Raffles

1. You do NOT get BMI Silver with the BMI credit card (even if you get the Silver credit card!). However, BMI will status match you to most other FF schemes.

2. FRA-LHR is operated as a BMI codeshare on the LH service

frankvb

Not sure if you are confused - the bmi Silver credit card doesn't make you a bmi Silver member. It's not like e.g. the KLM AMEX card in the Netherlands, which matches its colour to the FB elite level.

Only available to UK residents as per T&Cs.

Singapore_Air

FrankVB and Raffles: Yes I was confused. Thank you.

"However, BMI will status match you to most other FF schemes."

Intriguing :-D! We must research.

Traveloguy

The research has already been done and there is a thread to prove it!

RAPC

Thanks for a really good set of posts from everyone. I've decided to move over to Star Alliance and BMI going forward due in part to BA abandoning the north of England and partly for great deals on award flights via BMI.

I have a quick question about the credit card though. Is it something that my wife and I can apply for separately, or would they expect us to have one account in the household, with an additional card holder?

If it is a case of one each, then following the fine tips from everyone on here then I'd expect that we'll be off for a very nice trip late next year!

Private Pyle

One for each of you is fine, we've had X2 cards each so far.

Raffles

Indeed, one basic card each followed in a couple of months by one premium card each!

That's 40,000 free miles each which is good enough for a business class 'cash and miles' flight to the US!

RAPC

Thanks Private Pyle and Raffles. Exactly the news I was hoping to hear.

South Africa in business class is sounding like a distinct possibilty (awards availability permitting) at some point next year!

Jetstreamer

Actually it seems to work all over the place. I flew HKG-SIN-CPH with SQ and asked for biz class. Biz was available for the HKG-SIN portion but only Y was available for SIN-CPH. I was therefore charged Y miles for the whole journey but travelled in biz from HKG-SIN.

I also got an F seat on UA when travelling MAN-ORD-YVR for Y miles with the BD leg in PE with the free gold redemption upgrade.

The trick is find a flight where you know the short leg has no Y availability.

ba bob

Great post! Many thanks for the tips on this. Got the BMI card a while ago due to the VS one being terminated. Now I know how to make the best of the new miles!

Generally, whats F/J availability like with SQ to SIN? Had a quick look on the ANA site and saw no seats at all for a while.

Raffles

1 seat in F is usually obtainable, but not 2. If you want 2 in F, you need to search for 1, book it, and then hope that another one opens up. They never seem to open up 2 at once.

If you look in the 'post your redemptions' thread you'll see that SQ seats are certainly not impossible to find.

frankvb

For F you'll need to book a long time (350 days?) in advance. Tried to get LHR-SIN for mid-July (wasn't expecting much as it is peak holiday season), and there wasn't any. Settled for a connecting flight via BKK - SQ F SIN-BKK, TG F BKK-LHR.

For SQ J SIN-LHR on the other hand there wasn't a problem - lots of availability around mid-July.

BTW: only checked for 1 seat...

randalf

Hi all,

As a long-time user of this miles-generating method, it should be made clear from the hints given above (but covered in older threads) that there's nothing to stop you going through a "rinse and repeat" cycle for multiple cards, certainly for the non-fee paying ones.

A conversation with an MBNA agent clarified how it worked, when they called to assess a "borderline" application of mine. Essentially, they had a "bucket" of credit they were prepared to give me, and they didn't really care how it was doled out. Thus my two dormant BMI cards at the time were taking up most of my allocation and hence this third application was pushing me over the top. However - and this cannot be overstated - they'll happily cancel any old cards at which point this credit will go back into your "pool" which can be allocated to new cards. With this application, they actually did this all over the phone, cancelled two cards for me and then sorted out the new one!

The only caveat is that you do need to leave an amount of time between applications, since credit searches will affect your credit rating if too many are seen to be done in a short space of time.

For reference, my current "churn rate" is about once every 3/4 months, and I've made around 100k in miles through this method.

(I'll leave the wider implications for the level of UK debt and the part the credit card companies play in this matter for another thread!)

Darryl

Singapore_Air

Clever you Randalf. and Kudos.

randalf

*laughs* Thanks, although I can't imagine I'm the only one doing this; makes you wonder what BMI are getting out of it!

To belabour my original point even further, I've just got off the phone with MBNA after cancelling (yes, another) BMI card. This thread reminded me I'm due another round of applications...

Anyway, as a parting comment, the helpful agent on the other end of the phone was at pains to point out that I could now, if I wanted, allocate this freed-up credit to one of my other still-active MBNA cards! I politely declined (I have plans for that spare credit!) but it's - touchwood - confirmation that this method of miles accrual is still valid.

Darryl