Oxon Flyer

And here is the 2011 "Please report your successful redemptions using Diamond Club miles" thread continued from 2010. Looks like it's going to be yet another interesting year in these here parts...

Please feel free to post your bmi Diamond Club redemption experiences in this thread : routes, airlines, stopovers, miles & cash, fees/taxes/surcharges, availability, the call centre experience, ticketing etc; in fact anything that can provide ideas, inspiration and datapoints for others wishing to redeem.

The topic does not include bragging about, or having a poke at posters for, let's say "unusually creative routings". bmi's ticketing department now checks all award bookings before ticketing to weed out any illegal itineraries. If it makes it through ticketing, then it is a valid and acceptable booking under bmi's own policies and should not considered "gaming the system".

If you're new to making bmi redemptions, and especially if you join us having been given the blanket "no avaibility" brushoff from the call centre (referred to as the ICC) then this thread proves : It can be done! Just remember, search for your desired routing using the ANA tool to check availability, then call the ICC asking for the long haul segments first, then request any short haul connections. Never simply ask for an itinerary from X to Z, ask for X to Y and Y to Z. ^

Happy hunting, happy posting - and safe travels.

dannyrado

Made yesterday, so strictly a 2010 booking, but that thread is closed.

My first redemtion, so was quite daunted by it all, and suprised to see just how bad the ICC is. First call i got the blanket no availabillity reply. Even on the second, and booking call i got "that is available, oh no wait, it isn't. Oh, actually it is..."

Anyway, it's ticketed, so here it is.

FLL-EWR-MAN all CO C class. FLL-EWR is on the 737-900. EWR-MAN is on the 757-200 which fingers crossed will have the new beds.

2 persons, totals:
37500miles, £210 fare, £255 taxes, £9 cc (i think)

Booked for mid March, and used AA miles to get over the atlantic in the first instance.

pogonation

Is the ICC closed for new years day?

Just tried to ring and got an automated message saying it was closed.

Oxon Flyer

Yes, it is closed.

LufthansaFlyer

Did get an email response this morning from DC.admin though for a question I sent up yesterday. responder name was mid-eastern, perhaps from their non UK customer svc ctr?

onlysuites

I thought they only have one which was also where the call center is?

GoldCircle

bmi's main call centre - and the one that handles Diamond Club - is not in the middle east. It is in India. The also have a small one in the UK. And I believe there is a new one in the US, operated mainly for LH, but also encompassing bmi.

The name of agent means precisely nothing, as they are very often pseudonyms to facilitate some of their main customer base in the UK, that will not be overly familiar with Indian names. Have you ever been to Wolverhampton or Leicester or Harrow or the UK, BTW?

littlevoices

Smooth booking with Deepak for 2 to Brazil. Just a shame that LX F wasn't available on my dates (availability on ExpertFlyer but not ANA), so had to use the backup plan. However we decided to have the long Easter off far after the rest of the UK so we were happy to get any dates (Though we were originally looking at the West Coast of the US) - and till then will keep my eyes open for F seats.

LHR-GRU
JJ, 2xC
Per Pax; Tax: £240, Cash: £127.50, Miles: 18,750

GIG-GRU-LHR (Single Flight number, with technical change at GRU)
JJ, 2xC
Per Pax; Tax: £23.30 (Oh yeh!), Cash: £127.50, Miles: 18,750

Will consider adding an internal flight in a few weeks when the domestic availability window opens up and we have our plans better arranged, decided to grab the seats before they disappeared too. Taxes matched ITA very closely, just a shame for the first time in a long while we can't skip UK APD (At £150pp )

Flashyphotos

LHR-LAX-LHR NZ 1 X C

32500 + £220 M/C + £177.50 Taxes & Fees (Taxes seemed lower than expected but confirmed on Credit Card)

Out 24th Jan - In 31st Jan NZ001 & NZ002

(Booked 3rd Jan with ICC) First choice of dates available (Hadn't even checked )

all done dusted and booked and ticketed in 10 mins.

Booked to Tie in with a

LAX-PHX-HNL-SFO-PHL-SJU-PHL-SFO-LAX-LAS-LAX 5 Day Run!

sofasurfer

IIRC, there's now a direct service GIG-LHR (and FRA). After experiencing the same itin as you currently have planned, I'd strongly recommend you try to change it to one of the above. GRU lounge was incredibly overcrowded and not an experience I'd care to repeat (crap wi-fi, inadequate snacks for number of people in lounge, and that bloody pianist... ).

Also, I may just have been unlucky, but the overall quality of service experienced flying GRU-LHR wasn't a patch on the frankly wonderful one that we had for MCO-GRU.

Maybe even consider TP to get back to Europe from somewhere else in Brasil? I'd originally had CNF-LIS held but we decided to rebook as JJ still offered a complimentary transfer from LHR (now sadly unavailable to redemption pax).

I'd put a high value on avoiding that GRU stop (where you'll *have* to deplane) - and the TP LIS lounge was pretty darn nice. Only one shower, but the refreshments and funky lounge design made for a great layover ^

Mike - C London

Youngest starts university in 2011 so a good time to burn some miles (not tied to school vacs any more!) so looked at mid October (after he has succesfully navigated freshers week)

Spent some time on ana and suprised on the CPT J availability !! So rather than come straight back saw

2 x J SA - LHR - CPT
2 x J SA - CPT - SAO

Dec 30 - took 15 minutes to book - most of that time was taken up with loading taxes - very efficient but did not catch (his) name and on CMT straight away.

All Miles - 97.5 K pp
Taxes - 452.00 UK pp

Will meander down to BUE via Iguazu (will pay cash as pretty cheap flights and no J availability) not sure on return from BUE yet saw some LH F availability (even though I have quite a few miles - still a miser when it comes to 2.5 x Y ++++ with LH) BUT will wait and see if LX F (via SAO) opens up or might even try TAM again via SAO

Happy 2011

littlevoices

Thanks for the warning (which based on reviews I'd read prior to booking, I agree with) - there was even availability on the GIG-LHR, however we decided to take an extra day in Rio (8pm departure rather than 1am on Sunday) in return for a, probably, not so great flight (though at least it is cheap due to the lack of YQ).

Put simply: I felt lucky to have got any flights that maximise the UK Easter/Royal Wedding break; TAP didn't have availability with more than one business seat and alternatives such as AC and CO did have small amounts of availability, but at the cost of 3-4days of a 2 week holiday so skipped in the end and now have to keep our fingers crossed on the JJ quality roulette, or that something better opens up in the next few months!

(I've seen the LIS lounge before and liked it too, good food selection too - though followed by a poor TP flight in C intra-Europe, indeed their service seems to be with the same kind of roulette on service). In the end as this is only a business redemption at least it is reasonably cheap in miles/cash terms, if only there wasn't any UK APD.

GiddyKipper638

Travel March 2011:

FRA-JNB - C with Lufthansa on A380

JNB-CPT - C with SAA

Return:

CPT-JNB - C with SAA

JNB-LHR - C with SAA - Interesting as this flight is now showing as operated on their new A330 which is due to be delivered end of Feb so should only be a few weeks old when we travel. Will be interested if there is any significant difference in their C product over their A340's.

C+M booking for 2 adults 37500 miles each and total of £1228 cash/taxes/cc fee. All booked with ease in 10 minutes and ticketed within 36 hrs.

pomkiwi

C return to and from Bishkek. Booked 3/1/11 for travel in May. 2 people.

60000 miles plus £286 taxes / charges each.

Bought a few thousand miles to get to the required 120000 - transaction went through and miles available within 5 minutes.

Very efficient dealing with ICC (FRU is not available to book online) - whole process only took another 5 minutes.

Hee's hoping for a better experience than in June last year.

EsherFlyer

4xC OW LHR-BKK-SYD on TG for mid-2011.

Checked ANA first for availability first. 4xC not showing, so found 2xC with backup plan of booking additional 2xY if necessary.

Agent (missed the name) found seats straight away. After smooth transaction for first two seats asked that he recheck availability for 2 more. They were showing so immediately booked those.

Hadn't checked expected taxes, but did so using ITA as he read out the cash part of the C+M booking. Matcjed ITA within £2 (which may be my mental arithmetic).

First long range redemption, so v. pleased at how smoothly it went.