I got exactly what I payed for - and was perfectly satisfied (bmi British Midland in general)

Member Name: BabyGirl08x

Product:	bmi British Midland in general
Date:	21/10/08 (447 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, easy, nice cabin crew, good legroom

Disadvantages: No inflight entertainment, a bit late on arrival, sour milk??!

British Midland airways (BMI) are a London Heathrow/Manchester based airport flying their modern fleet of aircrafts to Europe, North America, Carribean, Middle East, Africa & Central Asia.

I always love knowing a bit about what aircraft I'll be flying on, so heres a bit of info on their modern fleet.

Airbus A319-100 - 11 in fleet
(Short haul routes)

Airbus A320-200 - 13 in fleet
(Short haul and short haul plus routes)

Airbus A321-200 - 8 in fleet (note, they have ordered another 4)
(Short haul and short haul plus routes)

Airbus A330-200 - 3 in fleet
(long haul)

Boeing 757-200 - 2 in fleet
(long haul)

Embraer ERJ 135 - 4 in fleet
(short haul/domestic)

Embraer ERJ 145 - 13 in fleet
(short haul/domestic)

On my flight, I had the plasure of flying on the A320 - 200.

A bit of personal expeirence.

Finding an October flight from Glasgow to Dalaman was absolute chaos ! With all the rising flight prices, we through there would be no chance for getting away. When using our beloved "Aegeanflights.co.uk", we couldn't get any results for flights.. which we though was pretty strange as they were always the best for finding cheap Turkish flights. I decided to try one way only, just to see if we got any results.. and we did! There was a flight for £90 with the flight code starting with "BD".. I assumed this was some cheap & tatty Turkish airline that was running charter flights.. which we weren't too bothered about. A lot of people expect a lot from airlines.. like velvet seats, personal TVs, a jazz dance with five men in stripy waistcoats and ties throwing their top hats in the air whilst serving the finest champagne...

But for me, Im happy with at LEAST a wing or engine on each side of the aircraft and a wheel. Perhaps, a seatbelt if i'm being fussy, or maybe even a safety card if i'm really really fussy. But I don't care as long as I get there. Still, I was sure I knew every Turkish airline in the sky, and BD was NOT one of them. I done a sneaky search on Google, and found that "BD" stood for British Midland. I was quite surprised, really. I never knew British Midland would do a flight so cheap. Although, I had never known British Midland to fly to Dalaman, especially from Glasgow. So I searched it on the Glasgow Airport's website. There was no record. I searched it on BMI's website. There was no record. Eventually, I gave up. I though hey, if it's not BMI, big deal!

We arrived at the airport, Saturday night, 19:40. Not the most ideal flight time, but it beats an early morning flight, eh? We arrived nice and early as the rest of our party were from Perth, a 2 hour drive away. We didn't want to be late for them after all that travelling. After about half an hour of waiting, there was a screen, facing directly at us, saying "BMI" "BD7469". I was so relieved to find out we were not travelling by some tatty one-wheel aircraft airline. Check in was pretty straight forward, we were near the front of the queue, no over-weight charges. (We were given 20kg luggage, not bad considering its usually 15kg). After that, we did what we did best, hit the bar! We had a few drinks, had a laugh, the usual friends-going-on-holiday routine. After a couple of drinks and a few red bulls, we sat waiting in the lounge. Were very used to extreme delays with airlines such as Freebird and the terrible Onur air, but we were only given a 20 minute delay. With BMI.

As we got on the aircraft, you were faced with the basic amities of a charter flight, nothing more, nothing less. Someone didn't arrive for the flight, so we had to wait for their luggage to be offloaded before we flew. I think the leg room was a bit better than most airlines, but I don't pay much attention to it, my legs usually don't even touch the seat in front! Even though they were pretty generous with their leg room, I was kinda annoyed with the leather/rubber seats they had. I hate them! I prefer the fabric seats. After all the trouble with the missing passenger, we were off in the air in no time.

After take off, there was no in-flight entertainment, which kinda sucked. We decided to get a small bottle of wine, priced £2.50. Not too much to complain about. But after the wine, I had a horrible acidy stomach. I didn't want to bother the cabin crew for milk, even though they were ever so nice. It was nice to hear we were given a meal on the flight even though we didn't purchase one.

They issued the meals not to far into the flight, I must say, even though the appearance wasn't to appealing, it was very nice. We were given an Italian pasta dish, with the usual cheese, crackers, milk, water etc. Even after the meal my stomach felt so acidy, I really needed some milk. I open up my little tub of milk given to us with the meal.. but it was like a watery, milky goo. I though enough is enough and complain to the cabin crew, she seemed really embarrassed with it, and gave me a pint of milk for my stomach. I was shocked, didn't even charge me for the stuff. I checked the rest of my party's milk, they didn't have any gooey milky water. After time, I drunk the whole pint of milk and went back to drinking wine. Silly, silly girl, eh?

After a pint of milk and two small bottles of wine, guess where you would be needing to take a trip to? I must admit, for someone who wants to take flying as a career, I am sh*t scared of aeroplane toilets. I always fear that ill be stuck in the toilet and face cabin decompression, and ill be trapped in this little space gasping for air through a yellow mask. Silly fear, yes. But you can't be too cautious. I decided to brave and give the aircraft toilets a go, I'm a total lightweight so two glasses of wine gives me confidence to face fears. I took a trip to the loo, but I kept the door unlocked, no way would I risk being trapped in that small cupboard of a toilet. The toilets were surprisingly clean for half way through a flight! I also faced my second fear of flushing the toilet flush. Usually, the toilet flush scares the crap out of me. But I hate leaving the job for the next passenger.

It then came close to landing, we were tired, the cabin lights were dimmed, and we all fell for a cosy little sleep. Unfortunately, we had no turbulence, the rocking of the plane usually puts me to sleep. The rest of the flight went in peacefully, with no horrible P.A announcements.

After no time, it was landing time, it sounds like a strange thing to say, but it was a really smooth landing. Very professional. I must say, it wasn't the best flight I've ever been on, but it was sure a fair experience.

Summary: What can I say?!, I got my money's worth.