Will BD implement a new award redemption rate?
 

I was on the phone with ICC earlier to redeem award tickets, the lady mentioned something like they are going to implement some kind of three level tiers redemption rate.

I was in rush, so did not discuss this further and I know implementing tier redemption rate on partner airlines inventory is almost impossble, even DL can only tier their own inventory, but it's highly likely that BMI will increase the redemption rate soon.

PS. I know I should not pay too much attention on what I heard from ICC, but just bring this up for us to speculate, maybe someone also heard something too.

Perhaps it might be:

UK/Ireland domestic or a non-UK *A hub connection : 3x miles
UK/Ireland to the last two interesting bmi destinations : 2x miles
Any bmi destination in the world that no one would ever go unless their employer sent them : 1x miles

I'll take two of those, please :D

If bmi want to increase the number of bookings by DC members, those on FT anyway, on their own metal they'd probably have to implement the following three tiers......

• Free
• Gratis
• For Nothing

The Aberdeen route will have to expand its capacity!

:D

No, Aberdeen doesn't count. Too many nice golf courses nearby. And it falls under domestic so 3x miles! :)

Well, we've seen the call centre talk to customers about forthcoming changes in the past and those changes became reality. I think pappa LH has had its thinking hat on...

My guess, on the basis of a considerable number of recent reports along the lines of "I can see X on ANA, but the ICC can't", only to be followed 24/48/72 hours later by those seats materialising, is that there will be a system much like Flying Blue uses for standard, flex and dump the crap availability - namely standard miles, if seats available, double miles for unlimited availability to Gold members and where a route is dying on its feet, reduced costs. It might even open up SQ seats.

Alternatively, there might be a reduction in costs for Silver and Gold members as a perk,(or more likely, the converse no increase for those with BIS status) given that current bmi tiers offer almost nothing for bmi flyers (apart from the 55k mularky, that is). This means that the general redemption table for Blues will see an increase in cost - mostly to take out all those people with vast numbers of AmEx miles. Given how much they are pushing the card (ie getting MBNA to hand over cold hard cash to the airline in return for those miles) and how successful the card has been in the market place, this makes perfect sense in terms of rationalising the shocking balance sheet, without alienating people who actually fly on planes to the extent that they are valuable.

Great. And for those of us who have little/no access to any bmi routes any more that' s the peeve.

Many of us have been loyal for years and have seen the route network decimated to nothing that's useful, and are forced to use tinpot excuses for airlines like WW. I have been racking up the Amex miles lately (more fool me I guess). Maybe it's finally time to jump and find something else. Except that I am now halfway to another set of awards for the family :rolleyes:

This might make perfect sense but would be totally out of character with BD's moves since the LH takeover: the tendency has been to iron out the advantages of status. The message from BD in the LH era has been: if you want love, give me money NOW. (Q: does that make LH BD's pimp? :eek:)

Time for another buy miles promo then ;)

What are the promotional rates when they do appear? My calculations show that it's worth buying the max amount of miles per annum even at the current price, so a discount would be an even better occasion.

I would fear for the future of miles+cash in any 'enhancements' that we may see. Miles&More might be getting closer than previously thought. :(

Saying that, though, UA recently introduced "miles and money" awards, and I believe BA has had a similar system for some time. It'd be typical for good ol' bmi to go in the opposite direction now. :rolleyes: One difference, though, is that I think those two systems limit premium awards under M+C, rather than the generous awards we get.

Who said they were going in the opposite direction?

And have we seen even the slightest indication in the last year that we are even half a step closer to M&M? I think not.

In fact, the only semi-solid indications of anything we have had, were a couple of conversations both myself and Bristol Flyer had with M&M execs - and they couldn't have been clearer - they did not want DC. And they were very clear about that, as the cost of absorbing it would be silly in the short to medium term.

I think we'll just be seeing the bean counters/sensible new managers impliment some steps to return DC to it previous very healthy profit levels.

I was just referring to soy's post about Miles and Cash potentially being "enhanced" away. Of course, there's been no proof to say that, just saying that it would be a shame if it were to be the case!