Just back from the USA I was due to return to MAN on BD706 yesterday but due to thunderstorms in Chicago I missed the connection from my UA/Ted flight from Orlando.

There were a total of 18 passengers connecting on this flight but BMI made no efforts to hold the plane or provide any suitable alternative flights home (I can totally understand them not holding the plane due to making their connections in MAN).

I was lucky, I made it to the Red Carpet Club in T1 Chicago where a fantastic UA rep spoke to the BMI representative in T5 who informed her that I was re-booked on the BD706 the next day! She took one look at my face and said that is not suitable and then said that I would not go over to T5 to see BMI (I had said nothing!) she then got the BMI rep to issue a re-booking code and she booked me onto the UA 938 to LHR connecting on the BD588. To top off this fantastic service she said that I was now booked in D class (I was traveling in BMI business class) and that I could upgrade to first using one of my SWV - perfect.

On the BD flight to MAN the flight was full of people who should have flown on the BMI Toronto flight that was cancelled yesterday and had to re-route through LHR.

This is my problem, with BMI flying only one plane on these routes and no true customer service in the USA they are compromised on their service and unfortunately I will not be using their excellent service again.

They need to decide what market they want to serve business or pleasure and with the introduction of the LAS and Caribbean flights it looks like they are after the pleasure markets. To encourage more high revenue business people they should run the ORD flight back later at 9.30pm so you can get a full days work in that day or make later connections before flying home and scrap the LAS flight and run it to DEN instead so they can use this true UA hub for connections