Great flight, shame about the staff! (bmi British Midland in general)

Member Name: TravelSick

Product:	bmi British Midland in general
Date:	04/07/01 (173 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Smart aircraft, comfortable

Disadvantages: miserable staff which lets down the airline

Being a bit of an newbie to flying scheduled airlines (only previously a short BA flight, and the rest being charter), I booked a flight with British Midland (or BMI as its now known) to fly to Ireland for the weekend.

I paid £100 for the return flight from Heathrow, and arrived in time with my 2 friends. At the check-in, everything went smoothly, and we arrived at the gate with plenty of time to spare. If you have flown from Terminal 1 at Heathrow, you will know how narrow the passageways around the gates are, and when there are 180 people waiting to board a flight, which is offloading the incoming crowd, it can get pretty busy!

One of my friends had broken his foot, and as a result, was using crutches to get about on. Because of the crowds, we stood to one side of the desk at the gate to avoid getting in everyones way. Of course, the BMI staff at the gate could not cope with the amount of people, and decided to start shouting at my friend on the crutches to "get out of the way". This also included her dropping a piece of heavy luggage destined for the hold, onto his broken foot! Of course, I thought this was amusing at the time, but she did not apologise, and gave us the impression she thought he deserved it.

Although my friend was on crutches, he was given no assistance, and made to hobble along down the isle, to the 2nd from back seat on the aircraft! how considerate of the check-in clerk!!

Then on board, the attitude reflected that of those on the ground, I think they thought because my friend was on crutches, he was a liability and did not deserve help. The staff were rude, snappy and not once did I see a smile on their faces...

besides that, the seats were probably the biggest I have ever sat in and the plane was clean, modern (A321) and comfortable. Shame the staff let down the airline really!

Fly BMI, but dont expect a friendly service.

Summary: