A little shocked by BMI

danindublin

Having heard great things of BMI I decided to give them a go on my latest trip to London. Calculating all I decided it would be cheap to go the heathrow route vs the ryanair flight+bags+checkin+stansted express option. What was admittedly partly my own fault, I miscalculated the time it would take to get to heathrow by tube (i never calculated or allowed for tube engineering works and there was plenty) and ended up only getting to the checkin desks 15 mins before the fight was about to leave. Needless to say we werent allowed to travel even with hand luggage. My shock came at their unwillingness to help at all in finding an alternate flight. I was simply pointed towards ticket sales and told it was not their fault. The sales desk offered us only a full priced ticket for the following day in a take it or leave it manner. I'm not blaming BMI at all for me getting to the airport late (they dont run the tube system) but I was a little shocked at their unwillingness to help in anyway. I know they probably make the bulk of their money from last minute sales in cases like this.

Ended up going to the aerlingus desk who got us home for the same money but had a flight 45 mins later vs the following day.

daiixi

Ever figure that maybe that had no more flights that day with seats available? The people at the desk probably couldn't help you with a new ticket due to their system and the ticket sales people have to deal with people begging to be sold cheaper tickets because of their own fault all the time. Why should they have done anything more? I've flown BMI heaps and never had any problems.

jonny68

I personally have nothing but praise for BMI, it's always been a pleasure flying with them,indeed they are IMO the best medium sized airline around.

OPENROAD

Have to agree with other posters ,I'm afraid, bmi I have to say are one of the best medium sized airlines.

Just a couple of points:

You turned up 15 mins prior to departure time. It is highly possible the doors were shut at this stage. Departure time is the time they hope to have the plane in the sky. Check in closes 30 mins prior to departure so they could not get you on board.

Not the job of check in staff to find an alternative flight for you they correctly sent you over to the ticket desk.Ticket desk found you amother flight, it just happened to be the next day, not much more they could do, you missed your flight.

To defend London Underground, in my experience they are excellent are providing information i.e. I notice at every station they will have information in advance of engineering works, most of which take place at the weekend.


I think you have to put it down to just one of those things

And again, I would not let it put you off bmi,they manage to generally offer low fares without skimping on service.

Savman

You were late and missed the flight. Think we can call off the investigation into this one...

danindublin

Savman wrote: »

You were late and missed the flight. Think we can call off the investigation into this one...

I wasnt blaming anyone for being late esp BMI, i took the blame for that one. I was merely saying that i was shocked at how little support they offered someone who was stranded at the airport (it was their last flight of the day). On the other hand aer lingus did everything they could to get us home that night.

PS - I'm not someone who usually misses flights (The closest i've ever come is being their 15 mins before checkin closed and this would have been my 133rd flight)

H2G2

I wonder if your situation was due to the fare you paid. If you travel on a BMI ‘tiny’ fare as opposed to Economy, Econ plus, then I think you have to expect that level of service. My impression (and I could be wrong) is they treat ‘tiny fare’ customers as Ryanair types.

Personally I prefer BMI to Heathrow over Aer Lingus… they don’t charge for luggage; you get free food (if you have Diamond club blue +); and of course they have a later flight into DUB from LHR than Aer Lingus.

therecklessone

danindublin wrote: »

I wasnt blaming anyone for being late esp BMI, i took the blame for that one. I was merely saying that i was shocked at how little support they offered someone who was stranded at the airport (it was their last flight of the day). On the other hand aer lingus did everything they could to get us home that night.

I don't see what else you thought BMI should do for you given the circumstances, you acknowledge your fault in arriving late for the flight...did you expect them to put you up in a hotel or arrange a flight with another carrier?

If they had another flight that day with seats available I'm sure they'd have offered you that option, otherwise the only option open to them was the following day.

As for Aer Lingus doing "everything they could to get us home that night" let's be honest shall we? They had a later flight, they had empty seats, they sold you tickets. Its not like they put on an extra flight just for you.

rainbowtrout

danindublin wrote: »

I wasnt blaming anyone for being late esp BMI, i took the blame for that one. I was merely saying that i was shocked at how little support they offered someone who was stranded at the airport (it was their last flight of the day). On the other hand aer lingus did everything they could to get us home that night.

PS - I'm not someone who usually misses flights (The closest i've ever come is being their 15 mins before checkin closed and this would have been my 133rd flight)

It's not BMIs responsibility to find you another flight, as you have said, it was your fault you missed the flight. Flying is just another form of public transport. If you missed the last bus from Dublin to Cork, it wouldn't be the responsibility of Bus Eireann to find you another bus going that way.


Aer Lingus got you home because they had a flight leaving that night, if they didn't they wouldn't have been able to help either.

Lesson learned: leave in plenty of time to allow for delays.

pow wow

I had a similar experience missing a flight with Aer Lingus and got treatment as 'bad' as you did from BMI. I arrived on time (but cutting it fine!) to find a little handwritten sign saying they'd moved check-in to the other end of Birmingham airport...by the time I raced down there they'd closed the desk about 2 minutes before and refused to open it. They also refused to help me in any way. It took me crying in the direction of the airport customer care people for them to ring one of the Aer Lingus managers who reluctantly put me on the next plane for nothing.

Have you not seen an episode of Airport or Airline? It's par for the course when you miss a flight...