Long time reader of flyertalk but first time poster here...the latest raft of booking changes has pushed me to action!

First off, I commute at least monthly between DUB and LHR, all things been equal I always try to fly bmi for the great crews, clean aircraft, baggage allowanace, and DC points generating opportunities around every corner.

Knowing my work schedule long in advance I'm lucky that I can pick and choose the best times and fares when sales are on, for this reason I had bmi flights booked for Easter, May bank holiday, Jubilee bank holiday at decent fares and times that suited me-usually the circa 19:30 flight from LHR-DUB and last flight out of DUB on a Monday.

Yesterday I come home to a inbox with 21 schedule change emails with the number of emails as usual with a schedule change been sent every couple of hours until you submit to the schedule change.

All this email nonsense is excusable given that its obviously an IT error but their method of moving flights is rediculous. Apart from the fact that the new 17:00 LHR departure will probably revert back to 19:30 by tomorrow, some of the other changes are bizarre. Quick example is a DUB-LHR flight I had for Easter Monday. Previously booked to leave DUB at 19:30, now moved to a flight at 13:40..even though for that day theres a wild schedule curently on the booking engine with DUB-LHR departures at:
07:45
10:45
13:00
13:40
14:30
19:00
21:35

The same problem exists for all 6 flights I've booked, with all these changes they currently are all worthless to me. Thanks BMI, I'm sure a long protracted discussion with a call centre is forthcoming to look for a refund on all of these flights.

Lesson to me, EI are the only dependable choice for DUB-LHR. Apologies for the rant but for several years I've given BMI the benefit of the doubt when changes happened but this email assault and nonsense time changes and the hassle it creates negates any benefit of booking in advance in BMI.

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

I was going to say phone the ICC and get yourself moved to a more sensible flight time, but I think your time would be better served finding the nearest gale and unzipping your pants...

stifle says it all really. Having a quick scan of the schedule and availability I'd say don't bother calling bmi for a while, touch nothing as it's quite obvious they've decided to play KerPlunk in public.

Presumably due to the random allocation of flight numbers bmi has on this route. Defies all logic at times (most of the time?)

I still try to avoid EI as much as possible though, would rather have slightly less favourable times (if available...) than endure the green mile on departure and the risk of 27B. I'm hoping IAG will see value in allocating one or two more slots to DUB to create a well spaced out / useful schedule that will capture business traffic.

Looks like on the LHR-DUB Friday segment that I was complaining about it seems that the wonderful 2200 departure is an April phenomenon only and that from May the 2200 flight is gone and 1700 is the last LHR departure on a friday evening now for the summer which frankly sucks even more

However looking at Expertflyer is still shows a quite different set of flights to those on flybmi.com (and availability shows, they're not zeroed out)

for example on 13th April :

Flybmi has LHR departures at :
0700 BD121
1025 BD123
1105 BD125
1700 BD131
2200 BD129

Expertflyer (and presumably most GDS based systems) have:
0700 BD121
1105 BD123
1700 BD125
1945 BD131

This current bout of insanity seems restricted to Friday evenings - on other weekday evenings they've got a 7pm ish flight listed on flybmi.com

I in common with Shamrock712 would love to flybmi if I could .. but they're just making it harder and harder to do so ... they really don't seem to be trying any longer.

(Also please sort out the irritating bug where when a flight time is changed it sends out about half a dozen emails with the same content within a few minutes of eachother!)

An LHR-DUB at 2200 would get one up on EI as well, whose last departure to DUB is (IIRC) 2110. (It does have an ORK departure at 2215 or thereabouts.)

I suppose for connections maybe there might be an argument for a late flight .. but pretty much anyone wanting to just fly from London and do anything in Dublin that evening it's waaay too late (arrives in Dublin after the pubs are closed!) and the preceding flight 6 hrs earlier is a bit early without taking 1/2 day off work.

Can we not just have the ~7pm flight back .. can easily do a full days work in London and still be back in Dublin in time for a few drinks !

Thankfully, this bit is not true.

The rest, alas, is accurate.

Seems like the schedule is still not finalised, so odd that theres 2 business friendly evening departures from LHR on Thursday for example, but last flight on Fridays is 5pm?

My inbox is braced for another onslaught of change mails!

Monday is a cracker.....

BD129 17:00 LHR 18:20 DUB

Economy �45.00 3 seats left
Economy Extra �223.69 3 seats left
Flexible Economy �241.69 4 seats left

BD125 17:00 LHR 18:20 DUB

Economy �168.69
Economy Extra �223.69 3 seats left
Flexible Economy �241.69 4 seats left




God love 'em.....

I feel like a newbie by asking this but still why not.

I have not done BMI since a while but my corporate booking tool now has forced me onto BMI for DUB-LHR-DUB and when I went ahead and tried to book my seats (premium economy flights) the seat map is only displaying 2 seats per side (A/C and D/F) not the 3 seats per row that I remember.

Now the aircraft on both flights is a A320 (it�s the BD 122 on Monday and BD 131 on Wednesday), so I am now confused are we to 2x2 for premium economy or is it just the BMI does not show these seats until last moment or am I just a lucky person and I got the flights with a mid-haul configuration?

Help please.

Currently the system is showing your Monday flight operating on G-MEDN, an A321 with a mid haul business cabin, you'll have on demand IFE (for about 15 minutes!) and mood lighting (if the crew remember to switch it on). The flight on Wed is showing G-MEDK, an A320 with a mid haul business cabin and on demand IFE, but no pretty cabin lights on this one! Both flights are pretty much fully booked at the mo.

Thanks bwaflyer, that means I'm just lucky.

Just before I go and cancel the previously mentioned flights and book EI, are their any whispers of a post 5pm Friday LHR-DUB departure returning? The topsy turvy schedule has not seemed to have changed at all in the past few weeks.

It's hard to get a feel for the majority view re: EI vs. BMI on this route.

I am flying BA JNB-LHR, arriving on a Sunday in June at 5:40. I figure the current 8:40 departure LHR-DUB shown on the webiste is reasonable (I need to store some bags, will have arrivals lounge access on BA); the cheap return is a tad too late for me (21:35), but perhaps worth it for the extra time in Dublin and saving the money.

While I'm pretty flexible about an earlier return, an delay on the outbound (giving me a 4 or 5 hour layover) would be not good, nor would an earlier departure that didn't give me enough time to store luggage.

Any thoughts between BMI and EI? BMI is somewhat cheaper taking the late flight, EI has many flight options.

Thanks in advance.
Beachfan