Kevincm

Drinks in Belfast with the BMI Board (BHX-BFS,DUB-BHX)
Heading into LCC territory with BMI Baby and Aer Lingus, and a ride on the Enterprise Service.

Previous witterings:

LHR-BRU-LHR ... or "How do you burn a £50 BMI voucher without too much pain?"
MAN-ORD on BMI (29/10 ... or Did Kevin Make it to ORD?)
Kevin goes for a little mileage run on UA - ORD/CHM/IAD/EWR/ORD
ORD-MAN in BMI Premium Economy (with Pictures)
Kevin’s American Adventure – MAN-ORD-SEA-ORD-MAN (4 flights, 2 weeks) in Y..
ORD - MAN in BMI Premium Economy: How hard can a PE product drop? (also random moans)
LHR-PHL-SEA, SEA-PHX-ORD, ORD-PHL-LHR - In Y, Come and be scared with US!
LHR-SFO-LHR - If you're going to San Francisco - SFO MegaDO Trip report
Gold Run - Mr Kevincm goes to Washington with EI and US
Long Haul Commuter Run - LHR-IAD-ORD and back with UA
Saying Goodbye to a Friend - Travelling for the wrong reasons - LHR-PHL with UA (Also on GhettoIFE.com - expanded)
The BA Y+/Y Class Long Haul Experience LHR-BKK/SIN-SYD and back on a bargain fare (Also on GhettoIFE.com -Expanded)
The Autumn Run - Mixing Business with Pleasure (C/F/Y adventures with UA and US) (Also on GhettoIFE.com -Expanded)
Long Way Home - The Spring Commute with UA and CO (Also on GhettoIFE.com - Expanded)
Atlanta or Bust (and Frankfurt too!) - (Also on GhettoIFE.com - Expanded)


Ok kids. Something a bit different from the usual wittering of United's food, Ghetto IFE systems and Star Alliance Carriers. This time, it's travel for the sheer pleasure of it, and catching up with good people. That's the point of a Do!

And this trip report is surprisingly short in comparison to some of my normal epics

The price of being a social butterfly (Yes, it's the intro)

Believe or not, I can be quite social when the mood takes me. It's extended in the past when the BMI Board used to meet for drinks in Manchester (except for me bailing out late - thanks to the joy of trains and me not wanting to overnight) or the odd trip to San Francisco to catch up with a big bunch of Flyertalkers..

And there was a Do announced in Belfast, I decided (for a change) to be social, and get my backside in the air over there.

Firstly, for the sake of a few miles, I checked out BMI's laughable fares (£100's for basic fares, with nothing making sense), so that was scrubbed off the list. So it was back to the local carriers for local people, and BMI Baby (the LCC side of BMI) had a 4p fare

4p you think to yourself. What's the catch?

How about £25.95 for taxes and £4 for the privilege of using a debit card? Ah yes, the joys of LCC's - either play by their rules - or get stung.

With the outbound successfully booked, I looked at the return... and oh dear. FlyBe had been jacking up their prices to a stonking £71.99 return before any fees, which throws the idea of a cheap weekend clean out of the window.

But thankfully, Dublin Airport is across the border - which opens up RyanAir, BMI and Aer Lingus back home. With BMI being the most expensive at €43 to LHR, EI coming next at €30 and RyanAir coming in at €15, one would had thought Ryanair would be the logical choice.

Except it gets home at 23:10 at night, and it's a £25 cab back to central Birmingham, or the 900 Bus with whatever drunks are aboard. So it's a simple decision of EI, and to be honest, at least EI feels like a real airline still in comparison to some of it's LCC competition (and besides, there's an office leaving Do I have to attend too, so a reasonable return time is helpful).

Of course, getting across the border is another challenge. I could either take the bus, or take the train. As I'm geek for trains still, I opted for the Enterprise service. Booking online, a voucher arrived in the post for £8.99

Miles? Oh I should talk about them I suppose. How does "Nothing" sound? Well almost nothing as BMI Baby will give me 150 destination miles and booking the EI on my credit card gave me a small smattering of miles - not even status miles (and not a single QF mile as it's a cheap fare). Woopeedo.

There is a fair bit of cashback going on thanks to QuidCo, however, I'm still waiting for most of it to get to me...

As OLCI was mandatory for the BMI Baby flight, I had checked in at work when it opened and secured a nice window seat near the front of the plane.

Right. Off we go again!

To BHX.


Morning wait for the bus

5:20am morning to the airport. I love them. Honestly. I really don't. After dragging myself and my trash out for this little tripette, it was a walk to to Mordor Hauptbahnhof (Birmingham New Street Station) and then off Birmingham International on the train.

As I had checked in online, I got off the Airlink, to be confronted with the queue from Hades, extending well from the security zone and halfway round the food court - between 6am and 8am being the rush hour at BHX. However although the queue was there, it was moving at a remarkable quick pace.

Within 10 minutes, my place queue had moved from the back of it to the outside to inside the security area, with Ryanair passengers being turned away often when they’ve worked out they’re in the wrong terminal.

Bag was scanned, with the hi-tech scanners indicating that my camera was needed to be scanned. A quick wipe and it was cleared to go, with security helping me with put my stuff away even though it was busy.

After exiting the security zone, a quick look at the screens indicated the gate had been called for the flight. At gate 60, this meant a hike to the end of old international pier, to be confronted with another queue. After a wait, I was seen to, my boarding pass was beeped, and I was directed to the tarmac and over to the plane of the day



BMI Baby, WW1021, Birmingham International Airport- Belfast International Airport
Boeing 737-500, Seat 4A
239 miles flown, 150 BMI Destination Miles Earned (if they ever post that is),
£29.95 paid, £6 Cashback
The Pictures: http://www.photoblog.com/kevincm/201...rnational.html

Was greeted aboard, and the clicker was clicked, and I made my way to 4A selected – not for exit row reasons, but as a possible easy exit later. For a LCC, yes, tight seat pitch of the day is in order, but it felt 30”ish as opposed to some of the tighter densities out there.


Some people complain this is all they ever see of me. Others may think this is not the worst thing in the world...

Whilst this plane was clean and tidy, there were signs of its various lifes for British Airway, Go, JetLite and finally BMI Baby (who seem to think of themselves as a Midlands Niche LCC carrier (Not my words - that goes to Mr Prock-Schauer of BMI/Lufthansa) - little things like odd coloured armrests.

The other sign of course, is the BMI Mainline sick bags

The plane itself didn’t fill up that much with 50 people on the service, so there was room to spread out once the doors went to close and after a few minutes, the plane was pushed back.

The safety demo was carried out manually, and hot food orders were taken on the ground for those who wanted hot food. Speaking of the menu - whilst the menu wasn’t comprehensive, but it had the basis. However BMI Baby must learn the lesson that Aer Lingus has learned – provide a variable high quality food service. The limited choices that were aboard were... limited.

Pushback was 5 minutes late, and then the captain it seemed wanted to race to the runway (which seems common for BHX in my recent experiences).

After a short wait for a Ryanair 737-800 cleared the runway, it was our turn to perform a rolling takeoff. Now, as I have a new iPhone4 . I’d thought I’d try out the HD Video recording on it. Comments are very welcome how badly it’s been shot as well as the quality!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aAomDbsx0w

The plane took off into the sky, turning right slightly, and giving al lovely view of Birmingham



The plane continued to climb, and the crew were released after a while to commence in-flight service.


Over the countryside

As this is a short hop, and anything extra is payable – I chose not to pay, and just sit back and watch the sky and the ground as it was clear until reaching the coast – where cloud cover begun


Over the Irish Sea

The three crew were in a happy mood, even though it was the first flight of the day (And being slightly cruel – I didn’t release that orange skin was the fashion still). The crew completed service about 2/3rds of the way of the flight, and then began the process of cleaning down (which the bacon roll people in 4DEF weren't overly happy about as they were halfway through...).

Of course, this being an LCC the announcement was made to hand in any papers we did not wish to keep as no cleaners were boarding, and the crew had to clean down the plane – bless these poor LCC’s.


Over Belfast

The plane broke through the cloud and skipped its way down, and after a few turns, it lined up for Belfast International, finally kissing the ground.

Or have a look at video Yes- two vids so far. I am sad. It's going to get worse

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPHEV23cOc0

The plane pulled up at a stand, and Servisair came along with the stairs, and we were all bussed to the terminal and into Domestic Arrivals.



Overall: There's not much you can do in a 50 minute flight, and this just shows that sometimes if an LCC product fits the bill, it can be better value than other products. The crew whilst friendly and smiley seemed to miss a "mainline" feel to them (and the shade of orange on one of them.. well...). Perhaps on the these short sectors, it's so important to remember that there is so little time to carry out service, that the whole thing can feel overly rushed.

After sorting my junk out and getting some water, I made my way out of what can be described as a glorified shed of a terminal (International Airport - Really? You could had fooled me), and wasted £7 on the biggest con of the whole trip – the bus ride into town. No, not a posh coach, a BUS for 20 miles.


Glorified Shed
I ask you. Seven notes.....

After handing over the money and waiting for others to board, the bus proceeded into Belfast City Centre, dropping off at the main strip, and finally at Europa bus station, where I went out and explored the city for a bit.

As the day progressed, I wanted to dump my main bag, and get a bit of rest before the evening fun occurred, so I checked in at my hotel of the day.

Hotel: Hotel Ibis, Belfast City Centre,
Rate Paid: £42 via Accor.com (£1.89 Cashback), 73 AClub points earned
The Pictures: http://www.photoblog.com/kevincm/201...ty-centre.html

This hotel was chosen purely on price-point - as much as I would had loved to stay at the Hilton, I'm by nature tightfisted when I just need a place to crash overnight before heading off the somewhere the next day. Of course, as a recently minted A-Club Gold (and lets face it - who isn't these days with all the free A-Club Gold offers that are around) it seemed to make sense at the time to book an Accor room (least of all for other reasons that will become apparent at the end of this trip report).

That and a small slug of cash via Quidco is always appreciated.

Booking was made online and the reference texted to me (now there's a lovely and non expensive touch). I was checked in, and no credit card was requested as guarantee as the room were paid for already. My key cards were issued, and I placed in a high floor.


Shot after dinner

I then wandered up to the room itself. Whilst small, it is functional, with a nice view over the city. However I quickly learned to switch anything on in the room I needed to drop my keycard into a slot within the room.


Outside the room


and inside...


Pop in to switch on. How Green...

The room had a flat screen TV, walk in shower that was nice and powerful, the bed of reasonable size and firmness, however, this was during one of the warmer weekends that the British Isles has experienced - and the air conditioner wasn't up to it.

Or to put it bluntly, it was akin to a nat blowing hard - in other words, not good at all even when set to high fan and cool mode.

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Of course, there were drinks and random going ons - such is the joy of a BMI Do as well as food.

A good chance to catch up with people, and meet people for the first time. There may had been some watching of planes at the waterside and trains involved as well as drinks... but this is the BMI Board. We do things differently

I wandered back into the hotel after the festivities, and let myself in with my keycard and wandered upstairs to sleep as I would need to be awake by 7:00 to go off for the next part of this trip.

Upon arriving at reception to check out, my receipt was issued, and no further charges were issued against the account. The cab company (conveniently over the road from the hotel) had a waiting and I was sped to Belfast Central to catch the train.....

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Next up: An Enterprising Train, and The Shamrock Home...