Since I’ve received over a dozen emails about it this morning alone, I suppose it’s worth a quick discussion.

Last week I posted about the offer for free British Midland Silver status just for signing up as a new member of Diamond Club. Given that this gives you free Star Alliance Silver perks, it’s quite a good deal, especially for those that don’t otherwise have status.

Unfortunately, everyone that signed up through the offer seems to have received the following email:

Dear _______

We’re pleased to see that you recently joined our Diamond Club frequent flyer programme. However, I’m writing to you because unfortunately the link you used to join was an exclusive by invitation only offer and as noted in our terms and conditions was non transferable.

Regrettably, we will not be honouring the Silver status, and over the next few days your account will be downgraded to Blue status. Our decision is final, and we won’t be entering into any further correspondence on this. On a positive note though, our frequent flyer programme is one of the most generous programmes around, and you only need to earn 16,000 membership status miles to earn a Silver membership. When you fly with us, or any of the Star Alliance airlines, you’ll reach Silver status in no time at all. You’ll also have access to all our offers and promotions, as well as being the first to hear about our great sale fares. We hope you’ll still enjoy the benefits of your Diamond Club membership.

Regards

First of all, that’s one harsh email, in my opinion. So it appears that this was an invitation only link, which seems strange to me. There was nothing indicating it was invitation only, but then again, British Midland’s IT isn’t known to be the best in the world. And frankly, the offer didn’t seem to be too far out of line. In the past, British Midland has offered sign-up bonuses of around 9,000 miles, so this doesn’t seem too far off either.

What I really wonder, however, is why they didn’t honor this. I mean, what’s the real cost to them of someone with Silver status? I can’t imagine they have to compensate an airline when they’re getting a free checked bag, and there aren’t many other benefits to Silver status.

So my apologies to those of you that signed up through this offer. You win some, you lose some, I guess.

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.

British Midland is offering 1,000 Diamond Club miles for completing a quick survey about their route network. I see nothing that suggests that the survey is targeted, though that’s no guarantee that the miles will post for everyone.

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)

In discussing the holiday hours for the call center, British Midland’s “December news and offers” email provides us a glimpse of what their call center must look like:

There are at least three things wrong with the above picture:

1) That’s definitely not what the agents look like
2) There’s more than one agent in the picture
3) They’re smiling in the picture

As pointed out in the FlyerTalk thread on the subject, this is probably closer to what British Midland’s call center looks like. If you’ve never had the distinct honor of dealing with the British Midland call center before, let’s just say they make United’s outsourced agents look like industry-leading professionals.

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)

British Midland has announced that starting October 11, they will partner with Jet Airways, both on the mileage earning and redemption front. I’m curious to see what the award chart will look like, since I assume it will be different than the Star Alliance chart, much like what they do with Virgin Atlantic and Qatar.

I have quite a few bmi miles sitting around, and I’d definitely like to visit India (and fly Jet Airways)!

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?

I’ve been collecting bmi miles here and there for quite a while now, and have amassed a total of about 90,000 miles. So far I haven’t had a need to use them, but with the recent bmi “scare” over their program potentially being merged into Miles & More, I started looking at options. Even when it turned out the “scare” was just a misunderstanding, there are still constant rumors of the award chart being devalued very soon.

There’s no doubt that they have a very generous award chart, especially if you take advantage of their “cash and points” option, which allows you to only pay about half the number of miles if you pay a cash supplement. But I’m looking to burn my miles without parting with too much cash. It just doesn’t feel like a “reward” ticket when you’re spending $1,000, in my opinion! Little did I realize how indecisive I am at planning awards when fuel surcharges are involved, which bmi makes passengers pay.

My first thought was that I’d go to Europe in business class. It’s a mere 67,500 miles per person, and I figured I’d visit some places I hadn’t seen and fly some airlines I hadn’t flown. Usually I shoot for first class, which is why I haven’t tried airlines like Austrian, Continental, LOT, SAS, etc. Besides, that would allow me to visit cities like Vienna, Warsaw, Copenhagen, Stockholm, etc., which I haven’t visited before. Then I realized that bmi doesn’t allow any stopovers within Europe, apparently, and that such an award would cost me quite a bit in fuel surcharges. Hmm, nevermind.

Then it was pointed out to me that US Airways doesn’t typically charge fuel surcharges. Now, while I usually wouldn’t fly US Airways, they do have their new “Envoy Suites” product which is installed on five of their seven A330-200 aircraft as of now, which means I’d have a pretty good shot at getting it. And it does look quite decent, so I might as well take a trip to Paris, a city that I always enjoy visiting (and with lots of free nights from Hyatt’s “Big Welcome Back,” an accompanying stay at the Park Hyatt Vendome wouldn’t be all that bad either).

But then bmi has that lovely rule whereby you essentially can’t fly domestic first class on United or US Airways on a business class award. Since those cabins are technically “tagged” as first class (as opposed to “business class,” like Continental and any every foreign airline does), you’d have to pay the three cabin first class price to fly them through bmi. Now, do I really want to fly all the way to Philadelphia in coach?

At that point I go full circle and start over again. Isn’t it worth paying a fuel surcharge to fly Continental first class to Newark and then continue to Europe from there in BusinessFirst?

While I help a handful of people plan their award trips each week, I can’t plan my own, for the life of me!

And that’s only the beginning…

Here’s something that keeps getting more and more valuable as the airlines continue increasing the cost of traveling with bags. British Midland is offering new Diamond Club members 2,000 miles and free Silver status, which gets you Star Alliance Silver status. Star Alliance Silver status gets you two free checked bags when flying on any Star Alliance carrier (including the airlines that charge for checked bags: Continental, United, and US Airways). Plus, this gets you closer to bmi Gold status, which only requires 38,000 miles once Silver.

This offer seems most valuable to those that don’t fly enough to earn elite status on another airline but can save quite a bit of money by not having to pay for checked bags.

(Tip of the hat to Gary)