My BMI experience LHR - EDI
Flying from LHR - EDI tonight on a PE ticket.
My first trip on BMI for a long time. Anyway, when I went to OLCI I noticed I'd been given a window seat (9F) when my preference is for a aisle seat
There were some aisle seats available in about row 22 or something so didn't bother changing it. No printer available when I OLCI'd so on arrival at LHR I joined the small queue for the 'priority' (can't remember exactly what it was called). Queue BMI woman asking me if I've got a gold or silver card or a business ticket (I was wearing trainers, jeans, t shirt, fleece, she didn't ask the suits in front of me). Said I've a PE ticket so she went away.
Got my boarding card and bag checked in. I enquired about any Emergency exit availability. Nice check in lady said there was a middle seat available (11b). I agreed to this (don't know why).
As I was on a Y ticket it was straight to the lounge. Getting through security only took about 5 minutes.
The lounge was quite empty (25% of chairs taken, ie, 1 person per table) so sat and had a couple of tins of Boddingtons waiting on my non-delayed flight.
Quite a nice lounge IMO, a good size and not smoky. Decent selection of booze and the coffee was quite good too.
Once on board the flight I was happy to find that the people in 11a and c were thin and that the middle seats on this plane were a lot wider than the a and c seat so a very comfortable flight as well. Might well stick to these middle seats in future.
Mr 12c was quite annoying though. He was complaining to one of the cabin staff that he was certain he had booked a business ticket and wasn't happy being the wrong side of the curtain. It was pointed out he had a PE ticket which is about the same price as a restricted business ticket (he claims he had no need for a flexible ticket). Eventually the cabin supervisor was brought up and he said to Mr 12c if there is space up front once everyone is on board that he would upgrade him which happened. If I was in a funny mood I might have said something as I thought it very strange. Anyway, I had a laugh as he was in the D seat immediately in front of the 'curtain' so spent take off with a stowed curtain between his head and the back of his seat.
Landed on time @ EDI and the bags came off pretty quick too.
Overall I was very happy with the service. I'm not sure if I would pay the cost of PE out of my own pocket for what is essentially just lounge access (I don't fly enough BMI at the moment to get Silver) but as I got 1200 membership miles and 3600 destination miles for that one sector then I feel that's quite good too.
Got some more BMI flights coming up soon so might be able to get to Silver. Don't think I'll fly enough to get gold but you never know.
I was comparing the number of flights to get Silver from BA vs BMI and I'd have to do 30 flights with BA to get the necessary tier points but only 14 BMI PE flights to get that.
As I'm likely to make a couple of personal flights a year with my wife to spend the holiday inn points then it makes sense to stick with BMI as I believe that as long as I book myself and the wife an economy ticket the silver card will get me and a guest into the lounge (can someone confirm).
What's the EDI bmi business lounge like around the 6am time? Is it stupidly busy like the BA terraces lounge (got in there once flying to LCY - very small) or is it quite relaxing as it's substantially bigger?
Anyway, in summary, looks like I'll be going for BMI from now on.
LL