bmi diamond club - Future of the "new" BMI-R and mileage accrual to partner FF programs

When bmi were part of Star Alliance, I used to accrue miles from both bmi and BMI Regional to United's FF program.

I've a couple of flights with BMI Regional coming up. Which Frequent Flyer programs (if any) currently allow you to accrue miles from BMI-R flights?

BAEC.

BAEC.

Are you sure? Thought only bmi International flights could be posted to BAEC incl those operated by Regional - ie, not Regional flights themselves like EDI-MAN

Also, heard in the MAN lounge yesterday, the nice lady, telling a pap that he could no longer enter using his BA card when travelling on Regional flights as the two entities have no relationship, so that seems to clear up an issue in another thread ranting about D****n, one of the EDI agents

I similarly had the impression that BD Regional flights could only get credit with DC(?)

Regional clearly needs to give some indication of what sort of a situation they hope to have in place come October, even if just an unofficial indication of options being explored.

Flights like BRU-EDI in C are not cheap and I for one remain hesitant to book future travel (especially with time-sensitive itineraries) when so many question marks are floating about.

I must say: I am not entirely sure why BA Golds (who are/were presumably NOT BD Golds) expect to enter a lounge not affiliated with their programme benefits?

For example in Luxembourg there is only one generic business lounge which everyone uses, but I would not expect access flying LX in Y with a BA Gold card.

BD Regional is clearly bungling their transition and confusing/upsetting passengers. But it's been crystal clear to me that BD Regional flights are not BA/BMI and without a DC Gold card I would not expect special handling without a ticket in C.

Thanks for the replies. I'm glad to see I'm not alone in finding the current situation unclear!

The bmi-regional flights have me stumped. They're not BA so no BAEC, and no longer are Star Alliance either. I've never been a Diamond Club member, so it seems hardly worth joining at this late stage ...

Tried searching, but came up with nothing really......so....

What are the thoughts as to whether bmiR in their new incarnation will continue with DC and the status of DC members?

I re-qualified for DC Gold in June with a membership year ending in Oct, so in theory would have had status until Oct 13

Will the new bmiR offer me "Gold" with them until the same date?

Anybody heard any rumours?

Mods, feel free to merge if my search has missed something

If I were you and assuming its a bmiR flight in BD flight code I'd join DC and credit the miles to that scheme until that relationship folds.

At that stage id then transfer the miles to BA avios using the online tool and transferring at 1:1.

If however its a BA flight between LHR and xxx that just happens to be operated by regional you can credit to BA.


Hope that helps


cs

BD Regional is clearly bungling their transition and confusing/upsetting passengers. But it's been crystal clear to me that BD Regional flights are not BA/BMI and without a DC Gold card I would not expect special handling without a ticket in C.

I'm starting to get worried about the silence from bmi Regional. I've got a few bookings coming up for during their winter schedule and I'd have expected that they would have announced their winter schedule and planned FFP/alliance/franchise partnerships or whatever they planned to do by now.

First thing I want to know is if my flights will operate, then I want to know if the level of service will change (e.g. if they partner with FlyBe I may need to pay for luggage, catering and not get lounge access) and it'd be nice to know what the airline I'll be flying is called ;)

Their silence is not a good thing. Did they get the rights to use flybmi.com (original reports of the sale suggested so, but after the sale completed the FAQ mentioned they'd be getting their own website)? Could they have kept the @flybmi twitter feed alive so people would be up to date with their plans?

I may be hugely mistaken, but as far as I am aware there has not been any assurance that bmi Regional will continue to fly (at all) as an entity beyond their currently agreed schedule commitments(?)

It is conceivable that they could separately flog their routes and Barbie-jets, then wind up the business and enjoy a reasonable dividend payment.

I may be hugely mistaken, but as far as I am aware there has not been any assurance that bmi Regional will continue to fly (at all) as an entity beyond their currently agreed schedule commitments(?)

It is conceivable that they could separately flog their routes and Barbie-jets, then wind up the business and enjoy a reasonable dividend payment.

I don't think it would make anysense for the Granite/Sector to do that. Routes not worth anything / not dificult to get, jets.... easier ways to get them.
They have bought this to do something with it, yes their plans for what that something is may indeed change, and bmi regional will certainly be different to today, but I can't see buying it to shut it down - wrong team for that, etc.

I don't think it would make anysense for the Granite/Sector to do that. Routes not worth anything / not dificult to get, jets.... easier ways to get them.
They have bought this to do something with it, yes their plans for what that something is may indeed change, and bmi regional will certainly be different to today, but I can't see buying it to shut it down - wrong team for that, etc.

Does anyone know what they paid for it?

Or if it is in fact profitable?

Given BMI's astromic losses, would be really surprising that BMI Regional is profitable... If I remember correctly, BA paid less than the full price to LH because LH was unable to dump Regional & Baby...

Or if it is in fact profitable?

The received wisdom was always that bmiR was highly profitable; I was never too sure about that supposition but they had a good number of routes with 'corporate' deals, where they had minimum numbers underwritten by large corporate bodies (I'm thinking oil companies etc.) to make them viable and then bmiM's sales channel delivered high-yield point-to-point traffic. And of course, mainline would have been paying regional a certain amount, on paper, at any rate, to use their jets also, be it slot-sitting duties, or simply replacement aircraft where loads were light. It could have been quite profitable on paper.

The corporate traffic could happily continue on the same basis, providing interlining agreements were in place. LHR is not jungle-jet friendly, so it could be AMS or BRU or FRA... The point-to-point will begin to wither, if they don't get their finger out on future plans. The mainline stuff is gone, of course. Private hire, if not quite traditional charter, will remain.

Do the Bonds still have stakes in LoganAir as well?
Wonder if Regional could gain access to LoganAir/Flybe work (which is ofcourse expanding), Loganair now have Suckling(/Scot) under their wing since last year too.

As an Executive Club member, am I able to earn Avios and tier points on future bookings I have with bmi Regional or bmibaby?
Executive Club members will not earn Avios and Tier Points on any bmi Regional or bmibaby bookings

The above is from the BMI website and is borne out by my own experience over the past few months of flying with BMIR. They have now also withdrawn lounge access to BA card holders flying on BMIR flights, which I was enjoying at EDI and MAN.