Help - has BMI booking engine lost the plot?
Feb 12, 2011 | 2:41 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: UK - BHD
Programs: BMI Diamond Club refugee: BA-Br; HH-D
Posts: 912
Help - has BMI booking engine lost the plot?
Sorry in advance if this is an inappropriate place to post this one...
Looking to book an award flight BHD-LHR but no availability on the BHD-LHR leg on any day for 2 weeks beginning 20 June (perversely the LHR-BHD leg has loads of availability). This is really bizarre as usually there's lots of availability on this route, esp so far in advance.
Cross-referencing with the flybmi booking engine, every single BHD-LHR flight for this 2 week period has a price tag of 110 sheets!!! Same price for an economy seat on each flight. Weeks either side are completely fine costing from $27 and with appropriate price variation between different flights on a given day. This has got to be a bug in the system, surely!
The question is, can anything be done to resolve this bug - ie is there any legitimate way to flag it to BMI?
Cheers,
DCf
Looking to book an award flight BHD-LHR but no availability on the BHD-LHR leg on any day for 2 weeks beginning 20 June (perversely the LHR-BHD leg has loads of availability). This is really bizarre as usually there's lots of availability on this route, esp so far in advance.
Cross-referencing with the flybmi booking engine, every single BHD-LHR flight for this 2 week period has a price tag of 110 sheets!!! Same price for an economy seat on each flight. Weeks either side are completely fine costing from $27 and with appropriate price variation between different flights on a given day. This has got to be a bug in the system, surely!
The question is, can anything be done to resolve this bug - ie is there any legitimate way to flag it to BMI?
Cheers,
DCf
Feb 12, 2011 | 2:58 pm
#3
Join Date: Nov 2006
Programs: Seniors Bus Pass
Posts: 5,561
Not necessarily a bug.
It is the time of year when lots of perfectly sensible people decide that NI is not where they wish to be, and this is the escape route, so the fares are ramped up. Same goes for the ferries. From 1 July - 13 July or thereabouts it still remains a time when "the natives are restless" and the sound of the jungle drums can be heard disturbing the evening calm when the soothing bubbles in the G&T would be preferred by many, including me.
I think school holidays may also be kicking in adding to the joy.
Just my 2d, if you think the "cultural celebrations" are a joy, feel free to forego your G&T and take your goatskin for a walk
It is the time of year when lots of perfectly sensible people decide that NI is not where they wish to be, and this is the escape route, so the fares are ramped up. Same goes for the ferries. From 1 July - 13 July or thereabouts it still remains a time when "the natives are restless" and the sound of the jungle drums can be heard disturbing the evening calm when the soothing bubbles in the G&T would be preferred by many, including me.
I think school holidays may also be kicking in adding to the joy.
Just my 2d, if you think the "cultural celebrations" are a joy, feel free to forego your G&T and take your goatskin for a walk
Feb 12, 2011 | 3:18 pm
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: UK - BHD
Programs: BMI Diamond Club refugee: BA-Br; HH-D
Posts: 912
You might be right about this being demand-driven by holidays and the annual exodus during our mad season...
... but the deranged fares begin early, on 20 June, and seem to have 'normalised' by 6 July - which wouldn't entirely fit with this explanation! Whether a bug or deliberate, it feels like a fleecing-fest!
... but the deranged fares begin early, on 20 June, and seem to have 'normalised' by 6 July - which wouldn't entirely fit with this explanation! Whether a bug or deliberate, it feels like a fleecing-fest!
Feb 12, 2011 | 9:19 pm
#6
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: BHD/DUB
Programs: BA Gold, TK*G, EI Elite
Posts: 7,622
'Market Driven Pricing' involves evaluating what your competitors are charging at any given time so you remain competitive. Now bmi, in their mind, don't have to do that because, in their mind, they don't have any competitors on the LHR route.
Therefore, my advice to the OP about a "legitimate way to flag it to bmi" is simple; fly Aer Lingus who have fares from 23.99 (10.00 more if you have a bag) most days during the same time period.
Therefore, my advice to the OP about a "legitimate way to flag it to bmi" is simple; fly Aer Lingus who have fares from 23.99 (10.00 more if you have a bag) most days during the same time period.
Feb 14, 2011 | 2:11 am
#8
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 4,061
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)
NI school holidays presumably (3-4 weeks earlier than GB). No great mystery.
NI school holidays presumably (3-4 weeks earlier than GB). No great mystery.
Feb 14, 2011 | 10:53 am
#10
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Scotland
Programs: not a lot
Posts: 1,774
Same goes for the ferries. From 1 July - 13 July or thereabouts it still remains a time when "the natives are restless" and the sound of the jungle drums can be heard disturbing the evening calm when the soothing bubbles in the G&T would be preferred by many, including me.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...itch-hunt.html
Feb 14, 2011 | 3:04 pm
#11
Join Date: Nov 2006
Programs: Seniors Bus Pass
Posts: 5,561
.... its OK in Belfast. The jungle drums are only sounded on the ritual parade past the statue of the Black Man near Inst. In celebration of the cultural respect and tolerance that NI became so famous for in the last century!
Feb 28, 2011 | 2:14 pm
#12
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: UK - BHD
Programs: BMI Diamond Club refugee: BA-Br; HH-D
Posts: 912
Sorry in advance if this is an inappropriate place to post this one...
Looking to book an award flight BHD-LHR but no availability on the BHD-LHR leg on any day for 2 weeks beginning 20 June (perversely the LHR-BHD leg has loads of availability). This is really bizarre as usually there's lots of availability on this route, esp so far in advance.
Cross-referencing with the flybmi booking engine, every single BHD-LHR flight for this 2 week period has a price tag of 110 sheets!!! Same price for an economy seat on each flight. Weeks either side are completely fine costing from $27 and with appropriate price variation between different flights on a given day. This has got to be a bug in the system, surely!
The question is, can anything be done to resolve this bug - ie is there any legitimate way to flag it to BMI?
Cheers,
DCf
Looking to book an award flight BHD-LHR but no availability on the BHD-LHR leg on any day for 2 weeks beginning 20 June (perversely the LHR-BHD leg has loads of availability). This is really bizarre as usually there's lots of availability on this route, esp so far in advance.
Cross-referencing with the flybmi booking engine, every single BHD-LHR flight for this 2 week period has a price tag of 110 sheets!!! Same price for an economy seat on each flight. Weeks either side are completely fine costing from $27 and with appropriate price variation between different flights on a given day. This has got to be a bug in the system, surely!
The question is, can anything be done to resolve this bug - ie is there any legitimate way to flag it to BMI?
Cheers,
DCf
I have finally worked this one out! Several FTers suggested that this pricing spike is due to NI school holidays starting, but its just a bit too early...
However, this 2 week stand-alone period of sky-high fixed prices on every single BHD-LHR flight coincides exactly with wimbledon (20 June-3 July).
Good to have cracked the reason for this, though depressingly its unlikely to change. while I used to be unenthusiastic about wimbledon season - now I really hate it!!!
DCf