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Save 10% on BMI Regional flights

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One thing I picked up on my trip to ITB in Berlin this week was a discount code for BMI Regional.

Discount code captain will get you 10% off your next flight.

It is valid for bookings by, and travel until, 31st December 2018.  Codeshare flights are excluded.  The discount only seems to apply to the base fare.

You still get complimentary drinks, snacks and checked baggage with BMI Regional too.

Comments (88)

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  • Paul says:

    If LH make this family pooling really compelling this could make a big difference.

    BAs dominance is in part due to their frequent flyer programme which does allow pooling. There is no similar scheme with any other EU carrier and one reason I continue to use BA is because all the family earned miles can be used by anyone.

    This potentially opens up the very real prospect of using Star Alliance from LHR.

    Just hope LH get this right.

    • Stewie says:

      Actually Aegean do something similar if you have status with them (*S or *G) – you can have a household account with up to 6 (iirc) members who don’t need to live at the same address.

  • Oli says:

    OT – I successfully applied applied to a Lloyd’s Avios credit card yesterday in branch. It took almost an hour, including watching 2 videos. The bank manager had not been made aware that online application could not been made any more

    • Mikeact says:

      Two videos? About what ?
      Is this going to be the future trend when applying for a credit/debit card ?

    • Rob says:

      What was the video about?!

      You can still apply by phone, 2 readers have told me this week that they did it.

      • Anna says:

        Last time I opened an account in a branch (just a little savings account for my son!) I had to endure a 45 minute lecture on financial practices including money laundering. I’ve been banking by phone for the past 25 years and things have obviously changed quite a bit in that time!

    • Oli says:

      The first video was before starting the application – that applying might affect my credit rating, about fraud and other general credit card stuff. The second video was after my application was accepted and was about the Lloyds Avios card specificities, about the interest rate, how to pay the card balance, the Avios earing rates and other rewards etc

    • Mikeact says:

      Not particularly good value for points ‘value ‘ on shorter runs. Brisbane to LAX is far better ‘cost’.

      • Genghis says:

        Never been to AUS but I thought the shorter domestic runs are extortionate in cash terms?

        • John says:

          Prices are extortionate for J (at least when compared to CE), but there is no point flying J except PER and possibly DRW to the east coast.

          For everything else there’s Jetstar and Virgin.

          I did a 45 minute JQ flight last month and their BOB put BA to shame, the FAs knew exactly who had food included in their ticket, and were so efficient (though there were 4 of them on an A320), managed to do two runs with ~25% takeup and accepted cash and card without reducing the speed of service. Apparently they will stop accepting cash from May this year, which I think is a mistake as almost everyone paid with cash (and let’s just say the type of people who bought things were those who go round with pockets jingling full of coins).

        • Mikeact says:

          Not necessarily, can be a bit like the rest of the world…last minute, pricey , but with careful planning, dependant where you’re going, and the seasons, (numerous people make for the warm/hot Northern Territories when it’s Winter down South.)
          The other thing with Qantas awards are the pretty much, out of proportion, ‘taxes/charges ‘, (sound familiar ?) they add on.
          Don’t let that put you off…you must visit.

        • David S says:

          Depends. The last few times we have been, we did a lot of domestic flights and we bought the tickets well in advance (4 months +) and flew with Qantas economy on their red e-deals which are reasonably priced but obviously restricted tickets. Virgin were closer in price to Qantas but Jetstar were definitely cheaper but by the time you add luggage etc, Qantas was reasonably priced and being Emeralds, gave us lounge access.
          If tickets were bought nearer the time of departure, they are certainly ridiculously priced.

        • Lady London says:

          If you go get close to departure when you need to buy tickets so they are ridiculously priced (and I could have flown to London for some prices I saw for internal Qantas flights bought close in to departure date in the past) then remember Avios is exceptionally good value for internal Oz flights and not bad for internal US flights if you get caught there too.

    • Michael Jennings says:

      There are either two or four major airlines in Australia, depending on how you look at it. Qantas and Virgin are full service, and Jetstar and Tiger are low cost subsidiaries of the two larger airlines. Virgin is usually a few dollars cheaper than Qantas, and the discount subsidiaries are usually cheaper than the full service airlines, assuming that it is a busy enough route for all four airlines to operate on.

      Australia is much bigger and much less densely populated on average than Europe or the UK, but the populations is much more concentrated. There are five very large cities, followed by about 10 medium sized cities and after that little more than would count as a small town over. here. For aviation purposes, this means the following (discounting Perth perhaps, because it is so far away from everywhere else):
      – flight frequencies and competition are extremely high between Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. As a consequence, there is plenty of competition and flights can be extremely cheap if you book a long way in advance and/or can fly at off-peak times. (I have flown Brisbane-Sydney for $30). A flight at a peak time booked at little notice may be expensive, but that is true anywhere.
      – for flights between one of those large cities, and a second tier city (Gold Coast, Newcastle, Canberra, Hobart, Townsville, Cairns, Darwin) frequencies are less and bargains are a bit harder to find, but they are still there. (I have flown Gold Coast – Sydney for $40).
      – for flights between two second tier cities, you have to be really lucky to find something cheap. It’s not unheard of, but you probably aren’t going to get it. My parents live on the Gold Coast and my sister in Canberra, so I fly this route every time I visit Australia. If I pay cash, it normally costs me about $200. (It’s a very good value redemption using Etihad Guest miles on Virgin Australia, however).
      – any flight to any city smaller than these is going to cost you.

      So what comes from this: as redemption costs are based on distance, they can be good value if you are flying routes in the third or fourth categories, or if you need seats between major cities at should notice. If, on the other hand, you need to fly between the big cities and are flexible and/or are booking months in advance, cash is going to be a better option.

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    bmi regional (they always write it lower case) seem to be referring to themselves as just bmi these days. They’ve used flybmi.com for quite a while now, but more recently on Twitter they’ve gone from @bmiregional to @flybmi (unfortunately in the process they deleted all of the original bmi Tweets from that account)

    Back when bmi regional launched they promised a frequent flyer scheme coming soon, it never seemed to happen. As they codeshare with Star Alliance on some flights on solution would be if they joined the alliance as an affiliate and then hooked up with Miles and More. Wouldn’t exactly be back to the Diamond Club days but would be better than nothing.

    • RussellH says:

      You have been able to credit bmi flights to topbonus since 17 Dec 2017. Hardly as good as Sta Alliance, I know. And at present it seems that you cannot redeem on bmi, only on Germania and Condor.

      My partner had a disastrous experience with bmi last month – she had booked an overnight trip to Bruxelles. Got to Newcastle airport at around 0430 for a pre 0600 departure. Check-in desk unstaffed, just a notice to say that the flight was cancelled, and for help to phone the number below – which had a recorded message to say that the office opened at 0630. No one at the airport had a clue as to what was going on, later she was given the option of rebooking via Amsterdam on KLM late in the day and at vastly increased cost.
      They refunded her fare quickly, but so far no help with the cost of the airport hotel, train fares to/from Newcastle and from Bruxelles.

    • Lady London says:

      I so wish I’d been in this hobby in the Diamond Club glory days! I only joined as BMI was closing. It seems like every couple of months I hear about some outrageously good deal someone found on there… ! The gaming aspect is what got me into this hobby.

      • Rob says:

        It was totally outrageous, although the more extreme stuff was also dodgy, eg sending in boarding passes from redemptions for retro credit ….

        2.5 miles per £1 on the Mastercard and a VERY cheap redemption chart (as BMI flyers were mainly short haul and did not earn many) were unbeatable. Swiss and LH F were also freely bookable at this time, I think LH F to Dubai was 50k return.

        HMRC also charged 0% card fees at this time and it coincided with the best years of my banking career ….

        • Save East Coast Rewards says:

          I was late to the game and missed the BD Mastercard but did get the duo Amex and Visa combo. Was really surprised how long they kept it going after being taken over by BA. Earning 2.5 miles/£ on the Amex towards the end was great. I never expected BA to do much to appease bmi flyers but they status matched, kept the credit card going for a long time and even offered us online discounts (they weren’t usually that big but there seemed to be a bug that got me some really cheap flights)

          • Rob says:

            They didn’t do much to appease BMI ‘Golds for Life’ did they?!

            The card deal was contractual as MBNA had agreed to buy a fixed volume of miles. The 10% online discount was a generous perk admittedly.

            By the way, G-MEDN – the first densified A321 – is one of the old BMI mid-haul A321 planes.

        • Lumma says:

          Rob, does this mean that the mid haul A321s will be disappearing? Any idea what is likely to happen to the routes that they’re used on? Widebody planes or club Europe seating?

        • RussellH says:

          I thought that sending in boarding passes was standard practice last century?

        • Michael Jennings says:

          I had some Jet airways flights in India last year for which the miles didn’t track. When they asked me to send in the boarding passes, I gave up.

        • John says:

          Rob, did you decide to forego the rat race of your banking career? (or was there another reason?)

          (not sure if you’ve written about this before or indeed whether its ‘personal thus private’, in which case just ignore this)

          • Rob says:

            I had got old and very expensive at a time (2010) when my sector had been dead for a couple of years. Left with a 2-year non-compete and fancied a change after that.

  • Scallder says:

    OT as bits – had an email from SPG overnight offering 500 points just for registering for ‘Your World Rewards’ which is their the up with Emirates. Targeted email – valid up until 1uth April. 4-6 weeks for points to post

    • Scallder says:

      *16th April. My wife hasn’t had an email so not sure how they’re picking out people (both Gold from Amex Plat)

    • RussellH says:

      I got this last year. I had to open an Emirates a/c, then link it with SPG. Points did post – yes it was around 5-6 weeks.

      Perhaps they are offering this in batches.

  • ebungle says:

    “You still get complimentary drinks, snacks and checked baggage with BMI Regional ” Talk about living in the past!

  • Jovanna says:

    OT: I was in a hire car last week. I wasn’t on a trip anywhere, I’d just hired something a little bigger than my two-seater because we had friends over. Anyway, the car was damaged down the local supermarket.

    I’m trying to claim on my Amex Plat insurance. The online form wants to know what type of trip I was on – a flight; travelling abroad; or in hotel accommodation. It also wants an upload of my itinerary (as well as my rental agreement etc.) That’s a mandatory field.

    Is the cover limited to trips / holidays / nights away? Am I stuffed?

    • Rob says:

      There USED to be a clause in the Amex insurance that UK rentals needed to be linked to a hotel booking. This was presumably to stop me, for example, claiming Zipcar damage. Not sure if the clause is still there (Amex did make some changes a few years ago to the car hire wording) but you can download the policy document from the card application website if you don’t have it anyway.

    • Radiata says:

      Please do update us as to the outcome Jovanna.

      I have regularly used rental cars domestically when car in for service and otherwise and had relied on the Play cover being valid..

      • Radiata says:

        Plat..

      • Jovanna says:

        Yes, covered but had to call (mainly because I couldn’t upload my driving licence). Had to email that separately. AXA called back this afternoon to say the claim was approved and the payment should be in my account within the next 10 days.

  • Mike L says:

    Been pricing the aspire lounge, Edinburgh for next week and the cheapest I can get is £18,89 pp after a 10% discount via RBS, does anyone know of any better deals out there ?

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