Thanks for the reply Airbus, you must be working overtime replying to the messages on this thread!

LOL!

Its cool, my pet subjects (Reservations and Cabin Service) and my ex-employer… who could ask for more.

Re the CPH & FRA you mentioned, there’s no news from within on that. I can’t see it happening anytime soon. bmi seem to be more into long-haul right now and there a bit short of aircraft to operate anything with baby’s 737 fleet going **** up every 5 mins and mainline having to step in if its not someone else like EAF covering for them.

Re the BMI biscuits, shouldnt it be biscuit, singular? I only recall getting the one, they should offer the biscuit barrel. One Rich Tea or Digestive is hardly substantial.

PMSL!!!! :p

Maybe you need to ask for the shortbread finger double pack next time danairboy? lol!

I have always offered Walkers scottish biscuits in two in a pack and never digestives or rich tea, have you not had the same? You could ask for two packs, I’m sure the hosties won’t mind… 🙂

Thanks for that Airbus, sound like great money makers for bmi. Any idea how bookings are going for the LCY route? (Sorry for all the questions!). 😀

Thats cool LBA, if I can answer then thats no problem with me.

Last I saw was the LBA was selling steadily, not chokka yet though. Again, its a “corporate shuttle” in effect to satisfy some of their big company corporate deals though. I can’t see it being popular for Leisure pax.

Incidently, for those who are interested, hot brekkie is served on the early morning departures (having been kept warm in a polystyrene box as there’s no ovens on the ATR42). 😮

My boyf often flies BD LBA-EDI in Business. To think one has to pay nearly £300 punds for a day return flight just to get a hot brekkie. I dont have a fat company picking up my tab but I would be prepared to pay a little extra for a breakfast.

You can bet your life if Jet2 or someone else came onto bmi’s golden routes, you’d soon see fares drop!

Would you possibly know a)What plane(s) I can expect to travel, and b)What service we should get (free drink and biscuits I’m guessing?)

Too many years working for them wannabe pilot 😉

Your flights are in the system to be on A321’s both ways. However, the ERJ135 does operate some LHR rotations on weekends, so you might be in for a treat there!!!

In-flight service will be Drinks & Biscuits only in Economy, but at least they’re complimentary and nice biscuits too. Don’t forget.. if it gets cancelled, they’lll look after you 😮

If one flight gets really well booked on a Friday night as you mention, could we get another ERJ or maybe a 319/20/21?

Thanks for saying that LBA 😀

If a flight is getting full, its very doubtful bmi would put an additional aircraft on the same route just for capacity. In fact, i’ve never known that in all my years with them. I would think its quite uncommon on a Regional route especially. It has been done out of LHR however.

You have to bear in mind that operations plan where each aircraft is going to be week ahead of time and to start swapping aircraft or finding an additional one is quite tricky. I think you’ll probably find it’ll be back to ERJ’s only soon enough. The Friday night and Monday morning LBA-GLA/EDI’s are usually all full in Business class only, they don’t even bother selling economy (they’re converter seats to be used for either class as you probably know) so to bmi, its job done! 😉

Yeah thats true Airbus, if those flights are dominated by business pax from certain Finance companies I suppose they can charge what they want!

Quite surprised not to see LHR on the leaflet, ive managed to find reasonable fares LBA-LHR, maybe they wanted to focus on the City route. Interesting you say about the brand new Embraers, we now have the Fokkers and an ATR 42 operating the LCY flights! Any idea if/when the A319s are coming to operate the LHR route? And when the F100s go, wont the E135/45s be a bit small to operate some of the routes currently operated by F100s? (EG – GLA.)

The 319’s are definately supposed to be on the LBA/LHR and also the MME/LHR when they have enough of them in service, yes. There should be one based at each of these airports, as the crew are LBA based. They do an early LBA/LHR then carry on somewhere else out of LHR before coming back to LHR and back to LBA if you get what I mean. All the other routes ex-LBA should be ERJ only.

From what I heard, the Fokkers are only at LBA as no one else can cope with them! They’re too small for baby (that was one option) and too big for Regional. However, as they’re on the Regional AOC, and they kept on going tech at LHR, it seems LBA ended up with them. Regional can obviously fill the Friday night LBA-GLA/EDI etc, so a Fokker makes sense in the short term. However, the companies I mentioned earlier aren’t happy about the Fokkers being around so I’m pretty sure they’re be gone as soon as more ERJ’s arrive. Better to have a small aircraft full than a larger one half empty!

You’ve probably noticed some ERJ’s have been nicked to do some of the new regional routes, some to add extra frequency to feed MAN long-haul and one back at EMA now.

Personally, I can’t wait to see the back of the Fokkers! Dredful things to work on! :rolleyes:

airbusbaby, I take it BMI have dropped the hot breakfasts, will these be back for the Winter schedule?

It very much depends on your route. Believe it not, there’s a massive complex in-flight catering structure sheet, too much to post on here. You should get hot panini for breakfast on all flights ex-LHR in Y class and also some regional services. Some of the Embraer Regional routes don’t offer it. A lot of the time, its down to flight time and number of crew .v. pax etc.

LBARules – The LBA fares are expensive, I agree. The way bmi justify this is that they have a pretty much closed market on their routes, except for CDG now. bmi invested millions in new Embraers for LBA when they first started taking delivery of them. Some other regional airports were left with the knackered old Fookers whilst LBA had all the Embraers first. Also, I think its widely known that bmi have corporate deals with a couple of major financial institutions around LBA, therefore, some routes only operate for the sake of those companies. They don’t need to offer low fares as very often the flights are full with corporate deals anyway. Also, bmi seem to price higher from LBA due to their investment in aircraft for the base, although, they can’t really justify that forever can they?

danairboy – Don’t get me wrong, as a crew member myself I’m a great fan of good in-flight service. However, you need to remember some of the other benefits of travelling with a full-service carrier like bmi against bmibaby. For instance, if your flight is cancelled, bmi will put you in a hotel or another airline if needs be. Baby would send you home and tell you to come back sometime next week, no compensation, no hotel, no taxi and certainly no other airline! bmi have to go out of their way with re-accommodations to be consistant in their sector. Have you ever tried reporting a baggage problem to Baby? Again, they don’t want to know unless your bag has been obliterated! Baby don’t deal with broken handles, wheels, scratches, dents etc. Its all in the small print. Baby customer relations don’t take telephone calls, only complaints in writing and then they probably get sent to the magical shredder in the sky. Its when things go wrong that you are thankful of travelling with a full-service airline, whether it be tea and biscuits or a 4 course banquet they serve. 🙁