Dreadful experience with BMI
Jan 22, 2005, 7:33 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: UK
Posts: 5
Dreadful experience with BMI
Over the New Year a friend of mine came from Chicago to Edinburgh for his brother's wedding. He planned to fly BMI, ORD>MAN>EDI. When he asked me about my impressions of the airline, I told him I thought they were good enough. After what happened to him, I have to change my views.
Before he flew, he found out form the travel agent who had booked his flight that there was a problem. It turned out that his connecting flight from MAN to EDI did not operate on the day that the travel agent booked it (27/12/04) and that in his booking profile on the BMI site his connecting flight was changed to one which left for EDI before his flight from ORD arrived in MAN. I offered to call BMI for him here in the UK to try and sort it out. I spoke with someone, unfortunately I did not get his name, and while he was polite and friendly and eager to help, clueless does not begin to describe him. When I pointed out the fact that the connection was impossible to make, all he could say was "Yeah, you're right." He did make the valid point that it needed to be sorted out with the travel agent directly, and I explained that my friend was trying to do that, but could not get through on the phone. I had offered to call BMI here to see if they could do anything. While looking at other flight possibilties, I asked him if there was a BMI number in the US the passenger could call to discuss what to do. He said he did not think there was, I said that I could not believe that BMI was trying to serve the US market with no number there. I pointed out that I would be sure it would also have to be a free of charge number. He went off to investigate and eventually came back with a 1-800 number as expected. Why is this information not given on the BMI website? I also asked how they could allow a booking with what was obviously an impossible connection to sit on the website and not raise any questions with the passenger. He did not have an answer for that.
My favourite moment however was when he said that on looking at the flight from ORD to MAN is arrived at 06h25 (+1), "that must mean they are putting the clocks forward that day." I had to bite the receiver so as not to laugh.
On the 27th, when my friend went to check in, he was told that the flight was cancelled, the plane never having left Manchester due to snow. Was there that much snow in Manchester that day, and if so why did BMI not advise passengers in the intervening 10 hours or so they must have know that that night's ORD>MAN flight was not going to operate? Luckily Aer Lingus agreed to carry him and he made it to Edinburgh and the wedding on time.
When it came time to return to ORD, he checked in in EDI. After a long wait in a slow moving queue, the check in agent said that there was some problem with the ticket and that he would have to leave the queue and go to the ticket desk. She said there was some mention of BA in the notes on the booking, which confused my friend end since he had no reason to think there was any BA involvement. When he reacted in a surprised way and asked for more details, a very officious check-in manager, we assume, arrived on the scene and very dismissively, having studied the screen in front of him for about 4 seconds, said "Yes, our flight must be delayed so we are switching you to BA to make sure you make your connection." Since time was tight, I asked if the passenger would be able to check in at the ticket desk once the problem was resolved, since he did not have time to come and join the long queue once again. We were assured that check in would be done at the ticket desk.
Over we went to explain the situation, expecting a BA boarding pass to be issued, to be told by the agent there that there was nothing changed at all in the booking, the BA reference was to the flight which BMI were planning on putting my friend on in place of the cancelled out bound flight. He of course had taken matters into his own hands and approached EI. He then asked thisa agent to check him in anyhow onto the BMI flight, only to be told that this was not possible there and that he would have to rejoin the check in queue.
He had to go back and in fact was forced to push to the front of the queue, understandably annoying other passengers who did not know the reason, but had he not done so, he would have missed his flight.
The final insult was at MAN, when they were bussed out to thier A330 for the transatlantic flight. The bus stopped at the foot of the steps, and the doors remained closed for 40 minutes and the passengers were left waiting, being told nothing.
As you might imagine, my friend is not looking to travel with BMI again in the future.
Before he flew, he found out form the travel agent who had booked his flight that there was a problem. It turned out that his connecting flight from MAN to EDI did not operate on the day that the travel agent booked it (27/12/04) and that in his booking profile on the BMI site his connecting flight was changed to one which left for EDI before his flight from ORD arrived in MAN. I offered to call BMI for him here in the UK to try and sort it out. I spoke with someone, unfortunately I did not get his name, and while he was polite and friendly and eager to help, clueless does not begin to describe him. When I pointed out the fact that the connection was impossible to make, all he could say was "Yeah, you're right." He did make the valid point that it needed to be sorted out with the travel agent directly, and I explained that my friend was trying to do that, but could not get through on the phone. I had offered to call BMI here to see if they could do anything. While looking at other flight possibilties, I asked him if there was a BMI number in the US the passenger could call to discuss what to do. He said he did not think there was, I said that I could not believe that BMI was trying to serve the US market with no number there. I pointed out that I would be sure it would also have to be a free of charge number. He went off to investigate and eventually came back with a 1-800 number as expected. Why is this information not given on the BMI website? I also asked how they could allow a booking with what was obviously an impossible connection to sit on the website and not raise any questions with the passenger. He did not have an answer for that.
My favourite moment however was when he said that on looking at the flight from ORD to MAN is arrived at 06h25 (+1), "that must mean they are putting the clocks forward that day." I had to bite the receiver so as not to laugh.
On the 27th, when my friend went to check in, he was told that the flight was cancelled, the plane never having left Manchester due to snow. Was there that much snow in Manchester that day, and if so why did BMI not advise passengers in the intervening 10 hours or so they must have know that that night's ORD>MAN flight was not going to operate? Luckily Aer Lingus agreed to carry him and he made it to Edinburgh and the wedding on time.
When it came time to return to ORD, he checked in in EDI. After a long wait in a slow moving queue, the check in agent said that there was some problem with the ticket and that he would have to leave the queue and go to the ticket desk. She said there was some mention of BA in the notes on the booking, which confused my friend end since he had no reason to think there was any BA involvement. When he reacted in a surprised way and asked for more details, a very officious check-in manager, we assume, arrived on the scene and very dismissively, having studied the screen in front of him for about 4 seconds, said "Yes, our flight must be delayed so we are switching you to BA to make sure you make your connection." Since time was tight, I asked if the passenger would be able to check in at the ticket desk once the problem was resolved, since he did not have time to come and join the long queue once again. We were assured that check in would be done at the ticket desk.
Over we went to explain the situation, expecting a BA boarding pass to be issued, to be told by the agent there that there was nothing changed at all in the booking, the BA reference was to the flight which BMI were planning on putting my friend on in place of the cancelled out bound flight. He of course had taken matters into his own hands and approached EI. He then asked thisa agent to check him in anyhow onto the BMI flight, only to be told that this was not possible there and that he would have to rejoin the check in queue.
He had to go back and in fact was forced to push to the front of the queue, understandably annoying other passengers who did not know the reason, but had he not done so, he would have missed his flight.
The final insult was at MAN, when they were bussed out to thier A330 for the transatlantic flight. The bus stopped at the foot of the steps, and the doors remained closed for 40 minutes and the passengers were left waiting, being told nothing.
As you might imagine, my friend is not looking to travel with BMI again in the future.
Jan 22, 2005, 8:11 pm
#2
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Berkeley, CA
Posts: 2,290
Sorry to hear of the mishaps with your flight DavidM.
- The rebooking of the original connecting flight was obviously poorly executed -- this has come up in the past, and is a source of annoyance to many on this forum. Your travel agent, however, had the responsibility for informing you, and the onus was on the agent to ensure everything had been rebooked successfully.
- Telesales agents come and go, with every airline. I have had some fantastically able people at bmi, and some very unhelpful ones. I can say the same about BA, AA, QF, Natwest...
- Not sure what to say about ORD -- you don't give much information. The flight was cancelled, not long before departure, so bmi put alternative plans in to place to get you to EDI. But you didn't use them? Or they weren't offered? I don't follow, sorry.
- Staff at EDI... well, obviously pretty poor work by all there. There's not really much excuse, they should have handled you better. I think perhaps the cutting in line, while a little awkward, was not the end of the world
You could have used the business/silver/gold queue, or gone to fast bag drop (the other side of the pillar, where no one could see you ).
- As regards the US telephone numbers -- flybmi.com does have them. Pretty easy to find as well:
Reservations: USA Toll free 1 800 788 0555
Customer Services: 1 866 716 3790
To be honest, as I went through your points, I couldn't really describe the experience as 'dreadful'. Sounds like you were unlucky with weather and a travel agent/bmi communications breakdown. However, you got to where you needed to go and on time. I sympathize with 'unhelpful staff' -- itfrustrating in any business, and particularly important for bmi to get right.
It seems like a shame to write off the airline based on one (almost) poor experience, but I do understand 'fool me once...'
- The rebooking of the original connecting flight was obviously poorly executed -- this has come up in the past, and is a source of annoyance to many on this forum. Your travel agent, however, had the responsibility for informing you, and the onus was on the agent to ensure everything had been rebooked successfully.
- Telesales agents come and go, with every airline. I have had some fantastically able people at bmi, and some very unhelpful ones. I can say the same about BA, AA, QF, Natwest...
- Not sure what to say about ORD -- you don't give much information. The flight was cancelled, not long before departure, so bmi put alternative plans in to place to get you to EDI. But you didn't use them? Or they weren't offered? I don't follow, sorry.
- Staff at EDI... well, obviously pretty poor work by all there. There's not really much excuse, they should have handled you better. I think perhaps the cutting in line, while a little awkward, was not the end of the world
You could have used the business/silver/gold queue, or gone to fast bag drop (the other side of the pillar, where no one could see you ).- As regards the US telephone numbers -- flybmi.com does have them. Pretty easy to find as well:
Reservations: USA Toll free 1 800 788 0555
Customer Services: 1 866 716 3790
To be honest, as I went through your points, I couldn't really describe the experience as 'dreadful'. Sounds like you were unlucky with weather and a travel agent/bmi communications breakdown. However, you got to where you needed to go and on time. I sympathize with 'unhelpful staff' -- itfrustrating in any business, and particularly important for bmi to get right.
It seems like a shame to write off the airline based on one (almost) poor experience, but I do understand 'fool me once...'
Jan 23, 2005, 5:01 am
#3
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: All the wrong places..
Programs: SQ TPP, BA Gold, Hyatt Life Glob, SPG/Marriott Life Plat,
Posts: 3,371
The reason the BD flight from ORD on 27th didn't run will probably have something to do with the chaos at MAN on Boxing Day when, to their deep embarassment, they ran out of de-icer 
. Not the sort of thing that should be happening to 20million+ pax a year International Airport 
A number of flights were delayed or cancelled although I was under the impression the ORD flight left about 10 hours late. Still, the above doesn't make good reading at all and I can understand the annoyance.
. Not the sort of thing that should be happening to 20million+ pax a year International Airport A number of flights were delayed or cancelled although I was under the impression the ORD flight left about 10 hours late. Still, the above doesn't make good reading at all and I can understand the annoyance.
Jan 23, 2005, 5:51 am
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: London, UK and Southern France
Posts: 18,390
Originally Posted by DavidM
As you might imagine, my friend is not looking to travel with BMI again in the future.
Jan 23, 2005, 6:59 am
#5
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: MEL
Programs: BA Gold; VA Velocity Gold; LH FTL; Marriott Gold; ICHG Platinum AMB; Hilton Gold
Posts: 5,393
Sounds like a bad experience. That said, the travel agent your friend used does not seem very well informed. For example, BMI do have a call centre in the US (with some very pleasant and able staff, I might add). The freephone number is 1-800 788 0555 . This is advertised on the website, in the BMI timetable, and I've even found it in phone directories in Chicago. It also comes up on Google.