British Midland - Low Cost with some Frills (bmi British Midland in general)

Member Name: GLASGOWCHILL

Product:	bmi British Midland in general
Date:	17/06/03 (124 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Price, Good Connections

Disadvantages: Poor Catering

I flew BMI from Glasgow to Nice via Heathrow. Travelling Outbound on Saturday 24th May and returning on Saturday 31st May. I paid £111 for my economy tickets (booked 4 months in advance).

BMI is my preffered airline for european flights for three reasons, the first being that as an American Express Platinum card holder I get executvie lounge access, the second being i can collect Virgin Atlantic frequent flyer points on all flights and finally as most destinations i travel to require a London connection i much prefer to go via Heathrow rather than any of the other airports.

The first leg of my flight was due to depart Glasgow at 10.50, arrived at the airport at 9.15. There were around 10 people before me in the economy line and 3 check in desks open. After a 10 minute wait i was at the front of the queue.

Check in was swift and my bags were checked through to Nice without any difficulties. Exit row seating was requested and was available.

After a quick look around the shops, i headed for the BMI Diamond Club lounge where as usual they had a great selection of newspapers and magazines. Full bar service was available along with teas, coffees, nibbles and biscuits. Lounge was quiet so i was able to read a newspaper without too much distraction.

The lounge at Glasgow is well stocked, nicely layed out and has a welcoming feel to it. Staff are always pleasant and the facilites are always clean and look well maintained.

At about 10.35 customers in the lounge were invited to board the flight from the back door of the lounge which meant we could skip the passengers queueing up to get onto the air bridge.

Flight left on time, onboard service consisted of a drink from the bar only - no food. Staff nice and friendly which i always find with BMI.

On time landing and quickly off loaded and I was on my way to T1 international departures for my connection to Nice.

Headed straight for the BMI lou
nge in T1 International departures which is somewhat scruffy looking when compared to Glasgow. Quite dirty looking, toilets in terrible state, incorrect information on monitors and a very poor selection of reading materials. I was surprised how bad this place was.

A couple more drinks later I was called to board the Nice flight. Unfortunatley the lounge is a long way from the boarding gates and by the time I got to the gate the BMI staff were becoming impatient. When I explained I had only just been called from the lounge, I was told I shouldn't rely on lounge announcements!!!

It was around a 90 minute flight to Nice and again I had an exit row.

This time there was a full bar service plus a snack for economy passengers. The snack was basically a sandwich (there was a choice of 2). Dissapointed with catering as this was scheduled as a 2 hour flight.

Another on time arrival and again off loaded quickly. Ten minute wait for baggage and then on my way to Nice.

In summary, this very much mirrors my experience of all the recent BMI flights I have taken. Staff i find to be very friendly - much more so than BA. Check in and baggage reclaim are always reasonably fast. My only complaint is the lack of inflight catering now being offered on domestic / european flights. Pricing is reasonably low and certainly competes with the no-frills carriers when booked well in advance.

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