As a regular on the MAN-LHR route (at least for the past 6 months) I'm wondering how long till that gets downsized too (surprised it wasn't part of the announcement to reduce a few of the flights), since the planes I get are often much less than half full (and about half of those seem to be Virgin travellers transiting anyway) - and like many others I've noticed that the fully flexible fares appear even though the planes aren't full.... still, it does mean that business passengers pay through the nose, which might mean more revenue in the long run!
Sadly it does appear that soon what little remains of BMI will be vanquished... shame too as I did the calculations on my current travel, which is a weekly Y flex return on domestic flights (does emphasise how easy it can be to get gold on domestic flights with BMI), and my Y flexible ticket equivilents would get a BA silver (after a year of slog) and with M&M I'd only just get to FTL... I'll miss my gold even before I've had it for more than a year, to put in perspective it only took about 6 months to get gold from a standing start with BMI.
A shame really about the LBA as might be moving to a London-Leeds commute soon, so, the economically friendly (but less airmile/status friendly) train would appear to be the only option now! But, it doesn't sound all bad, at least for the crew, if BMI are reallocating crew to the lufthansa routes rather than laying them off.
As always, first thoughts are with the bmi staff who may be affected by this.
Secondly, I can see why some of these cuts needs to be made. However some of this is bmi's own doing. Once again quite a few of the symptoms are caused by the strange revenue management policies on these routes. (Tickets from LBA-LHR?....in less than 2 weeks? That'll be £380 sir....!) Whether this policy came from revenue management themselves or BD management is a moot point now though.
As a part time lurker on here (I get a lot of useful information!) and operating crew for bmi, I'm sorry to everyone that'll be affected. These routes have been bmi staples for a long time and if the article is true, it'll be a real shame to see them go. Perhaps it's time to remove the 'm' from bmi for fear of being done under the trade descriptions.
Welcome to FT (as a poster at least) bmiwings - although shame your first post wasn't based on happier news.
Anyway, thanks to you and your colleagues for the service received. For those of us who fly on bmi, we appreciate you all looking after us.
As I said previously, they have created a self fulfilling prophecy. This is about slots, not about LBA being viable. Their are far less viable routes elsewhere on the network that i've seen.
Frankly, pretty hacked off this morning.
Really need LBA - FRA now to get a link to a hub.
I still wonder if it may happen from one of the aircraft leased to LH.
I would imagine LBA management will now be looking at other options for a connection to the capital. Don't be surprised to see someone like VLM into city as a tester.
So now I'm stuck with NXEC to London and LHR/LCY-FRA, Transpennine Express to Manchester and onwards with LH or Skyteam oh joy!
Me too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by allanhuk
I guess the rumours of LBA-FRA were just rumours then?
We can but hope .....
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheKipper
Frankly, pretty hacked off this morning.
Really need LBA - FRA now to get a link to a hub. .
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheKipper
I would imagine LBA management will now be looking at other options for a connection to the capital. Don't be surprised to see someone like VLM into city as a tester.
I guess they did the tester back in late 2004 early 2005 with the LBA-LCY three (IIRC) times daily, which ran for no more than four or five months. It was competitively priced but never very busy, largely I thought at the time because it just wasn't marketed/advertised very well.
I guess they did the tester back in late 2004 early 2005 with the LBA-LCY three (IIRC) times daily, which ran for no more than four or five months. It was competitively priced but never very busy, largely I thought at the time because it just wasn't marketed/advertised very well.
Yes, I remember those flights. British European at the time wasn't it? They were a full service airline at that point as well weren't they?
But maybe it wasn't full because everyone was on the LHR flight and getting their Diamond Club points!
Yes, I remember those flights. British European at the time wasn't it? They were a full service airline at that point as well weren't they?
But maybe it wasn't full because everyone was on the LHR flight and getting their Diamond Club points!
No, it was a bmi-marketed (and mileage earning) flight operated on a wet lease by someone else (I can't remember who ). Round trip price of not much over £100 as well.
Possibly this has something to do with reduction in slots. From Wiki bmi page.
As part of the deal to buy BMED, BMI sold BMED's Heathrow slots to British Airways for £30 million. These are due to be handed over to British Airways in late 2008/2009. This means that they will have to reduce some of their other flights to fit the former BMED flights in to the schedule in 2009. BMED was fully integrated into bmi on 28 October 2007.
). Round trip price of not much over £100 as well.
