Trip Report Index

After a quick ride on the City Airport Train I made it to Vienna Airport about 90 minutes before my flight. I had a bit of trouble finding the British Midland check-in area, until I realized that Austrian Airlines handles their check-in.

Vienna terminal

Business class check-in

After queuing in the business class line for about five minutes my check-in was quickly processed and I was issued boarding passes all the way to Los Angeles.

I proceeded to security where there was virtually no line, making for an easy process.

Once through passport control I proceeded to the first Austrian business class lounge I could find, which wasn’t far away.

Duty free shops

Austrian business class lounge entrance

Business class lounge entrance

The lounge wasn’t especially nice or aesthetically pleasing. I was quite hungry as I hadn’t had breakfast, though the extent of their breakfast spread was limited to some croissants.

Business class lounge

Business class lounge

Snack selection

Drink selection

Lots of water!

After spending about 20 minutes there I figured I’d see if there isn’t a better lounge, so started walking closer to my departure gate.

I managed to find another Austrian lounge, though this one was a Star Gold lounge and not a business class lounge, so seemed to be much nicer.

Star Gold lounge

There was only one family in the lounge, and the breakfast spread was much nicer, featuring breads, meats, cheeses, yogurt, muesli, scrambled eggs, etc.

Star Gold lounge snack selection

I settled for some strawberry yogurt with granola and a cinnamon roll.

Breakfast

About half an hour before departure I proceeded to security and then my departure gate, which was D33. Unfortunately yet again it was a remote gate, though at least boarding started on-time.

Gate area

The bus ride had pretty nice views of the tarmac, including of some airlines you otherwise don’t see a whole lot of.

Bus

After a five minute drive we were dropped off at our Airbus 319.

Airbus 319

Airbus 319

British Midland 426
Vienna (VIE) – London (LHR)
Thursday, May 26
Depart: 11:40AM
Arrive: 1:05PM
Duration: 2hr25min
Aircraft: Airbus 319
Seat: 3C (Business Class)

I was quite looking forward to flying British Midland, given that I had never flown them before and that frankly, I wasn’t convinced they were actually an airline (but instead a cleverly disguised frequent flyer program).

The seats were once again typical intra-Europe business class seats which aren’t especially comfortable, though the cabin was fairly empty so I had the set of three seats (with the middle seat blocked) to myself.

Business class

My seat, 2A

Legroom

The first thing that struck me about British Midland was the crew. They have very… interesting uniforms. Their top hats led me to believe they might be part of Lucky Charms’ extended family, or perhaps on a witch hunt… certainly one or the other.

Flight attendant uniform

Boarding quickly went downhill as the guy across the aisle from me settled in. He was loudly finishing some very important business deals, and he wasn’t afraid to make sure the whole cabin heard just how important he is.

Before we pushed back the captain welcomed us aboard and advised us of the flight time of 1hr50min, anticipating an on-time arrival. As we began our taxi the flight attendants started the manual safety demo, though I was more interested in the traffic outside (Korean Air Cargo, Tunisair, NIKI, etc.).

Korean Air Cargo

After a 10-minute wait for takeoff we were airborne and I was quite enjoying the beautiful landscape on departure.

View after takeoff

As soon as we leveled off the service began. The lead flight attendant was serving business class alone, which was perfectly fine given that there were only a handful of passengers.

For lunch was the choice between gnocchi and a chicken dish, and I went with the former. It was served with a small salad, bread, and chocolate tart.

Lunch

I spent the rest of my flight working on my laptop, while the aforementioned self-important businessman spent half of the flight in the loo with a newspaper. At least he wasn’t afraid to hide it.

We began our descent into London about 30 minutes before landing and it was a rather bumpy one, as the weather wasn’t good.

Approach into London

The landing was one of the rougher ones I’ve experienced, given that we touched down with one wheel and were airborne again before finally touching down.

Final approach

I lucked out on this trip as far as terminal transfers go. I arrived in terminal 1 and would also be departing from terminal 1, which meant I only had to run a half marathon to make my connection.

Terminal

While I was primarily planning on using the Star Alliance lounge, I figured I’d pay British Midland’s Great British Lounge a quick visit, since I had heard lots of good things about it.

Great British Lounge

It’s a bit out of the way and as I entered the agents were certainly surprised I made the trek all the way to the lounge when I was flying Air New Zealand, though still warmly welcomed me.

The lounge itself is very stylish, though when I was there, packed.

The lounge has lots of unique seating areas, from relaxation seats, to bar stools, to tables, to couches, to a business center.

Great British Lounge

Great British Lounge

Great British Lounge

Conference room

Workstations

Great British Lounge

Great British Lounge

The snack selection was also decent with soup, salad, sandwiches, fruit, and every unhealthy packaged snack imaginable.

Food selection

Sandwiches

Salad

Fruit and drinks

Chips

The one downside was that the wifi was so slow that it was practically useless, so I quickly left the lounge in favor of the Star Alliance lounge, which was a 10-minute walk away.

While there are many reasons to love British Midland’s Diamond Club program, one of my favorites has to be their ability to make changes with a) no formal annoucement b) no advance notice c) so ambiguous that no one has any clue what they’re talking about.

Case in point, British Midland has just added the following to their award redemption chart:

Where the only available routing on an award flight takes you via a higher zone a surcharge will be applied – 15,000 miles each way for Economy, 22,500 miles each way for Business Class, and 37,500 miles each way for First Class.

Now, I don’t think anyone actually knows exactly what that means, though I’ll take a stab at it. British Midland has a “zone based” award chart, which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on where you’re traveling to.

Historically, there are some destinations that savvy Diamond Club members favor due to British Midland’s award pricing. Kathmandu, for example, is one of them. Why? Because it’s technically in zone 10, while the only practical way to get there is via Bangkok, which is in zone 7. Starting in Europe, for example, an award from zone 1 (London) to zone 7 (Bangkok) would cost 120,000 miles roundtrip in business class, while an award from zone 1 (London) to zone 10 (Kathmandu) via zone 7 (Bangkok) would only be 75,000 miles roundtrip in business class. Best of all, you could add a stopover in Bangkok, so save 45,000 miles by continuing on to Kathmandu.

So I’m guessing that’s the intent here. However, there are several things that make this confusing. For one, they list this under the “miles required for a return flight in business or first” tab, while this apparently also applies to economy. Second, what do they really mean by saying “where the only available routing takes you via a higher zone?” Does that refer to the zone number or the cost of the award in miles? Beyond that, what about the cases where you can legally connect in another zone to get somewhere. It wouldn’t make sense not to charge the surcharge then, but to charge the surcharge when there’s no other option.

British Midland also charges a 10,000 mile premium for every award segment in Lufthansa first class, so combining a two segment award in Lufthansa first class with the above new restriction, you’re potentially looking at 95,000 miles in “surcharges” alone for a roundtrip. And that doesn’t include the actual cost of the award or the fuel surcharges and taxes.

British Midland is offering free Silver status to those that join Diamond Club through this link. Even if you have no intention of ever flying British Midland, keep in mind that Silver status with British Midland also comes with Star Alliance Silver status, which gets you two free checked bags whenever flying with a Star Alliance airline, and sometimes even gives you priority boarding. So if nothing else, this is a way to avoid bag fees on Star Alliance for those without status.

It has been rumored for a long time now that British Midland’s Diamond Club loyalty program would be merged into Lufthansa’s Miles & More program by the middle of this year, as I wrote about six months ago. British Midland has a great frequent flyer program, preferred by many to Miles & More. While the elite benefits aren’t anything exciting, the award redemption opportunities are great, with a very generous region based award chart (in some cases) and also the opportunity to do “cash and mile” awards, which can be quite a bargain.

Anyway, British Midland’s CEO mentioned the following during a Facebook/Twitter chat:

Now that bmi is a part of the Lufthansa group of airlines, we are evaluating being part of Miles & More in the long term. A final decision has not been taken and such a move would not happen in 2011.

So it looks like Diamond Club is here to stay, at least for now.

(Tip of the hat to The Wandering Aramean)

Talk about a hidden promotion! British Midland is offering a 50% bonus on purchased miles through December 12. I don’t see this being promoted anywhere publicly by British Midland, though if you log into your Diamond Club account and click on “buy destination miles,” you should see the offer. You can purchase a maximum of 24,000 destination miles per year with them. Through this promotion, you pay the cost of 16,000 miles, and would get a total of 24,000 destination miles at a cost of £207.00GBP, or about $327USD. If my math is right, that’s under 1.4 cents per mile, which is a great value for bmi miles, at least until British Midland’s Diamond Club gets merged into Lufthansa’s Miles & More program sometime next year.

(Tip of the hat to TMtravelworld)

As reported by Musings of the Global Traveller, bmi’s Diamond Club program will be merging into Lufthansa Miles & More by mid-2011 at the latest.

For those of you not familiar with bmi, they’re a great airline to credit miles to, even if you never fly them. They offer double miles (both redeemable and elite qualifying) for most Star Alliance paid business class itineraries, and triple miles for first class itineraries, which is very generous. Beyond that, they have some very low Star Gold qualification and requalification levels (just 38,000 status miles to requalify). And they also have great redemption opportunities.

The good news is that bmi Gold status will likely be converted into Lufthansa Senator status. The thing that’s really valuable there is that as a Senator, you get 50% off a companion award reservation (including first and business class). Still, their award prices are much higher otherwise. Though you just know you want to walk into the Senator lounge at Dulles airport with your Senator card, for once, instead of sending United the bill.

The real losers, though, are those that were going for lifetime status with bmi. If you’re a bmi Gold for ten years in a row, you get that status for life. While Lufthansa has a similar lifetime status program, you have to be at least 60 to be given lifetime Senator status. So to the 30 year olds that have been bmi Gold for seven or eight years, tough luck, it would seem.

The one other thing worth discussing is how to burn those bmi miles, now that their program is going away. They do have a cash and points option, whereby you can use fewer miles and pay a cash supplement, which is tempting, though I don’t like spending $1,000+ on a pair of award tickets, so I’m shying away from it. bmi also charges fuel surcharges, which is the only reason to fly US Airways — they’re the one airline that doesn’t charge fuel surcharges. So if you were to book an award ticket on US Airways using bmi miles, you wouldn’t be charged a fuel surcharge — and their new Envoy Suites available on select routes do look nice. Maybe it’s time to fly a US Airways A330-200 to somewhere?