I just called to book a flight from the U.S. to S.E. Asia with a stop-over enroute in Manila.

The first agent told me BMI is no longer allowed to make any award bookings to the Philippines. Ok.

I hung-up, waited 5-minutes, and called back. The second agent told me a memo came down from BMI last week informing them that they are not allowed to make any award bookings that start, stop, or connect anywhere in the Philippines. He didn't know why, if it is temporary, or how long it will last.

I'll add this to the long list of things I am not too happy about at BMI . . .

"Thank you for flying BMI and earning Diamond Club miles. Just don't expect to be able to actually use them."

I am guessing this may be a case of taking some travel advice to the extreme
There is recent warnings about avoiding all travel to certain areas of the Philippines but Manila looks like it is still ok.
Either they have misread the memo, or the memo has advised incorrectly
http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-...ia/philippines

I find it unlikely as the reason. Travel warnings about the southern Philippines have been in place for a long time.

Even if it were the reason, Star carriers are still flying there and it is not BMI's position to control where I fly by limiting award availability.

The one question I didn't ask, but should have, is whether any other destinations were included in the memo.

Might this be another country affected by Ghana "disease"..that is concern about fradulent bookings?

I would assume something similar. For instance, Orbitz (at least at one point, haven't checked lately) doesn't let you book a flight ex-ACC or ex-LOS. Given the fact that only portions of Mindanao have any kind of security issues, and the fact that I'm sure you can still book a trip to Baghdad or Sana'a, it can't be safety related.

CHris

There used to be a rule about awards originating in the Philippines had to be issued there, but I haven't seen that in a while.

Seems a bit extreme to prohibit bookings that just connect through Manila for this reason.

Since this has apparently not been announced by BMI, I wonder what is really going on?

A lack of announcement is pretty normal. Only way to be sure is to contact Diamond Club and see what feedback she can provide as to the circumstances behind this.

It may be "normal", but it is wrong. If you are going to disallow award travel to a certain country, you should announce it. BTW, this is only BMI. UA will still book it but I want to use my BMI miles because I don't know what is going to happen to them going forward (and BMI hasn't announced that, either).

Done. Thanks.

If you try to book a ticket ex-Philippines on Asiana's website, you get this message:
A similar message is displayed when trying to book via Korean Air. Not sure what other airlines also restrict such purchases, but I know some do not. Perhaps there is a law that is open to interpretation and some airlines interpret it one way, and others another. The Philippines is infamous for shooting themselves in the foot and doing their utmost best to discourage all types of business, so it certainly wouldn't surprise me one bit if there is indeed a law restricting people not physically in the Philippines from purchasing a ticket there. I don't know of any travel agents in the Philippines that will even accept a credit card for purchasing tickets. They all require cash only, I guess due to huge amounts of fraud. Some airlines will allow credit card purchases, but there's often headaches involved and frequently foreign issued cards are prohibited.

My best guess is that whatever this law is that Asiana is referring to has likely affected BMI and they decided to simply completely ignore the Philippines rather than run any risk of running afoul of some insane law.

My ticket does not originate or terminate in the Philippines and I made that very clear to the agents. See my first post.

This is definitely new(or wrong), as I booked a BKK-MNL redemption last month for travel in March.

I was told the memo came out last week.

I wasn't condoning the lack of announcement, just saying it is very normal in the world of bmi / DC.

Hopefully you'll get some feedback on the reasoning behind it soon.

I wanted to use some miles for a C+M award from Accra to Manila (seriously). Guess that plan is out now...

Me too - I've booked a one way LHR-MNL and a one way MNL-LHR .. couple of months back .. no issues at all

Seems a bit strange indeed!