TermsApply

Unfortunately I have fallen for BMI's marketing tactics and have been collecting points in the hope of cheap flights to south africa next year.

According to the BMI info a business class return will cost me my balance of points and a few hunderd pounds (plus a few more for taxes). So far so good, business class on south african airlines for maybe 700 all in.

I attempted to book for next october and now I find the catch - there are no business class places available - and according to various forums it appears impossible for anyone to get a business class flight on any long-haul route using bmi miles.

They have plenty of economy seats but as I am paying part miles / part cash (plus tax) the savings are small.

It might appear to the average member of public that BMI are not being particulaly honest.

Well you may say it was something for nothing and I haven't lost any money. In fact as I have used BMI's credit card exclusively to get as many miles as possible. I have lost several hundred pounds worth of more tangible rewards from reputable credit cards!

I won't be flying with BMI or collecting any more worthless miles.

patgarrett

Not true at all. See this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...46922&page=107

Use the ANA tool for checking availability (see the Sticky at the top of the page).

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ht=seatcounter

It takes persistence to book these seats. Don't give up so easily.

Oxon Flyer

Welcome to Flyertalk TermsApply ^ Therapy is at hand right here on the bmi board.

To the uninitiated, redeeming hard-earned bmi miles for premium (Business & First) seats can indeed look like an impossible task.

However, the good news is that, with a little knowledge and legwork, it is certainly very possible to get the seats, as a quick look at some of the many successes in this thread will testify.

If you take a few moments to look at the READ THIS FIRST thread stuck at the top of this board, you can find out how to find and book these seats. Granted, some routes (South Africa being one of them) and some dates are harder to find than others, but the seats are there if you can show some flexibility and perseverence.

FlyingOnceMore

Then my dear chap (or chapess) you need to educate yourself by reading a quality forum like this one where you'll find all the details pertaining to booking awards. Saying that, a short lesson in why you can't get what you want right now -

1. Many airlines won't even sell you a revenue ticket for next October yet, never mind make award seats available. Not much point looking until 330 days prior to departure.

2. Even when the booking window opens, the lack of award seats is nothing to do with bmi. They can only book award seats when the operating carrier, be it SA, LH, LX etc. releases them. Something bmi have no control over.

That is, of course, your perogative.

skywalkerLAX

I recommend using Lufthansa via FRA !

Availability comes up several days before departure if you dont find anything right now

Taxes & fees will be a killer though

kawoh

there are a range of routes u could consider. might i ask r u looking at capetown or jo'burg?

jo'burg generally has better C class availability on south african (for travel nxt yr). i would encourage u to think out of the box, including:

- turkish airlines for IST, then connecting through on a south african flight or turkish? [plenty of c class on turkish airlines]
- bmi to cairo (or egypt air - ech), then cairo to jnb.
- bmi to cairo, egypt air to dar es salaam, then south african to jo'burg.

that's just a few tasters worth considering, plus u could make an interesting stop on the way to cairo, or istanbul.

NWA747SNN

Mile per mile IMO, BD to be the most valuable airline miles. Welcome to FT, take the advise above and you will go far - at the front of the bus

Private Pyle

You 'fell' for it but you had the brains to find this place.
Read the above posts, do as they say and I'm sure you'll find seats.
The bottom line is you're looking for seats in Oct 2009 and it's far too early at this stage.

Swanhunter

Exactly. Try again in a months time and you should find something.

BD miles are bloody fantastic. One of the best deals out there right now. ^

ajamieson

Feel free to try any other frequent flyer program and see how you get on. I am confident you will find little difference in the overall ease of finding award seats - particularly on super-high-demand routes like business class to South Africa. You hve to put in the work to get the exact seats you want.

Mr H

I got back from Cape Town two weeks ago on a business class SAA award ticket. The route was CPT-FRA-EDI, with the second leg on LH.

To get to South Africa, I used a redemption route IST-BEY-CAI-JNB-CPT with TK, MS, MS, SA in business class. I paid for EDI-LHR-IST positioning flight with BA.

So it can be done.

Mofomat

To be fair though, flying EDI-LHR-IST-BEY-CAI-JNB-CPT on 4 different airlines is a bit extreme just to get to CPT. I would love it myself as I love flying, and I'm sure you did too, and got to see some unusual places on the way, but I think most people would, given the choice, just buy a revenue ticket in economy LHR-CPT if that was the alternative.

Raffles

Absolutely nonsense. Flexibility is often required but its rarely too much of a struggle.

I had no problem getting 4 J seats on the same NYC flight next June, and we've got LH F seats to Dubai booked for January. BMI J to Moscow was also no trouble last year.

Use the ANA tool, learn how it works properly*, use M&M to search Swiss as well and something may turn up.

* For example, ANA only shows flights with 1 connection. So, it won't offer you LHR-FRA-JNB-CPT even if available. You need to search FRA-CPT and then find the connection afterwards.

South Africa is a pain for seats. It was easy until SAA scrapped First Class and scrapped 747's out of London. This dropped capacity sharply.

Remember also that ANA only shows 330 days ahead, so you won't see next October anyway.

Mofomat

This year I have NEVER not been able to book at least something that has been suitable. The sheer number of carriers in the Star Alliance means there is always a way. This year alone I have booked using miles:

DUS-MUC-BKK
LH/TG (Business)

JFK-FRA
SQ (Business)

MCO-CLT-LGA/JFK-FRA-BRU
US/LH (First/Business)

BRU-LHR-SIN-CMB
BD/SQ (Business/First)

BRU-LHR-SIN-BKK
BD/SQ (Business/First)

NRT-FRA
LH (First Class)

LAX-SFO-HKG-SIN
UA/SQ (First/Business)

JFK-FRA-DUS
LH (First/Business)

MAN-FRA-MEX-PHX
LH/US (Business/First)

JNB-ZRH
LX (First)

TPE-SIN-LHR
SQ (Suites)


Pretty much every time I got my first choice of travel, after checking what was available on ANA.

Macspreader

And another OP who'll leave a rant and then run away. Probably.

Welcome Termsapply, please feel free to let us know that you are still around, read the threads highlighted above and then tell us what flights you end up booking .