British Midland sent out the following email to Diamond Club members this morning:

During the past few months, we have been in contact with you regarding a number of changes that have been made to the Diamond Club, following the sale of bmi to IAG, the owner of British Airways.

Following a detailed review of the Diamond Club, we would like to announce a series of further changes.

From 27 October 2012, the following benefits will no longer be available:

• Earning and spending your destinations miles on bmi operated flights with a bmi flight number
• Earning and spending your destinations miles on airline partners British Airways, Jet Airways, Qatar Airways
and Transaero Airlines
• Earning destinations miles on bmi hotel partners, WorldPoints, through American Express Membership
Rewards or when you shop online
• Buying destinations miles
• Upgrading your flight with destinations miles
• Earning status miles

However, Diamond Club customers will still be able to earn destinations miles by using the bmi Credit Card and can transfer these into Executive Club Avios at an attractive rate, using our transfer tool. Find out more about transferring your miles here.

Please review the new terms and conditions here.

From 28 October 2012 you will not be able to access your Diamond Club account on www.flybmi.com. However, we have created a new website for our UK and South West Pacific members called www.diamondclub.org, where you can access your destinations miles balance and full account information. The new website will be available from 27 October 2012.

Tier match with the Executive Club

If you are a Diamond Club Gold or Silver member, don’t forget you can still apply for matching tier status within the Executive Club until 31 December 2012 at ba.com/tiermatch.

Gold and Silver members can also continue to access the bmi and selected British Airways lounges at London Heathrow and London Gatwick until 31 December 2012.

British Airways is inviting all Diamond Club members, who are not already members of the Executive Club to enrol at ba.com/welcomebmi.

For more information on the changes please visit ba.com/diamondclub.

Hugs and/or kisses,

Peter Simpson
Managing Director

Of course this hardly comes as a surprise given the takeover by British Airways, though now we finally have an official date when the program will end, which is October 28.

In May British Airways started matching British Midland elite status and in July they started allowing miles to be transferred from Diamond Club to Executive Club. Ever since they’ve slowly been eliminating Diamond Club benefits and airline partnerships, including with Virgin Atlantic on August 31. Their few remaining partnerships, including the one with Qatar Airways, will be terminated as of October 28, at which point Diamond Club accounts can no longer be accessed.

I’ve already transferred all my Diamond Club miles to Executive Club Avios, so the only significance of October 28 for me is that I’ll be removing my family’s British Midland accounts from Award Wallet.

RIP, Diamond Club, you were good to us.

(Tip of the hat to Miles from Blighty)

British Midland has long had a partnership with Virgin Atlantic, though that will be coming to an end on August 31, 2012. After that date British Midland miles can no longer be redeemed on Virgin Atlantic, and vice versa. So while you still have a few weeks to make bookings, Virgin Atlantic seems to suggest that for new bookings travel needs to be completed by August 31, 2012, and not just booked by that date.

Redeeming British Midland miles for travel on Virgin Atlantic never presented that great of a value. They have high fuel surcharges  and always had a separate award chart which was higher than Star Alliance partners in almost all cases, so I can’t say I was ever all that tempted. Virgin Atlantic terminating their partnership with United was a much bigger loss, in my opinion.

Who would’ve thought British Airways doesn’t want you to be able to redeem their points for travel on Virgin Atlantic, and vice versa?

Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse London Heathrow

Don’t worry British Midland, the irony isn’t lost on me!

British Midland just updated their membership benefits page to add the following:

Please note, we are implementing a “status freeze”, which means that until further notice no Diamond Club members will be downgraded from their tier level as at 14 June 2012.

Cool, so basically everyone’s British Midland status stays intact until the program dies, which is probably pretty soon. Admittedly this isn’t especially useful since Diamond Club is more or less a dead program given that they don’t presently belong to any “alliance.”

At the same time British Midland made the following announcement:

British Airways does not currently offer a lifetime status or set of lifetime benefits for their Gold customers and as such, Diamond Club Lifetime Gold members will be tier matched at Executive Club Gold for a minimum of one year.

So those that did earn lifetime status by maintaining top tier status with British Midland for 10 consecutive years get… nothing.

Even though I’m young, this is exactly the reason I stopped caring about lifetime status a long time ago. If a company liquidates then sure, they don’t have to “honor” lifetime status, because there’s nothing to honor. But I’m rather sick of companies that are merging or being taken over for the purpose of “maximizing shareholder value” not honoring benefits they promised their customers in exchange for a lot of loyalty. Sadly I suspect it’s a trend we’ll continue to see as more and more consolidation happens in the industry.

I just received the following in a British Midland newsletter:

From 3 July 2012, Diamond Club members will be able to transfer their destinations miles to Executive Club Avios at a rate of 1:1.

The online transfer tool, which will be available from 3 July, will allow Diamond Club members to undertake transfers between their Diamond Club and Executive Club accounts.

Please ensure that your contact details, including your name and date of birth, are up-to-date in both your Diamond Club and Executive Club accounts so you are able to use the transfer tool with ease.

I’m excited about this, as it will open up quite a few redemption options on both sides. As of May 31 it’s no longer possible to use Diamond Club miles for travel on Star Alliance carriers, so the uses of Diamond Club miles are pretty limited at this point.

At the same time they do have some cool partner airlines like Qatar Airways and Virgin Atlantic, which you’ll now have access to by transferring British Airways Avios points to Diamond Club.

I’ve flown Qatar Airways in first class and they’re definitely worth a try. As far as traveling to the UK goes, I’d rather fly Virgin Atlantic Upper Class than British Airways Club World, so for the time being it’s a nice option (though I suspect that relationship will end sooner rather than later).

As one of the first steps of the integration process, British Airways is now matching British Midland members to equivalent elite tiers in the Executive Club program. Diamond Club Silver members get Executive Club Silver status, while Diamond Club Gold members get Executive Club Gold status.

To apply for a status match simply go to this page and input your Diamond Club account information.

Gary says that matched status is valid for 12 months from the time it’s requested. I’m quite excited about this, because British Airways Gold status gets you access to the OneWorld first class lounges whenever you’re flying, even domestically. That means as a BA Gold member I’d get access to American’s Flagship Lounges when flying domestically (I already get access to them when flying internationally thanks to my Executive Platinum status with American, though they don’t give you access on domestic flights).

It’s also worth noting that British Airways does soft landings, so if you don’t requalify for Gold you get Silver for the following year, and if you don’t requalify for Silver you get Bronze for the following year.

Lastly, while they’re now matching status, you can’t yet transfer miles from Diamond Club to Executive Club, or vice versa.

American Flagship Lounge LAX