It Doesn't Work
 

lhr-xxx-lhr (xxx to protect the hard working crew!) today

S standard fare out - row 14 but rtn Q baby fare row 4!

both ways people loudly complained at paying for tea/coffee/juice etc. and were "encouraged" to fill out a comments card ;) and both ways the crew never made it to the back before landing to sell the "food" anyway!

the rtn leg - cabin service manager himself loudly complained that the new service was "hopeless" and said "imagine if we were full!" - quite.

a few paeople did buy sarnies/tea etc. but (and not sure if on-going) now only two cabin crew!

all in all...pathetic...next stop BA CE to Prague....sanctuary per chance :confused: ??

Agree just flown LHR-Dub same situatuion, what gets me is paying Eur 180 and getting no points or lounge access.

BTW, my fare was £206 rtn.. :mad:

Very nice, if this weekend's anything to go by (my TP run for silver!)

Provided the ground staff there don't decide to op-up a stag/hen party... (Which the crew mentioned they can be slightly prone to do at weekends, as it gets horrendously overbooked.)

nooooo - I certainly hope not! that's one reason why we pay for premium tkts :(

When the food was free - I always use to pick up a really nice sandwich for the flight (normally either prawn or smoke salmon for me and Mrs UK1) - but are they really going to stop me from eating my sandwich now or will they turn a blind eye?

[QUOTE=OPENROAD No points or lounge access.[/QUOTE]

Do we know for sure lounge acces on tiny fares in excluded for *G?

Dan

Until they change their mind (shouldn't take long knowing bmi) this will be the case after October; in the meanwhile you can use the lounge on tiny fares.

my guess is that they will not turn a blind eye...

So what could they do about it. Put me off at the next stop?

If they wanted to be really extreme then they could get the captain to order you to throw away/store the food, and then report you to the police if you did not follow the captain's instructions whilst on board an aircraft.

I think that is highly unlikely, of course, and in practice like so much else this restriction is simply designed to deter the majority in the hope of increasing revenue.

I understood that the responsibility of the Captain was to ensure the safe progress of the aircraft. He is empowered to issue commands to facilitate that. I do not know where he would derive his powers to facilitate increased sales. How can eating a sandwich endanger an aircraft?

My comment was intended as firmly tongue in cheek - sorry if that was not clear.

That said, having read on these boards about how similar rules get interpreted in the US, anything is possible!

House

It goes to show the sheer stupidity of the ban. bmi can either turn law abiding, fare paying, passengers into criminals, or ignore their own rules.

It won't ever be a crime. It would be a crime to refuse to comply with "captain's authority". But he is only empowered to exercise his authority under circumstances where he believes safety might be compromised and to discharge his obligations of protecting safety. He hasn't any powers recognised by any police in any country with respect to peaceful people eating their own food. And of course his powers end roughly at the moment the doors open. If he tries to keep you on board after that then that's an offence by the captain. But we are extreming here ............

To follow the other paralel, if a restuarant wanted to remove you from eating your own food in a restaurant, the police won't help. They'll have to go to court and apply under the trespass laws. In the same way, I cannot see any sanction anyone has on a plane to stop me eating my prawn (or salmon) sandwich. They can huff and they can puff but there is nothing I can see other than to attempt to refuse to take my booking on other flights. But then I'd sue for the value of my DC miles.

"Your honour, we wouldn't let him on our plane because last time he refused to buy a cheese Panini, and instead ate his own prawn sandwich in front of all the other passengers."

And even if someone did try to take the sandwich from yours hands it would most likely count as assault.

A salt and peppery to be exact.

bmi seem to be making a ham of this and getting into a pickle as a result.

(Sorry)

The whole business is even more crazy when the crew announced on Tuesday that because of a full flight they wouldn't be able to take orders from everyone. The fact that this happened would make it very difficult for the crew to forbid you eating your own food.

Well, the obvious way to fix this would be to run the planes with fewer crew...

It'll even itself out soon, of course, when they find themselves with fewer pax...

So they can't even deliver the very limited service they promise? I know it is early days, but the likes of easyjet and IB do manage to get around the plane in time. If BD cannot do this then they need more staff on board.

I dont know about IB, but it figures regarding EZ & FR - their young Latvian & Irish staff are worked to the bone - how's BMI going to get their unionised & set-in-their-ways staff to do the same?

Probably BMI will back off making them work as productively as their new LCC rivals - hence it won't be able to compete.

Course they'll never dare give that as a reason for failure, maybe just a 'staff productivity did not meet expecations, but we anticipate improvements next quarter'.

To be honest, I've seen OS manage to serve a full A321 cabin with minimum crew in very little time, and that includes the free water/tea/coffee/chocolate that supplements the (actually quite tasty) paid food.

LHR-MAN on the fag-end of a transatlantic on AC. Forewent the Slow Connections Centre and exited through T1 immigration. T1 check-in pretty quiet.

No signs in the DC about consumption in the lounge...

Q class tickets got us 24EF, with a fair bit of empty space up front. Crew seemed a lot less chipper than usual (but it was early). Didn't make it back to serve food, which seemed to sell fairly well at the front of the plane. Several items were frozen, prompting much eye rolling from crew.

Priority bags came off last. At least MAN isn't changing ;).

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MAN-LHR on the tiniest of the worthless customer fares. Used the self check-in machine like a good boy, which offered me the whole scope of seats to choose from -- 5C, nice.

Went to drop my bag and said "5C on a tiny fare, it must be my lucky day." Agent rolled her eyes at the bag drop guard dragon, and mumbled "must be." I don't think she was rolling her eyes at me... perhaps the SSCI is not taking the changes very well either!

Several signs in the DC about consumption in the lounge. Staff not very happy about changes.

Quiet, uneventful, but delayed flight. Not allowed priority tags on my worthless customer fare, but the bag was 3rd off the belt. Nice to see that LHR isn't changing either ;).

EDIT: On both flights the flight crew (twice) "hoped that we enjoyed bmi's inflight service". Obviously they haven't left the cockpit for a while... :D

EDIT: Forgot to say -- five crew on the outbound (A320), five on the return (A321)!