bmi diamond club - Redemption: DC vs my first with BAEC

With a free weekend and my new BAEC Gold card making my fingers fidgety, I decided we should squeeze-in an extra weekend away. Now being the school holidays cash fares are steep to most southern climbs, and even heading east instead they're not cheap at such short notice. So I decided to look at a redemption instead...

It was inevitable, and interesting, to compare this brave new BA world with the old BD one. It's not that bad in this case, although of course YMMV, and so might mine next time around!

First thing to note was that either one or both of Friday/Saturday outbound and Sunday inbound seats to popular destinations were lacking with 15 days notice - but who knows what BD and the Star would have had free either.

I liked the 'Reward Flight Availability' tool, which made finding available destinations pretty easy. So once we'd chosen where to go, PRAGUE, it was interesting to see the BA website say I was benefiting from 'additional seats' being released as a Gold cardholder benefit.

Next thing was that on the inbound only 1 seat was available in Y, but two in C, so I decided to go for a mixed class ticket. These are only bookable online as two one-ways, or can be booked together via the call centre. Being Gold, that doesn't incur any additional service charges.

Next I notice that it's an 0800 freephone number now that I'm gold, nice. Call is answered in about two minutes, after the button pressing and a short hold.

It was all quite easily done and the agent understood exactly what I wanted, the total of Avios and money (I was opting to reduce the number of Avios required by increasing the cash element, similar to a BD miles+cash redemption but with a variable scale of mixing the two elements) was the same as quoted online for the two one-ways, and the second passenger's details were obtained by giving their BAEC number, much easier than spelling out the 12-letter unusual surname.

BAEC REDEMPTION:
Outbound in EuroTraveller is 2,250 Avios + £38.50
Inbound in Club Europe is 4,500 Avios + £62
TOTAL PER PAX: 6,750 Avios + £100.50
Key thing to note, is that the cash element here includes all taxes and charges.
I used my shiny new BAPP Amex card to pay, and there was no credit card surcharge either.

BD DIAMOND CLUB REDEMPTION:
Outbound Z1-Z2 economy 3,000 miles + £35
Inbound Z2-Z1 business 4,500 miles + £52.50
SUB-TOTAL PER PAX: 7,500 miles + £87.50 + TAXES
Taxes on LH for this route are showing on Ebookers at £96.07 per pax. (BA direct flight shows on Ebookers as £95.35 taxes.)
TOTAL PER PAX INCL TAX: 7,500 + £183.57 (approx with LH)

REVENUE TICKET:
The ba.com price for the same mixed-class flights was £391.
If I wanted to buy 6,300 Avios (includes current bonus) to replace those spent, it would cost me £111, so the Avios-and-money redemption + purchase-replacement-Avios option would still be cheaper than the revenue ticket - at this late booking stage.


So I feel that, whilst this is a specific set of circumstances that may or may not reflect a typical redemption, in this case the BAEC has provided a reasonable account of itself versus our fondly remembered Diamond Club.

One other bonus as a new BA Gold, is the flight to Prague operates from T3 so we'll be able to visit the CX First Lounge too (won't bother with the AA Flagship!)

One other bonus as a new BA Gold, is the flight to Prague operates from T3 so we'll be able to visit the CX First Lounge too (won't bother with the AA Flagship!)
No need really, BA's Galleries First in T3 is lovely, and I actually prefer it over the CCR.

Nice report. Visit the CX lounge but unless you have a noodle addiction the BA F or J lounges are better. Nicer environment and better food and drink. Getting a spa treatment of any sort is a bit hit and miss though.

This sounds really great. I will be trying my first redemption. The plan is to go from the Düsseldorf/Frankfurt area to some destination in Spain, possibly La Coruna or Santander, on Iberia. From my memories of Iberia, they don't seem to like unusual tickets such as open jaws or one ways (as I am hoping to open jaw back to Switzerland), so I am not holding out too much hope. Will report back here duly.

If the system does not like open jaws, you can always book 2 one ways (Iberia allows one ways).

This sounds really great. I will be trying my first redemption. The plan is to go from the Düsseldorf/Frankfurt area to some destination in Spain, possibly La Coruna or Santander, on Iberia. From my memories of Iberia, they don't seem to like unusual tickets such as open jaws or one ways (as I am hoping to open jaw back to Switzerland), so I am not holding out too much hope. Will report back here duly.

Don't think you can do that from FRA. You will need to go via MAD.

If the system does not like open jaws, you can always book 2 one ways (Iberia allows one ways).

Thanks.. I didn't know that. I plan to go via Madrid anyway, as I believe that you can have a domestic onward connection in Spain included in the cost of the redmeption.

So I feel that, whilst this is a specific set of circumstances that may or may not reflect a typical redemption, in this case the BAEC has provided a reasonable account of itself versus our fondly remembered Diamond Club.As a rule, for intra-European redemptions under the RFS scheme, BAEC will almost always be better than DC, at any rate ex-UK.
(I also wonder whether you did not forget to factor in the connection supplement for DC in z1-2 redemptions, which would have accentuated the BAEC advantage for UK-based flyers).

On long-haul, however, DC was generally better than BAEC, both on basic mileage requirements but also on relative flexibility for less obvious routings.

I think in some respects the BAEC is better especially with the Rewards Savers in Europe but for me the biggest difference between the DC and BAEC is the ability to book partner redemptions online with BA.....although it isn't the easiest tool to use it has to be said.

I do dislike the new one sector rule though. From EZE the direct options to destinations in N America are very limited so it mostly has to be two redemptions.

I just returned from my first BA redemption (and indeed first BA flight since 2007) and found the whole process pretty pleasant. It was a short-haul Y reward flight saver booking for 3 of us, booked online with ease, and I was able to pick our seats online once I'd been status matched to BA Gold. 9,000 miles + £27 each, mostly earned from the BA credit card bonus plus Tesco Clubcard points! This also included a short stopover in London on the return booking. These flights would have cost £450-500 in total on BA, or slightly less for a (less convenient) connection on Lufthansa, so for us they represented pretty good value.

The actual flying experience was pretty good - we were flying with our 2-year-old daughter in seats 1A/B/C from MAN-LHR, and our daughter got quite a bit of attention from the cabin crew, who provided some toys and games that helped distract her. Free nibbles and drinks were appreciated too, something I had missed flying in economy on bmi. The LHR-BER flight was also fine, although the interior of the plane seemed a bit old and tatty. I had no complaints about Terminal 5 in particular, it seemed nice enough, although on this occasion we didn't try to check out the lounges. I'll be doing that myself in a couple of weeks. :) The return trip was also quite decent, no complaints to speak of.

I've now made a new redemption booking having won Olympics tickets at short notice (from BA, no less!). Changed my plans slightly and wanted to change the time and date of my return flight, so I phoned the Gold line this morning, only to discover half way through their (rather long) series of menus that I could actually change the flight date and time online. Log onto BA.com, a few clicks later, and my ticket is reconfirmed for my new flight, with no change fees or hassle. Quite a refreshing change from the bmi way of doing things.

I will certainly miss bmi in many ways, but I'm pleased to say that my experiences of BA so far have been pretty good. I will likely have a long-haul or two coming up later in the year however, which I will probably try to book on BA, so it'll be interesting to see how the experience is there. I'm considering booking a WT+ fare and attempting to upgrade to Club. ;)

Booked a simple Avios award online today. Couldn't have been a simpler exercise. Swoon......

I did my first booking yesterday, return to LYS from LHR, and was impressed with the ease of booking and the different cash/miles options.

I also looked for availability from HKG to LHR in January and it was woeful - only three days showing availability in business. With BMI I almost always found availability on or around the day I wanted, particularly if I was flexible about the route.

It looks like I'll just use my Avios for European flights.