No. Regional vs mainline has nothing to do with destination. They are separate airlines. At LHR bmi have two lounges, one is physically reachable by all as it is in the main part of the departure lounge. But bmi designate this one for passengers not going on flights to the UK and Ireland. The second lounge is after the security point separating back out passengers going to UK & I destinations, so is designated for them. The UK & Ireland have a common travel area between them, despite being separate countries. As a result this lounge can only be used by people going to UK & I. [The main departure lounge area is mixed ('UK&I plus non-UK&I), people staying within UK & I are photographed upon passing through main security, this photo is then checked when they elect to leave the main departure lounge and head towards the UK & I gates, which is where the bmi lounge you mention is located. The photograph helps ensure border security given that arrivals from within the common travel area can generally walk straight out of the airport, passengers connecting to common travel area flights will have passed through imigration (but not customs) before reaching the departure lounge for their flight within the CTA.] bmi mainline operate a320 series and larger aircraft and are based mainly at Heathrow (some wet lease services operated for others don't go to or from lhr at all). Bmi regional operate smaller aircraft, are a separate company and are headquartered in Aberdeen and fly from various locations in the Uk to elsewhere in the uk and abroad. Having said that, bmi regional with their smaller aircraft do operate some services at some times for mainline, and they also fly their own services to lhr. Destinations really have nothing to do with it, nor lounges.
Found this today on airwise.com. Lufthansa is set to enter exclusive talks to sell loss-making carrier bmi by the end of the month, with arch rival IAG, the owner of British Airways and Iberia, seen as the front-runner, sources said on Tuesday. "The price won't be substantial, it's mainly about cleaning Lufthansa's balance sheet and getting rid of the debt," one source close to the sales process said. Bmi has been a millstone around Lufthansa's neck and by putting it up for sale, the company has admitted efforts have stalled to turn around the unit, which reported losses of EUR€154 million (USD$214.8 million) for the first nine months of 2011. Lufthansa finance chief Stephan Gemkow said at the group's third-quarter results last week talks were going on with several interested parties and that a binding deal could be reached this year. The source added there were a handful of bidders, including IAG and Virgin Atlantic. While Lufthansa is seeking to sell bmi as a whole, another source close to the deal said the most likely outcome would be Lufthansa selling bmi's coveted slots at Heathrow, Europe's largest airport, to IAG. IAG would then pass on some of those slots to Virgin to relieve competition concerns. "Lufthansa will likely sell bmi's slots for about GBP£300 million max and its stake in (air traffic manager) NATS and fetch about GBP£400 million in total, so just enough to recover from the losses accumulated since the bmi acquisition," the person said. With the Heathrow slots sold, smaller players such as Flybe or Eastern could then look to pick up bmi regional. While some have queried whether Lufthansa would sell bmi to arch rival British Airways, thus strengthening the latter's position at London's Heathrow, one of the sources close to the deal said Lufthansa's desire to be rid of bmi would come first. "Lufthansa is losing patience and could finally surrender to selling to IAG. They really tried hard to avoid giving them such a strong presence at Heathrow." One airline industry specialist, who did not want to be named, said Lufthansa would also be keen to avoid bmi falling into the clutches of Gulf airline Etihad, which sources say is teaming up with Virgin for a bid. "Lufthansa is doing everything in its power to keep the fast growing Gulf airlines at bay - why should they allow a main competitor to gain a foothold on Europe's busiest airport in Heathrow," he said.
Strengthening BA to keep a Gulf carrier out. The phrase "cutting off your nose to spite your face" comes to mind. Certainly an interesting commentary on competitive pressures.
I think they see the middle east carriers on a mission of huge expansion (like an emirates a380 flying to MUC starting in January) while they may see BA as being comfortable with its size currently and a lesser threat at this point. Ultimately it may be a "2 front" war that LH may have to take on and they figure to take on emirates and etihad first.
Wow, take my eye off the ball for a few weeks, and the world is caving in. 260k miles to spend in there, and not sure on what!
I only have about 100k but still... not quite clear though -- would they sell BD to BA or just the LHR slots (and then presumably shut down BD?) or do the two just go hand in hand? If BA took over BD's loyalty program and my BD miles became BA miles, that wouldn't be too bad. It would balance out my *A and OW holdings a bit better.
For those of you in Europe, here is the dial in info for the earnings conference call scheduled at 9a GMT. No doubt the BMI deal will be a talking point, and may even formally be announced. I may fall asleep before it, but thought someone may want to dial in to the call: Event Details Title Q3 2011 International Consolidated Airlines Group Earnings Conference Call Date and Time Friday, November 4, 2011 9:00 a.m. UKT Description UK: +44 (0)20 7108 6370 Spain: +34 91 414 2533 Password Concorde Replay will be available from 1130 UK time from 4 November to 4 December 2011 UK: +44 (0)20 7970 8270 Passcode 3793 Unauthorized recording or downloading of this event is not permitted.
The dark horse option I'm hoping for is that LH take Diamond Club, and combines it Miles/More so that at least miles earned on *A can be redeemed on *A. Don't know if BA would be too keen to take over a plan where most members had no prior loyalty to BA. On the other hand, BA taking Diamond Club would be a nice gesture to introduce *A people to the other side......Hoping Miles and More, and hoping even more that they grant matching status.
I think it was announced at the conventional time this morning, as Bloomberg said yesterday would happen.
Interesting- I would think that BA would be most interested- to get a database of clients that had no prior loyalty to BA and convert them would be a significant coup for BA and positive impact on their P&L. I don't think anyone is particularly interested in nice gestures- just that giving a currency "BA Miles" costs BA relatively little in respect to the benefit. LH would probably love to keep Diamond Club as a separate business (such as Aeroplan is) but probably won't happen.
Press-releases has been published from both LH and IAG, see this thread: http://milepoint.com/forums/threads/lh-agree-bmi-sale-to-iag-ba.21293/
This is what I'm hoping for exactly. Just saw a tweet from @flybmi which basically stated that DC benefits will not change and members could still continue to earn/spend miles, and the obligations to DC members would be honored. Quite vague....
The deal won't close until march or april so there wont be a rush for Diamond Club's fate. In the past BMI had stated that they already had the mapping to miles and more in place and could pull the trigger at any time. I dont see why IAG would want the liability for all that "free" travel. From my eyes, it would be sooooo much more efficient for LH handle Diamond Club so that *A flyers can redeem *A flights and keep the "Money" in the family.
Thats the million dollar question. If you think you'll burn the miles soon (like next 60 days maybe?) I'd have them go to BD. What are your other crediting options?
Krisflyer...where the J CoS bonus is only 25% as opposed to 100% with BD.....or should I join a brand new program before the flight?
depends which plan to join. Most plans have dec 31 cut offs (like mileagePlus) for elite earnings for this year. So if its about elite status, maybe stay the course, if its just pure miles I guess your options open way up. I switched this year from BD to UA since domestic upgrades became important. There may be a run on BMI for DC redemptions so there may be challenges finding seats. Miles and More is a decent plan, just costs more miles for the same ticket as BD but thats the case with most plans. BD was the cheapest of them all, so all the others look worse. I like MileagePlus because you can do much more with them online, and their service center seems to know their job most of the time. If you are traveling to Europe frequently, then Miles and More makes better sense. To me its the European version of Mileage Plus.
Presumably BA isn't just interested in buying time slots, airplanes and new employees, but also new customers who will help fill those planes and slots. Converting the BD miles into BA miles is hopefully figured into the cost of this deal. And I am not convinced that LH is interested in keeping the liabilities for customers in a part of Europe (mostly) where they'll now have a much diminished ability to earn future revenue. Then again, what do I know ... I have had barely a half cup of coffee so far this morning
Thanks! I guess I'll still credit tomorrow's flight to BD and start thinking about where to spend my 80K or so BD miles. Also will start to do a careful research on which *A program to join.
Plans for any FFP changes wont happen until they actually close the deal I suspect. At this point nothing is final until everyone signs the dotted line. Who knows what the regulators will come up with.
That's what I thought too, so I guess I'll just wait and see. Thankfully my status doesn't expire until end of March.
What are the chances that the regulators will want to know what IAG/LH's plans are with regards to the DC program? I'd think it's part of their responsibility to look at the consumer impact of a proposed transaction.
I think your absolutely right. I suspect that LH and IAG will need to provide all the details around every part of the deal. Right now they only have a deal in principal. I dont know how EU regulators function, but if its like the US, there will be a cooling down period, a public comment period, anti trust review, etc. I know the EU has a say (approve/deny) when American companies that do business in Europe merge, I wonder if its reciprocal and if we have a say since it does directly affect some US carriers serving the UK. I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the speculation.
