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The Definitive Guide to the bmi Mastercard/Redeeming bmi Miles (Thread Closed)

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The Definitive Guide to the bmi Mastercard/Redeeming bmi Miles (Thread Closed)

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Old Jan 19, 2007, 12:33 pm
  #1  
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Arrow The Definitive Guide to the bmi Mastercard/Redeeming bmi Miles (Thread Closed)

MODERATOR EDIT: This excellent thread is now locked, as it is out of date - the discussion now continues in bmi FAQ No. 3 for Credit Cards and in bmi FAQ No. 4 for Redemptions


Hi All,

This is the second version of the definitive guide and is accurate as of December 2007. Many thanks to all FTers for their input into the first version, but particularly to Raffles for his invaluable assistance. ^^

------

Opening a DC Account:
First things first, if you haven’t already done so, sign up for the BMI Diamond Club here --> http://www.flybmi.com/bmi/en-gb/freq...entflyers.aspx . Once you’ve created the account, BMI will match a BA Gold/Silver card to BMI Gold/Silver (*alliance Gold/Silver). Fax a photocopy of your BA Card, a print out of your online statement, and a covering letter saying you’ve got lots of domestic flights coming up and are disillusioned with BA (blah blah blah) to +44 (0)1623 724099.

NB - It is important that you've already opened a DC account before applying for the credit card.

20,000 Bonus Miles MBNA Deal:
Full details of the card can be found here. There are two types: The bmi Classic Mastercard earns 1.5 DC miles per £1 spent and has no annual fee. The bmi Mastercard (not classic) earns 2 DC miles per £1 spent and costs £60 per annum. Both cards are available in normal (blue) or platinum (silver) derivatives. You will receive 20,000 bonus destination miles if you spend £250 within the first 90 days of holding the card.

Following tightening up by bmi/MBNA, you will only receive one 20,000 point bonus, irregardless of how many personal cards you apply for. Some have reported success with second cards for spouses, others have reported the "one bonus per household" rule being enforced.

If you have a small business, you can also get the MBNA Small Business Card which also comes with 20k miles.

If you already hold an MBNA credit card (e.g. Priority Club), I advise you to cancel it before applying for the bmi card to reduce the risk of being rejected.

NB - Following a brief intermission, you can now apply online again.



Other Useful Ways to get bmi Miles (without actually flying!):
You can also earn bmi miles in a number of other ways. These include 1,000 miles per night at the following hotels:
  • Grange
  • Hilton
  • Jury's Doyle
  • Jury's Inn
  • Radisson SAS (not USA)
  • Radisson Edwardian
  • Taj

To claim miles following a hotel stay, post a copy of your receipt/bill along with a covering letter, to:

bmi Diamond Club
PO Box 5050
Annesley
Nottingham
NG15 0DL

bmi are also extremely generous in giving 1,500 bmi miles for all non-corporate car hires with Hertz (+200 bonus miles if youbook the car through the bmi website). You can also get 10 DC miles per £1 spent at NCP car parks. Finally you can also transfer miles from Amex Membership Rewards and BAA Worldpoints (500WP=750DC miles).

Further details on all these offers can be found towards the bottom of this page.


Where can bmi miles take you?:
So the long and short of it is in about 6 months, you (and whoever else does this) will have at least 40k miles. So where does that get you, I hear you ask? Have a look here --> http://www.flybmi.com/bmi/src/html/d...pendmiles.html

You’ll see a large grid with the number of miles needed to fly between zones. However what we’re interested in is the bit in brackets (no. of miles plus cash). So for example, London (zone 1) to anywhere in US (zone 3) is 25k miles plus 140 quid in Economy (plus taxes). To work out this out for J (business class), multiply both numbers by 1.5 and for F (First Class), multiply both by 2. So, continuing our example, UK to US in J is 37.5k miles plus 210 quid cash!! Given that these miles have cost you nothing (well, £60), this is an absolute bargain!!!

You can fly on ANY of the Star Alliance carriers using these BMI miles (incl. Singapore Airlines who do a handy FRA-JFK!).

NB: you don't have to buy flights for yourself using your miles, you can book for anybody (e.g. spouse/friends or how about me? ) This is particularly good if you can get, for example, your parents to sign up and use the card once, and then you can have their bonus miles!!


Award Redemption Tips:
A useful resource when searching for redemption flights on the ANA tool is this full Star Alliance Timetable PDF.

A couple of extra tips… do not ever book a return award. Always book it as two separate one-ways. This costs you no more in miles or cash, but gives you the flexibility to change the return journey after you’ve taken the outbound (which booking a return award does not).

Don't forget you are allowed one stopover in each direction at NO extra cost! I recently booked SFO-JFK, JFK-LHR for the same price (of miles and cash) as SFO-LHR direct. NB: You are not allowed any stopovers in Europe (zone 1 or zone 2).

Another tip, regarding award class: If you are on a J redepmtion, and you have a domestic 2-class flight included in your itinerary, you are eligible for the F cabin. NB: On TED flights, you are NOT eligible for Economy Plus, even on an F itinerary! The only way into that cabin is with some form of UA status.

If you're heading to Hong Kong or China, you can take advantage of the main anomoly of the award chart - that Europe 2 to HK / China is a lot cheaper than UK (Europe 1) to HK / China. First Class, for eg, is 50,000 miles + £340 compared with 70,000 miles + £480. You should start your trip in a Europe 2 country like Denmark or Italy (e.g. - CPH-FRA-HKG) and pay for a cheapo return from London to CPH to start your trip. This is a bit of hassle but you save a lot of miles. In addition, travelling Zone 2 to Asia will also save £70 in UK departure taxes, assuming you are booked in J or F. If you fly Zone 1 to Asia, you will pay the full £80 long-haul departure tax because you are connecting to a long-haul J or F flight in the same booking. If you fly Zone 2 to Asia, and buy an Economy positioning flight from London to, say, Copenhagen, you only pay £10 UK departure tax.

FYI, if you book SQ F, checkmytrip.com will show it as Economy. Do not panic, this is a known CMT error, and not a problem with your booking! You can go ahead and call SQ for seat selections and book the cook if you wish.

It should be noted that the above tip regarding APD is valid for all destinations, not just Asia. By departing from anywhere except the UK, you will avoid the stupidly high APD charges.

It is also worth noting which Star Alliance partnershave fully horizontal (ie BA-style) flat beds in business class. At the moment, you have SAA, Air New Zealand (on selected services) with Air Canada coming in during 2007. Thai is near enough flat, I think. The LH J seats are VERY slopey - you need to fly F if you want to fly flat. SQ also have completely flat seats in J on their brand new 77W aircraft, however they have removed all award availability for F and J on those flights

Also, bmi miles never expire, so you don't need to rush to use them! Although, with so many free 20k bonuses, you might as well!!


Checking Award Seat Availability:
So, you've got your miles, you know where you want to go, now how do you check *alliance award class availability? This is an obscure process, but definitely worth it, as it makes calling BMI to book your award flights much much easier:

Join All Nippon Airways (ANA) frequent flyer club called the ANA Mileage Club --> https://cam.ana.co.jp/psz/amc/jsp/regist0_e.jsp

Once you’ve registered they’ll email you your Mileage Club number straight away (as well as send you a nice pack in the post within a few weeks). Once you’ve got that number, go here --> https://aswbe-i.ana.co.jp/p_per/sky_...SearchLogin.do and login. Then click on the middle blue bar on the right “Star Alliance flight awards”, and search for the flights you want. NB Make sure you search sector by sector, it struggles with the concept of stopovers! Also it struggles with LHR-JFK (now no longer served by *A), but it will be fine if you do LHR-FRA and FRA-JFK for example. NB: The ANA tool will check *A availability for all airlines except Swiss (LX). When you see the results page, an orange box with a circle in it signifies that there is award availability on the selected flight (table row) and class (table column).

To check Swiss availability, you need to have a Miles&More account with at least 3k miles in it. Alternatively, if you have an under-18, they can sign up to M&M without the 3k minimum. ALternatively, if neither of those options work for you, head over to the FT Miles&More board, and politely ask for an award availability check. The friendly guys on that board are always happy to help and check availability through their account.


Booking Award Seats:
Once you’ve found the flights you want and confirmed there is availability, call +44 (0) 870 606 9977 or 01332854274 (instead of the expensive 0870 number) to book the flights. It will put you through to an Indian call centre, this is normally my greatest fear when calling companies, but my experience with these guys is EXCELLENT, as are the experiences of many other FTers who are very complimentary about them on the BMI board.


Troubleshooting:
Sometimes MBNA don't add the bonus miles/ordinary miles to your DC account, but actually make a new one for you. If this happens, call MBNA and ask them for the DC account they are using, then email Diamond Club explaining the problem and they will sort it. Please note that emailing bmi is the ONLY way to solve this problem. DO NOT telephone the call centre as they are unable to merge accounts. Use this email address: diamond - DOT - club - AT - flybmi.com


-------

I hope this guide has been useful for you and will ultimately enable you to get some nice free flights. If you have been able to take advantage of it, could I politely ask you to consider making a donation to DREAMFLIGHT 2007, a charity proudly supported by Randy Petersen and flyertalk. Any donation you can offer will be gratefully received and will help towards allowing a severely disabled child the chance to go on a once in a lifetime trip to Florida . Thank you.


If you have any suggestions for additional input to this guide or any corrections, please post below or contact me by PM. I will endeavour to keep this guide as accurate and up-todate as possible I would be particularly appreciative if somebody would be kind enough to write a little section about booking classes and how to earn miles by flying (not something I do very often! ). Thanks!

Hope that helps,
Lewis

Last edited by GoldCircle; Jan 6, 2009 at 9:26 am Reason: Update ANA Registration Link
More Champagne Sir? is offline  
Old Jan 19, 2007, 3:10 pm
  #2  
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Originally Posted by More Champagne Sir?
Award Redemption Tips:
A couple of extra tips… do not ever book a return award. Always book it as two separate one-ways. This costs you no more in miles or cash, but gives you the flexibility to change the return journey after you’ve taken the outbound (which booking a return award does not).
Agree entirely with the above, but do have a small caveat. Even though, the cost in terms of miles + cash will be the same, IME taxes + charges will be higher.

i.e. what I mean is if you book say LHR-JNB-CPT-JNB-LHR on one ticket then IME the taxes (circa £190) are lower than if you had bought LHR-JNB-CPT and CPT-JNB-LHR as separate awards. This has happened to me a couple of times, although in theory it shouldn't!
AJLondon is offline  
Old Jan 20, 2007, 2:27 am
  #3  
 
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Might I suggest a change of subject line to "Definitive Guide to earning and redeeming with bmi Mastercard"?

Secondly, would anyone like to take on a rewrite of the FAQ which we could then combine with MCS's excellent post above? I don't really have the time at the moment. For that matter, given that my silver card will shortly drop to blue, I'm not sure I have the knowledge any more either...
Wingnut is offline  
Old Jan 20, 2007, 3:34 am
  #4  
 
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Thanks for the info on the ''Award Redemption Tips:'' never considered doing that before . I guess you call up twice otherwise they will just book a return right??? ^
DELLAS is offline  
Old Jan 20, 2007, 3:59 am
  #5  
 
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Originally Posted by AJLondon
Agree entirely with the above, but do have a small caveat. Even though, the cost in terms of miles + cash will be the same, IME taxes + charges will be higher.

i.e. what I mean is if you book say LHR-JNB-CPT-JNB-LHR on one ticket then IME the taxes (circa £190) are lower than if you had bought LHR-JNB-CPT and CPT-JNB-LHR as separate awards. This has happened to me a couple of times, although in theory it shouldn't!
also, if you need to cancel the whole trip, then you will pay two cancellation charges. it may make a difference to some people.
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Old Jan 20, 2007, 6:28 am
  #6  
 
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Originally Posted by DELLAS
Thanks for the info on the ''Award Redemption Tips:'' never considered doing that before . I guess you call up twice otherwise they will just book a return right??? ^
No, you just ask to book two one ways.
Private Pyle is offline  
Old Jan 21, 2007, 8:52 am
  #7  
 
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NB: you don't have to buy flights for yourself using your miles, you can book for anybody (e.g. spouse/friends or how about me? ) This is particularly good if you can get, for example, your parents to sign up and use the card once, and then you can have their bonus miles!!

Not quite sure I understand the above...
Does this mean that my mother in law can sign up (and request a 2nd card in my name) for any of the BMI credit cards and give MBNA my existing DC number on the application form?
Would my DC account be credited with all the miles resulting from credit card spent and the 20000 bonus miles?

Thank you in advance for clarifying.

Nikita
Nikita is offline  
Old Jan 21, 2007, 10:09 am
  #8  
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
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Originally Posted by Nikita
NB: you don't have to buy flights for yourself using your miles, you can book for anybody (e.g. spouse/friends or how about me? ) This is particularly good if you can get, for example, your parents to sign up and use the card once, and then you can have their bonus miles!!

Not quite sure I understand the above...
Does this mean that my mother in law can sign up (and request a 2nd card in my name) for any of the BMI credit cards and give MBNA my existing DC number on the application form?
Would my DC account be credited with all the miles resulting from credit card spent and the 20000 bonus miles?

Thank you in advance for clarifying.

Nikita
The point being made is that you can persuade friends and family to apply for the bmi credit card. They should use the card at least once and earn 20000 miles and, perhaps in exchange for a small gift , they may decide to allow you to use their miles for your own use.


Originally Posted by More Champagne Sir?
If you're heading to Hong Kong or China, you can take advantage of the main anomoly of the award chart - that Europe 2 to HK / China is a lot cheaper than UK (Europe 1) to HK / China. First Class, for eg, is 50,000 miles + £340 compared with 70,000 miles + £480. You should start your trip in a Europe 2 country like Copenhagen or Milan (for eg - CPH-FRA-HKG) and pay for a cheapo return from London to CPH to start your trip. This is a bit of hassle but you save a lot of miles.
MCS? - Many thanks for taking the time and effort to construct this 'Ultimate Guide' ^ . However, you may like to re-word the highlighted text
TEX277 is offline  
Old Jan 21, 2007, 10:27 am
  #9  
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Originally Posted by TEX277
MCS? - Many thanks for taking the time and effort to construct this 'Ultimate Guide' ^ . However, you may like to re-word the highlighted text
Will change that now, thanks for highlighting it!! In my defence, I just copied and pasted that whole paragraph of text from a post Raffles made in version 1 of this guide!!
More Champagne Sir? is offline  
Old Jan 21, 2007, 2:17 pm
  #10  
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Never thought about booking two one-way trips instead of one return. Great idea. Thanks.
Rambuster is offline  
Old Jan 22, 2007, 8:28 am
  #11  
 
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Hey thanks for this, I did not know about the zone 2 thing. Bargain.
BigVince76 is offline  
Old Jan 22, 2007, 9:15 am
  #12  
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Originally Posted by BigVince76
Hey thanks for this, I did not know about the zone 2 thing. Bargain.
Indeed. Even if you need to pay for an overnight hotel in Copenhagen or Milan, the £140 saving on the 'cash' part of 'cash and miles' means it is worth it because of the 20,000 miles saving.

When I did this last year, I used 10k Hilton points for a night in the Scandic Copenhagen. Sadly this great deal on Scandic's has now disappeared, although it did last for about 5 years.
Raffles is offline  
Old Jan 22, 2007, 9:38 am
  #13  
 
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Originally Posted by Raffles
When I did this last year, I used 10k Hilton points for a night in the Scandic Copenhagen. Sadly this great deal on Scandic's has now disappeared, although it did last for about 5 years.
Or pay for a night in a Hilton family hotel and earn another 1,000 points towards the next trip
RAPC is offline  
Old Jan 23, 2007, 7:18 am
  #14  
 
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I thought this was potentially a more relevant and up to date forum sticky than the out-of-date FAQ until such point as someone rewrites the FAQ...
Wingnut is offline  
Old Jan 23, 2007, 9:51 am
  #15  
 
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Originally Posted by More Champagne Sir?
It is also worth noting which Star Alliance partnershave fully horizontal (ie BA-style) flat beds in business class. At the moment, you have SAA, Air New Zealand (fully flat on the LHR-LAX service) with Air Canada coming in next year.
Excellent guide - thank you? Once small possible correction. It appears from the NZ website that they now offer flat beds (VS suites I believe) on their HKG route as well as LAX? http://www.airnewzealand.co.uk/trave...ne/default.htm
aristoph is offline  


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