bmi diamond club - Misconnect policy

Hi all

I have a trip coming up where I will have a tight-ish connection at LHR. I'm arriving on BD130 with a 1 hour 40 min connection to VS200. Flying Y all the way.

I I misconnect, I assume BD will put me up in a hotel for the evening? Given that the next VS flight to HKG isn't until the next night, could I ask BD to rebook me on the next available flight to HGK, regardless of airline? I'm going to Hong Kong for a week, so missing one day will take a good piece of holiday time away from us.

What are a) the policy of the airline and b) my rights as a passenger? Can I demand to be rebooked on the next available flight e.g. Cathay Pacific the next morning. Or would I just have to lose a day's holiday and spend the next day waiting around Heathrow/London for VS200?

Flights are all on the one ticket, booked through ebookers (i.e. cheapest of the cheap Y fares).

Thanks for the info. I like to be prepared so that if I do misconnect, at least I know what I am entitled to. Thanks!

No idea then? I'll ask diamond club, see if I can get an answer out of them.

I know I'm focusing on missing my connection (which I probably won't), but I just want to be prepared in case (read prepared as 'know my rights')

You have quite a number of rights as enshrined in law:

http://ec.europa.eu/transport/passenger-rights/en/03-air.html

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2004:046:0001:0007:EN:PDF

http://ec.europa.eu/transport/air_portal/passenger_rights/doc/2008/q_and_a_en.pdf

This might also assist:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_261/2004

Last November, I was travelling on two seperate Tickets DUS-LHR on LH and LHR-GLA on BD. The LH Flight was delayed by over an hour due to high winds in London, and consequently my scheduled 11:45am Arrival time turned into a 12:50pm actual arrival.
I was booked on BD6, Scheduled Time of departure 1:05pm (Yes, I know 1 hour 20 was a bit tight at LHR, but my schedule had already suffered a change that morning [read: I overslept and missed my original Flight which would have got me to LHR at 10:30am]). I'd done OLCI, but didn't have a Printer to print the BP, and in any case, I had a bag to claim and recheck.
Whilst waiting for my bag at the Carousel, I asked at the BD Luggage desk if they had any info about delays to outbound flights, but they couldn't help.
I went upstairs to departures at 1:15pm, and noted that BD6 was now delayed to 2:10pm, although obviously the Check-in deadline had long since past.
Resigned to having to buy a new Ticket (I was on either an 'S' or a 'T' fare, IIRC), I joined the queue at the Ticket Desk, but after briefly mentioning that I'd missed my Flight due to a late arrival (pointing at my Case with LH tags still evident), I was promptly rebooked onto the next Flight, BD8 (scheduled departure 3:05pm) FOC, no further questions asked.

I don't know if that's normal BD policy, or if I just fluked it because of the Winds playing havoc with Flights and the Ticket Desk not actually looking at my inbound Ticket, but it does seem they do use a bit of common sense when needed (Though in the OP's case, surely it would be up to VS rather than BD to rebook/reroute?).

Last November, I was travelling on two seperate Tickets DUS-LHR on LH and LHR-GLA on BD. The LH Flight was delayed by over an hour due to high winds in London, and consequently my scheduled 11:45am Arrival time turned into a 12:50pm actual arrival.
I was booked on BD6, Scheduled Time of departure 1:05pm (Yes, I know 1 hour 20 was a bit tight at LHR, but my schedule had already suffered a change that morning [read: I overslept and missed my original Flight which would have got me to LHR at 10:30am]). I'd done OLCI, but didn't have a Printer to print the BP, and in any case, I had a bag to claim and recheck.
Whilst waiting for my bag at the Carousel, I asked at the BD Luggage desk if they had any info about delays to outbound flights, but they couldn't help.
I went upstairs to departures at 1:15pm, and noted that BD6 was now delayed to 2:10pm, although obviously the Check-in deadline had long since past.
Resigned to having to buy a new Ticket (I was on either an 'S' or a 'T' fare, IIRC), I joined the queue at the Ticket Desk, but after briefly mentioning that I'd missed my Flight due to a late arrival (pointing at my Case with LH tags still evident), I was promptly rebooked onto the next Flight, BD8 (scheduled departure 3:05pm) FOC, no further questions asked.

I don't know if that's normal BD policy, or if I just fluked it because of the Winds playing havoc with Flights and the Ticket Desk not actually looking at my inbound Ticket, but it does seem they do use a bit of common sense when needed (Though in the OP's case, surely it would be up to VS rather than BD to rebook/reroute?).

Not applicable on the OPs case as the booking is all on one ticket (or so it would appear). EU rules therefore govern what can and cannot happen.

If you misconnect you will be rebooked on the next VS flight and given hotel/meals in the meantime. Chances of getting rebooked onto a different airline are slim to none given that BD and/or VS would have to pay close to full whack to the new carrier for the ticket.

Spoke to Joanna, she confirmed that I would be rebooked on the next VS flight with availability, which means I would miss a full day in Hong Kong (I'm only going for the week!). I get form the legislation that BD/VS should rebook me on the next available flight (the legislation doesn't state that it has to be with the same airline..).

Joanna did tell me to ask my travel agent (i.e. ebookers) if I could change my outbound to the earlier BD flight. I called ebookers and they wanted EUR 381 (yes!) to amend, which is crazy considering I could book two one-ways directly with bmi for EUR 70 altogether for the same flight. I actually called DC to see if they could merge the two bookings if I did book the earlier BD flight directly with them, but I was told that under no circumstances could BD touch my original booking (as it was made by a travel agent).

I'll just have to take the risk!

Thanks for the info anyway guys!

Can someone point me to which part of the legislation gives you the right to be rebooked on another airline if you misconnect? The legislation refers to point-to-point journeys; if your first flight gets delayed by an hour causing you to misconnect and miss your second flight, I don't see anything in the legislation that gives you any rights at all.