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BMI Diamond club, as its name suggests is a loyalty club membership for British Midland customers, the UK’s second full airline carrier. Therefore the most logical way to sign up, is when booking a flight with them. You can however, also sign up for a BMI Classic or Platinum Mastercard ... Read review
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Advantages: Can get free flights and earn miles from a variety of sources Disadvantages: Unless you are a serious frequent flyer, it could take you a long time
...a loyalty club membership for British Midland customers, the UK’s second full airline carrier. Therefore the most logical way to sign up, is when booking a flight with them. You can however, also sign up for a BMI Classic or Platinum Mastercard with MBNA, where you will currently receive 20,000 destination miles (sufficient for one short flight) when you make your first purchase, and points for every pound spent on the card thereafter, but more about ... ...OF MILES
BMI Diamond Club offers two types of miles, destination and membership, the former can be accumulated quite quickly, the latter are a little rarer. There are three levels of membership, Blue, Silver and Gold; the only way to ‘climb the ladder’ is to be a frequent flyer with BMI or their partners in the Star Alliance, so, with an additional 15,600 miles required for my silver membership, I suspect for the majority of people, the destination ... more
In light of the fact that I am now waiting for around 7 hotels to be listed on Ciao, and that I walked out of the only hotel in disgust for the only one they have listed, (you will have to wait now until I take advantage of my free visit) and I am dithering over whether to go to Australia in a few weeks time, but nervous of the thought of 24 hours on a plane, I thought I would try writing on something completely different, so here I am, be gentle with me.
BMI Diamond club, as its name suggests is a loyalty club membership for British Midland customers, the UK’s second full airline carrier. Therefore the most logical way to sign up, is when booking a flight with them. You can however, also sign up for a BMI Classic or Platinum Mastercard with MBNA, where you will currently receive 20,000 destination miles (sufficient for one short flight) when you make your first purchase, and points for every pound spent on the card thereafter, but more about this later. =================
TYPES OF MILES BMI Diamond Club offers two types of miles, destination and membership, the former can be accumulated quite quickly, the latter are a little rarer. There are three levels of membership, Blue, Silver and Gold; the only way to ‘climb the ladder’ is to be a frequent flyer with BMI or their partners in the Star Alliance, so, with an additional 15,600 miles required for my silver membership, I suspect for the majority of people, the destination miles will be more appealing and easier to acquire.
Membership miles do what they say on the tin, and help you climb up the elitest membership ladder,
Destination miles do just that, help you get to destinations for free, or at a reduced rate.
=================MEMBERSHIP LEVELS ***BLUE*** This is little ol me for one, and what do I get for my troubles? In reality, not an awful lot, I can get access to my account on-line 24/7, I get a free on-line diamond club magazine where I can trade in cash / miles for gifts and offer.
Us Blues also have a dedicated telephone line for booking flights, but as the best prices are often acquired on-line, not much use unless there is a problem.
We do get priority over other customers on waiting lists and standby flights, telephone check-in if travelling only with hand luggage, and apparent discounts and upgrades with hotel partners, car-hire and airport car-parking including Avis, BCP, Jurys, Hilton,
You also get free access to Granada workspace lounges and meeting facilities.
***SILVER*** In addition to the above benefits (?), if you succeed in acquiring Silver status (suddenly that flight to Oz with Singapore Airlines looks more appealing), you get priority ticket sales and check-in at Heathrow Terminal one, guaranteed seat reservations on business tickets with 48 hours notice, and exclusive access to the diamond club, overseas and executive lounges and also those of South African Airways, but of course, you do need to be flying with BMI.
In addition, you get an additional 20Kg baggage allowance when flying with BMI (not BMI Baby), you get 25% destination miles bonus every month and of course, like us blue holders you get your own dedicated telephone line.
Bearing in mind that BMI are part of the Star Alliance network, and therefore you also get silver membership status of the network, giving you certain priorities on reserve and waiting lists of Star Alliance Members.
To retain your silver status, you need to earn 16,000 membership miles year on year, and once you get to 38,000 miles you automatically get upgraded to Gold Status.
***GOLD*** This is where the real benefits kick in, as you would expect you get everything under the blue and silver levels plus four complementary upgrade vouchers to use when buying BMI Flights and upgrades on free flights to business (or premium economy on long haul flights).==========EARNING MILES Having read all that, it would be quite easy to become quite negative about Diamond club, as for the majority of us mere mortals, earning 16 or 38 thousand membership miles in any one year would be quite difficult. I know I fly a fair bit, but much of it is domestic or short haul, and very little of it with BMI, simply because my nearest departure airport is Heathrow, and I can get better offerings with other airlines from Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff.
But on to how you can earn them. Well of course, the most logical way is by flying with BMI, how many miles do you earn per flight? That I can’t say, because they have a formula for everything, dependent on the type of flight you book and the distance travelled. Needless to say if you fly first / business you get a higher formula calculation than if you book a web only flight (which tend to be ridiculously cheap); but you do acquire both destination and membership miles for all BMI flights (but you get NOTHING for BMI Baby, because they are a budget airline, I find this laughable, because on the occasions I have checked both for flight prices, almost without exception, BMI are cheaper than BMI Baby, such is life).
If it is any help, I acquired 400 membership and 400 destination miles for my return trip to Madrid, considering this cost less than £70, certainly better than a kick in the teeth.
You can also earn membership and destination miles (and spend destination miles) with Star Alliance members, namely:
o Air Canada o Air New Zealand o All Nippon Airways o Asiana o Austrian Airlines o LOT o Lufthansa o Adria Airways o Croatia Airlines o SAS o Blue 1 o Singapore Airlines o SpanAir o Thai Airways International o US Airways o United Airlines o Varig
In addition, you can earn and spend destination miles with Virgin Atlantic and South African Airways.
Even if you find yourself unlikely to fly with any of these airlines, don’t despair, you can also earn points with a number of hotel chains at a rate of 1,000 destination miles per night, up to a maximum of 3,000 miles per stay, these are Hilton, Jurys, Radisson SAS and Radisson Edwardian. And with the Hilton chain, you have the double whammy of earning Hilton Honours points at the same time.
Members can also transfer Amex and BAA points to destination miles, and pick up miles from the majority of UK airport related parking schemes including BCP.
For me, the real benefit comes from my BMI Mastercard, where I earn 2 miles for every £1 spent (1.5 miles on BMI Classic Card) and 4 miles for every £1 spent on BMI flights, plus if booking BMI or BMI Baby flights with your card, you don’t have to pay the ever increasing credit card surcharge. Of course, if you don’t already have a BMI Credit card, you get awarded 20,000 destination miles when you make your first purchase (in true sue.51 style I messed this up because of being over keen to get my card, and am now trying to reclaim my miles).
You can earn points with Avis Car Hire, but beware the sting, this must be within 24 hours of taking your BMI flight, and at a BMI departure / destination airport.
=================SPENDING MILES Always the best bit, something for nothing; for the shortest flight you need 12,000 destination miles, which would get you anywhere in the UK, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Ireland and Switzerland, or you could hang on until you get 200,000 points and have a free round the world trip.
In between these two extremes there are 10 other zones requiring varying numbers of points for the trips. In fact, you can go to 755 different destinations in 132 countries using your miles, and if this wasn’t enough, if you don’t have all the points you can pay half the price in cash, and you can spend with all the Star Alliance members.
You can also book BMI Baby UK domestic connecting flights for 7,500 destination miles.
Miles can also be cashed in for hotel and car-hire vouchers, although with my experience of hotel usage, the correlation between the points required and their value offers little benefit, particularly in this day and age of internet bookings, special offers and sites such as laterooms and active hotels to name just a few.
=================THE WEBSITE Remember, I mentioned on-line access to your account what seems like an age ago? Well here you can monitor your account balance, check out special offers, enter competitions, and take advantage of discount offers on various hotels and flights, all from the comfort of your own home.
BE AWARE: To earn points you need your BMI Membership card with you, you will need the number to book flights and hotels, and if you lose it, as I did, you will wait up to a month for a new card, you have been warned.
=================SUMMARY OK, some of this is a little tongue in cheek, but even if you don’t fly regularly, if you use a credit card, the facilities of the aforementioned hotels, and the occasional flight with BMI, what have you got to lose?
If you fly regularly, particularly, first or business class then I suspect you really are on to a winner, if you don’t, but are prepared to wait for your rewards, then you will eventually get ‘something for nothing’, although it could be a long wait, and a bit of a pain if they change the reward structure, or decide to expire the miles (which they don’t do at the moment), but nevertheless worth a punt.
And for anyone who is still reading, do I go to Australia, and if so, which is the best airline?
Sue.51 – (if there are any ‘s’ or ‘e’s missing, blame my keyboard, not ME)
Advantages: Earn miles to travel in style Disadvantages: Cant think of any
If you have ever read any of my recent Ciao reviews they are usually about travel. So it would come as no surprise if l were to say that l was a member of a few frequent flyer programmes.
At present we are concentrating on our BMI Diamond Club cards. For any flights we have to make to London Heathrow, from Belfast City, BMI are the only carrier making the journey so we are not left with much of an option but to use them.
BMI are part of the larger ... ...where a grouping of carriers join forces, code share and promotes their flights to various destinations, over and above other carriers.
Within the Star Alliance family at present along with BMI we have:
* Air Canada
• Air New Zealand
• ANA
• Asiana Airlines
• Austrian
• LOT Polish Airlines
• Lufthansa
• Scandinavian Airlines
• Singapore Airlines
• Spanair
• Thai
• United ...
purdy 23.08.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of British Midland Diamond Club
Advantages: Can earn BMI points using BMI partners Disadvantages: None I can think of yet
I have been a member of the BMI Diamond Club for the past two years now and would be lost without it since I fly with BMI quite regulary. Membership is free and is quite simple to join.
They have to different points that they give you:
Membership - These are issued for each reward and determine card level
Destination - These are your actual free flight or car hire certs.
MEMBERSHIP LEVELS
blue card membership
On check-in, you're allowed 20Kg ... ...availability on bmi flights. If you're travelling with just hand luggage you can also use the telephone check-in facility on flights leaving from the UK and ROI even when you're travelling on an economy ticket. In addition you can also recieve discounts and upgrades with their hotel and car parking partners.
silver card membership
As well as the above, silver card membership gives you unlimited access to diamond club and business lounges as well ...
phil2001 13.01.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of British Midland Diamond Club
Advantages: Bigger Seats, Friendly staff, Good booking system Disadvantages: no sandwiches or free net use
I've been a member of the diamond club now for almost a year due to my work in London for the past 10 months, basically you get 30 points per flight (Man - LHR) and the free flights start at around 400 points. During the quiet periods BMI have double your points offers on flights so your points add up quickly.
The member lounges are very tidy and have a great selection of drinks, the London Heathrow has an additional lounge for silver & gold members ... ...get as busy.
The Manchester lounge is quite small and also has a small separate area for Silver/Gold members but does get very busy in the morning . . .. you have a choice of fresh tea/coffee plus many juices and the usual cakes/croissants.
The staff at both airports are always very polite/helpful and up for some pleasant chat.
Another reviewer pointed out that the lack of food is a disappointment, which i agree with, in the evening you get a ...
craigmc73 06.01.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of British Midland Diamond Club
Advantages: better than ba Disadvantages: not as generous as before
...the frequent flyers club of British Midland BMI. This airline flies to most major UK and European cities from London and in codeshare with its Star Alliance partners covers most of the world.
In fact 662 destinations worldwide and growing as you can earn miles on Lufthansa, Austrian, LOT Poland, US Airways, United, Air Canada. BMI now also flying from Manchester to the US. There are three levels of Membership, Blue, Silver and Gold. These are dependant ... ...am flying to London with British Midland from Belfast £49 return(300 points each way total 600).
I am staying at Hilton Hotel in London for 2 nights at £59 per night(2000 points). For this you earn 1000 points per night.
I am hiring an Avis car for 2 days £80 earning 900 points.
I am leaving my car at a BCP Car park for the weekend again 30 points for every £3 spent £40 spent 400 points.
So if you add all that together that is 3000 points so ...
iainkay1 17.09.2001 (12.06.2003)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of British Midland Diamond Club
Advantages: Friendly staff, nice atmosphere Disadvantages: Poor range of food
...have been a member of British Midland's Exec Club, Diamond Club, for almost a year and have been very impressed. The lounges are always very smart and even when busy I've been able to get a seat, a paper and a drink. The staff are always very friendly and helpful but not 'in your face'. What I particularly like is that they give you the option of either boarding the plane as soon as it is ready or waiting so that you are the last man aboard. This ... ...complete some work or make tat last phone call. Alternatively when you've got the time it's nice to aboard before anyone else and get yourself settled into your seat in plenty of time and space.
My only complaint is that they need to be a little more original in their selection of food. A bit of fruit would be nice and even sandwiches when the delay is significant. I must say that the cafetiere in the mornings is excellent. Also the fact that at ...
harryson 19.03.2001 (18.03.2001)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of British Midland Diamond Club
Food Quality
Customer Service
Punctuality
Space
Value for Money
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Advantages: Excellent location, on-site parking, Disadvantages: Not suitable if looking for a relaxing break
for Jury's are 3 star Inns rather than hotels, although quite what the differences are between the two except that the Inns are more modern, I haven't quite worked out yet!) Rates can start from £69 on their site, or you can be lucky enough to pick up some cracking deals at www.laterooms.com
REWARDS
There isn't a reward scheme for Jury's customers as such, however, you can claim 1,000 miles with BritishMidlandDiamondclub for each night stayed (up to a maximum of 3,000 miles per stay)
LOCATION & GETTING THERE
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Advantages: Friendly staff, nice rennovated rooms, food was worth it! Disadvantages: Cost of parking and non-rennovated rooms.
outside the front door before parking as i couldn't see any ramps.
On check in, it all went smoothly. Although, for a late check in, you must allocate a credit card to that booking. Everything was easy, the staff were very helpful and friendly, looked very willing to be there. The only problem I had was attaching my frequent flyer card to th booking. For people who are with BMI DiamondClub, it is under the Hilton system as BritishMidland (BM).
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Advantages: High quality, efficient and friendly staff Disadvantages: Regular short delays
I regularly fly BritishMidland and benefit both from travelling Euro Class and being a silver car holder in the DiamondClub. Perhaps my views would be different if I did not have these privileges.
On return journeys in particular, the lounge access I'm entitled to more than compensates for any delays and, on board, the meals and refreshments are consistently of a high quality.
However, I would like to see BritishMidland do something about delays arising from people having difficulty placing so called hand luggage in the overhead lockers. Perhaps if they were strcter dealing with people as they check in this could be resolved easily. ...
