SILVER LIKE A SPARKLY DIAMOND - NOT ANY MORE - GOLD!! (bmi British Midland Diamond Club)

Member Name: Purdypops

Product:	bmi British Midland Diamond Club
Date:	29/01/05 (5300 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The more you travel the more your earn

Disadvantages: You have to keep adding to your total or you loose out

If you have ever read any of my recent reviews they are usually about travel. So it would come as no surprise if l were to say that l was a member of a few frequent flyer programmes.

At present we are concentrating on our BMI Diamond Club cards. For any flights we have to make to London Heathrow, from Belfast City, BMI are the only carrier making the journey so we are not left with much of an option but to use them.

BMI are part of the larger allegiances of carriers known as Star Alliance - this is where a grouping of carriers joins forces, code share and promotes their flights to various destinations, over and above other carriers.

Within the Star Alliance family at present along with BMI we have:
* Air Canada
o Air New Zealand
o ANA
o Asiana Airlines
o Austrian
o LOT Polish Airlines
o Lufthansa
o Scandinavian Airlines
o Singapore Airlines
o Spanair
o Thai
o United Airlines
o Us Airways
o Varig

Also South African Airways and Virgin are aliened with the Star Alliance grouping but as yet are not full partners - meaning you can spend your "air miles" with them but cannot earn on their flights.

So back to the Diamond Club with BMI - how does one join, is the main question. Now BMI are very good at letting in membership - some programmes want their members to have made out space trips on first class paying full fare (l jest but only just!) - you simply need to make a return flight, keep hold of your boarding cards and then log on to the web site at www.flybmi.com where if you go to the frequent flyers section you may down load the application form. Simply fill in your details and your application shall be processed.

Also if you know someone (like me!!) who is already a diamond club member - they can refer you to the club. Why? Simply both you the new member and the existing member will benefit - you will receive bonus miles - which can't be bad! So if you wish to become a diamond club member and have recently or are taking a bmi flight drop me a line with your email address and l will send you a new membership postcard!

After around 28 days you should receive in the post a membership pack which will include literature about the Star Alliance programme, your benefits as a diamond card holder and how to spend your earned miles, also you will receive your blue card which is a half transparent half blue card, and you will receive a luggage tag also. Should you loose either simply log on to the web site and order up a new card.

You will also be able to access your own personal page at the BMI website through which you can book travel on line, find out more information about spending your miles and indeed look at your recent Star Alliance flight activity.

So you will automatically join as a Blue card member, but as with all good frequent flyer programs the more you fly and the better class of ticket you travel on will ensure your passage up the ladder. So basically, along with collecting your "air miles" you can collect membership status miles also.

Each level within the diamond club allows you differing enhanced traveller benefits:

BLUE CARD

o Ability to earn both destination and status miles with the Star Alliance partners
o Work toward upgrading your blue card to a silver card (you need 16000 status miles to hit silver - the membership only lasts a year)
o Priority stand-by status
o Telephone check-in facility on certain flights
o Discount airport car parking
o Discounts and upgrades with hotel/car hire partners


Once you have hit your 16 000 status miles your grade level goes up a notch and you hit Silver! You do have to attain this status on a yearly basis to ensure you keep your silver card. You keep all the blue card benefits and are able to make use of the following

SILVER CARD

o BMI & Star Alliance partner's Lounge Access - this is where you really want to be believe me!
o 25% extra destination bonus miles each month
o Priority business check desk - even if you're travelling economy
o 20 kg extra baggage allowance
o dedicated silver line enquiry number

Now top of the heap and again available only the yearly achievement of 38 000 status miles is the gold card. The benefits additional to that of blue and silver are:

GOLD CARD

o Complimentary upgrade vouchers to use on BMI flights or those operated by BMI.
o Dedicated gold card enquiry line
o When available complimentary upgrades for the card holder and a companion to either business or the economy plus cabin (similar to BA's world traveller plus)

Lounge Access

My other half has a gold card (lm the poor relative in comparison) and lm lucky enough to hang off his coat tails, and get lounge access. So, what's so great? Well peace and tranquillity away from the throngs and crowds, nice seating areas to work, or read, complimentary sandwiches, drinks - soft and alcoholic, complimentary papers and magazines and basically a restful area to be in whilst waiting on your flight.

So how does one earn those all important destination/status miles?

Well you will earn both sets of miles on all your flights - for example from Belfast to London with BMI we usually earn 330 miles, both status and destination. When flying recently with Thai, from Bangkok to Phuket (a star alliance partner) we gained 700 status and destination miles. These are for both legs of the journey also. Should you travel on business tickets or fully/partially flexible tickets your mileage will increase.

You don't have to simply fly to gain destination miles - bmi MasterCard classic credit card is a way of gain further miles each month, also there are numerous partners willing to give you more miles for using their products and services over others. Companies such as Hertz, Avis and Budget car rental will all give destination miles; also the likes of Hilton, Jury's or Radisson SAS will also give members miles for staying with them. American Express will also transfer points.

Now down to the most important bit - how do you spend the miles?

Simply pick up the phone and call the diamond club priority reservations line and you can use your miles to spend on flights as well as hotels and car hire. To give you an idea of what amount of mileage is required for a BMI baby UK domestic return flight you will need to have 12 000 destination miles. It is also worthwhile noting that all taxes are not included and you will have to pay for these separately. A virgin return economy flight between the UK and for example Boston you will be expected to spend 45 000 miles, and pay for taxes.

Overall? Why not eh? I have to fly with BMI to get to Heathrow for any long haul flights, we can get lounge access and lm well on my way to upgrading to a silver card, and if lm collecting destination miles along the way its an added bonus! I would definitely recommend to you all joining Diamond Club and the wider grouping of Star Alliance.

Since l originally wrote this review l have since become Silver Status - this is a new card which is valid for a year during which time l must earn the qualifying membership miles to hit the silver target again, or will downgrade to blue. I now can access the lounges in my own right (l have yet to do this - although l shall be doing so at the end of Feb when we are off to Toronto), l get extra baggage allowance (Paul does not like the sound of this!!) and if you have account activity i.e. take flights or gain destination miles l now get a 25% monthly bonus on my destination mileage account. All in all not bad! I'm very nearly at the target of 50 000 destination miles which will grant me an economy flight with Virgin to South Africa - my Toronto trip (flying Air Canada) should sort this out! Now you cant complain about a trip to South Africa (flights at least) for practically nothing - albeit taxes!

A year later and guess what lve upgraded again - no longer do l need my other half to get into lounges, lm a gold member in my own right - yeah hey for a year anyway!! I joined the BMI/Star Alliance scheme less than 2 years ago and in that time through taking 6 trans-atlantic/long haul flights l have gained gold membership - non of this travel was for business (my company like all of them now stick us on low cost carriers!). So it is possible and sometimes you do have to choose a carrier whose ticket is not the lowest price to your destination but it can be worth it. Also even better l have enough airmiles to fly me return to New Zealand which we are doing next Jan 2007! Thank You Diamond Club!

Heather ©

Summary: Upgrade from Blue to Gold in under 2 years - and reap the benefits!