profuse apologies. On the way back my cricket bag was badly damaged (a strap was ripped and the nature of the damage would make a repair more expensive than having the bag replaced) and they instantly took responsibility for the baggage handler’s sloppy handling, and I will shortly be getting a new cricket bag courtesy of them.

The flight was pretty uneventful, with the stewardesses all being very polite, helpful and friendly. The in-flight snack (a salmon roll and a drink) was adequate for a short flight, it only being a 55 minute flight to Belfast City airport. The flight magazine was nothing outstanding although for such a short flight (what a passenger might call a SUSseD flight – “Straight Up Straight Down”) it was perfectly adequate. This being an internal flight, there was no duty free in flight and there was little time to do anything on the flight.

Being part of the Star Alliance Group, BMI looks like it will become a more popular choice for me, as the Star Alliance includes Lauda Air, Austrian Airlines and Lufthansa, which are the three airlines which I use the most in general, being based in Austria and with Frankfurt being my nearest hub airport. There are some 15 or so partners in the Star Alliance so it means that partner airlines can be used for a lot of routes.

British Midland is also the no. 2 Full Service airline in Britain (as opposed to being a budget airline) and for regular business travel it certainly looks quite a good choice, with the routepass being useful for frequent business travellers (available either in the form of 5 return tickets for an individual or ten transferable returns for a company) which offer a good saving on normal prices.

The website www.flybmi.com (the official British Midland website) offers a lot of information about schedules as well as e-commerce via Secure Servers allowing you to be able to book your flights over the internet using your credit card. There are frequent updates regarding cancellations / alterations of flight routes as well as new routes launched and the website works well with easy navigation.

The Diamond club with three grades of membership (blue/silver/gold) is the frequent flyer programme, although membership of any Star Alliance frequent flyer system will allow you to collect points / miles / rewards when you fly on British Midland, but as I am only a miles & more member (Lufthansa / Austrian Airlines frequent flyer system), I am unable to comment on the benefits of the Diamond Club.

All in all the airline is a very satisfactory experience to fly on for short to medium distance haul flights and I envisage using them again in the near future.