E-ticketing only and £3 surcharge at flybmi.com
 

As from midnight last night (thanks for the long notice period http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif ) all bookings at www.flybmi.com will attract a £3 surcharge unless you use a debit card.

Furthermore, only e-tickets can be issued online; there is no longer any option for paper ticketing.

So you spend £3 in order to save £5, and then have no choice of ticketing.

[This message has been edited by ajamieson (edited 01-07-2003).]

Hi,

Have bmi been taking lessons from Ryanair ( charging for using credit cards? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif)

Regards
TBS

I noticed this too (just in time to get my Switch card out). They do seem to be taking lessons from Ryanair (or maybe bmibaby?) on this!

I'm surprised they haven't followed LH and allowed people to have paper tickets (while offering an incentive to those who choose etickets) - seems much more sensible, especially during the transitional period while staff are still getting used to them.

Are there any e-machines to e-check these e-tickets at, allowing you to bypass the queues and go straight to the DC lounge?

Otherwise it's spectacularly useless.

Not yet.
Quite.

In fact, it's worse. At the moment, you can check-in at the lounge or gate with a paper ticket, but now your plans are at the mercy of BAA security staff. Until now, this has been one of the great advantages of BD - 15 minute check-in at gate or lounge at EDI, for example.

[This message has been edited by ajamieson (edited 01-08-2003).]

Aer Lingus have started doing the same thing - they impose a €3 / GB2 handling fee for all onlines bookings.

-- Dambus

According to Diamond Club customer service you can get past security with a print of your itinerary with the bmi logo or on your travel agents headed paper.

Haven't actually used e-ticket yet, but have to say I don't fancy being turned back by security. Conversely I'd be concerned if they let me through with a simple printed A4 page. I'm sure I could create a forged bmi document within half an hour - not really the kind of security you expect.

I know they planned to intoduce e-ticketing and check-in machines last year, but think it was dropped as a cost saving measure. They need to be careful that they don't alienate business travellers by subjecting us to easyJet style check-in procedures.

------------------
Nick

I have an e-ticket for DUB-LHR next month - I chose my Diamond Club card as the selected form of identification .

Hypothetically, if you were to check in in the DC lounge, you would only have to wave your frequent flyer card at security.

Now that is trully frightening!

And there's more...

The other day I rang up to make a reservation, and the voice said something like "book on line at flybmi.com and get a ten pound discount per return trip". Hang on, I thought. Ten pounds?!

So when I got through to a real person I asked them if they'd doubled the online discount. They said they have put non-online prices UP by 2.50 per leg. (But the website has still to be updated).

Well, I decided to put this to the test and you can see the results for yourselves here. I guess gaining access to airside areas is no big deal if you don't have a ticket to travel, but it is a pretty poor state of affairs. Out of interest, on the second occasion I was waved through without being asked for ANY evidence of means to travel.

Obviously, it's no big deal at all. The difference between getting through with or without a £20 ticket is negligible. The point is, everyone goes through security.

The interesting story would be how you can get on a domestic flight without showing any ID whatsoever... how about using the website to book yourself onto flights in really dodgy names (names of famous terrorists, scoundrels and all round bad guys) and then turn up and get on the flights?

[This message has been edited by Wingnut (edited 01-27-2003).]

Easily done, using the exact same method as I used at EDI. Simply check in and hand your boarding pass to somebody else (a religious fundamentalist, perhaps) who has gained airside access using a forged itinerary.

But arguably (I'm playing devil's advocate here!), why is this an issue? Let me put it this way:

Pre September 11th, ID was never requested for domestic flights. So arguably, I could have bought a ticket, decided not to travel and let Mr. X be YOWkid... He would have to go through security anyway.

So today, ie. post September 11th, we both carry a document to get past security, I get the boarding pass issued post security and give it to him to fly. We have both been scanned.

What difference does it really make? Yes, it's illegal, but not unsafe, if you know what I mean...

Ah, YOWkid, you miss my (admittedly not particularly overtly made) point.

In the UK there is no legal requirement to show any ID at all before getting on a domestic flight. While the low-cost carriers insist on this, bmi (and to my knowledge BA) don't.

Thus anyone could get on any flight in any name (I myself once gave some domestic tickets I couldn't use to a friend so he could enjoy a weekend in Belfast).

When checking in on flights to MAN I sometimes produce my passport, more out of habit than anything else. They never look inside it and always hand it back telling me it is unnecessary.

Even with etickets, they only need you to produce the debit or credit card you want to use to identify yourself with. It needn't even be the card you paid for the ticket with (the website lets you choose another card), and no further details are asked for. I could quite imagine them swiping the card without even checking what name is on it, and whether that name corresponded to the eticket.