BMI Award Redemptions

[JohnK]

Thanks to all for your assistance in this thread.

Purchased 24,000 miles for a friend last week and today redeemed a business class one-way SYD-BKK on TG using miles + pay for travel on 23 Dec 2011. The cost of the co-payment + taxes and surcharges + credit card fee was ~GBP260.

Overall a great result and now to buy some miles for myself and redeem some business class awards later this year early next year.

 

[travelislife]

Have just looked into this BMI redemption thing with star alliance and am looking at the following, can people here advise if my calculations seem correct? Looking to redeem a flight for my father.

Have open up an account myself with the free 1000 miles, I need to open another account (with 1000 bonus miles) for my father and link to mine.

Business Class on TG BKK-MEL-BKK
37500 points + 255 pounds

Total cost
2000 points = free
23000 points = 291 pounds
13000 = 171 pounds
Taxes = 90 pounds (from spreadsheet)

Therefore total cost = 807 pounds

Is this correct?

 

[JohnK]

Business Class on TG BKK-MEL-BKK
37500 points + 255 pounds

Total cost
2000 points = free
23000 points = 291 pounds
13000 = 171 pounds
Taxes = 90 pounds (from spreadsheet)

Therefore total cost = 807 pounds

Is this correct?

Sounds right although I think the taxes will be a little more than the figure you quoted. My friend paid ~GBP120 for a one-way business class redemption SYD-BKK on TG.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Have just looked into this BMI redemption thing with star alliance and am looking at the following, can people here advise if my calculations seem correct? Looking to redeem a flight for my father.

Have open up an account myself with the free 1000 miles, I need to open another account (with 1000 bonus miles) for my father and link to mine.

Business Class on TG BKK-MEL-BKK
37500 points + 255 pounds

Total cost
2000 points = free
23000 points = 291 pounds
13000 = 171 pounds
Taxes = 90 pounds (from spreadsheet)

Therefore total cost = 807 pounds

Is this correct?

Seems about right, I redeemed a one way and all up it cost me about GBP412.

 

[travelislife]

Thanks for the advice.

Yes is great having the possibility of one way awards at just half the points and cash.

Having issues with the website at the moment, doesn't seem to be logging in properly to my account and keeps reverting back to the join screen. Had trouble creating a new account too. Hopefully will be fixed up soon.

Just a qucik one too, BMI don't 'hold' award bookings like US airways do for TG do they?

 

[auriga]

Just be aware that the initial 1000 bonus miles cannot be transferred. It can be used for redemption, but cannot be combined into a family account.

 

[JohnK]

Having issues with the website at the moment, doesn't seem to be logging in properly to my account and keeps reverting back to the join screen. Had trouble creating a new account too. Hopefully will be fixed up soon.

I had this issue with a friends account trying to create an account for partner and linking. In the end I created a new account and linked them.

Just a qucik one too, BMI don't 'hold' award bookings like US airways do for TG do they?

Could be wrong but I did not think they held bookings.

Just be aware that the initial 1000 bonus miles cannot be transferred. It can be used for redemption, but cannot be combined into a family account.

Hmmm. I believe the only way one can redeem flights for head of family from family accounts is to transfer miles to main account. Are you saying cannot transfer the bonus miles to head account?

 

[travelislife]

I was going to book 2 one way tickets. So one from my account and one from my Dad's account, both tickets for my father. I assume this is fine and it makes use of both the free 1000 points from both accounts?

 

[k3nnis]

Am I missing something here? Why don't everyone do this type of redemption once a year? Flying J on TG or SQ for GBP800 for a return from SYD-BKK or SYD-SIN?

 

[kamchatsky]

Am I missing something here? Why don't everyone do this type of redemption once a year? Flying J on TG or SQ for GBP800 for a return from SYD-BKK or SYD-SIN?

You can, it is just that not many people know about it.

Also you can do SYD-BKK/SIN (stopover)-NRT/ICN/PEK/HKG/PVG etc for the same amount of points + cash but pay more taxes.

 

[k3nnis]

Oh ok. Thanks Edison.

So let me get this right. A member can only purchase 24000 miles per year. How do I get the remaining 13500 miles?

What is reward availability like?

Cheers,
K.

 

[auriga]

Hmmm. I believe the only way one can redeem flights for head of family from family accounts is to transfer miles to main account. Are you saying cannot transfer the bonus miles to head account?

Normal miles can be transferred, but not the free 1000 miles.

 

[JohnK]

I redeemed return business class flights for myself last night. I wanted BKK-BNE return with a stopover in SIN on the way back and ended up doing BKK-SYD return with a stopover in SIN on the return, TG, SQ, TG, as the availability was relatively poor. I am travelling mid-October and mid-January. Not sure if these are considered peak times.

I don't know if anyone else has posted but taxes and surcharges are not cheap at all. I was charged GBP278.80 + GBP4.50 Amex surcharge on top of the GBP255 cash component. It is still a relatively cheap way of securing a business class flight.

Interesting how BMI does not send out an email of the itinerary and I do not think the booking shows on the bmii website either. I have checked on CheckMyTrip and the flights are there although seats have not been pre-allocated. I guess I will have to call each airline to pre-allocate seats.

Normal miles can be transferred, but not the free 1000 miles.

So these will end up as dead miles for me. Oh well.

 

[kamchatsky]

Oh ok. Thanks Edison.

So let me get this right. A member can only purchase 24000 miles per year. How do I get the remaining 13500 miles?

What is reward availability like?

Cheers,
K.

Depending on where you live in Australia, for me from SYD, TG/CA has good availability of J/Fs, SQ/NZ quite little availability, OZ is OK availability. You can check it either with Aeroplan or ANA account.

You can create account for your family members, and link them to a family membership where you are the head of family account. Then you can buy miles on each of the accounts then transfer to your account.

 

[k3nnis]

I'm in Sydney. How many family members can I have? Can I have 2 adults and 1 child?

 

[JohnK]

You can have 8 members within your family membership including 2 paid employees.

BMI Family Account

 

[travelislife]

I made a one way J booking for MEL-BKK on Friday it came out as follows:

Bought 18000 miles: 231 pounds (total of 19000 miles in account)
Cash component: 127.50 pounds
Taxes and fees: 122.50 pounds

Total cost: 18750 miles and 481 pounds (Approx $755)

The interesting thing was that when I was making the booking on the phone I asked him what the taxes was going to be and he said about 65 pounds, it wasn't until he got through to ticketing it that the fuel surcharge was added bringing it up to the 122.50.

Also John I can view my booking on both BMI's site (click on Manage my booking when you are not logged in to your DC account. You can then enter your reference and surname and it should come up. This is worked the same for me on the Thai website check my booking.

I have done all my seat selection just by sending an email to [email protected], the lady there, Maria, usually responds within the business day and is very helpful.

 

[JohnK]

Also John I can view my booking on both BMI's site (click on Manage my booking when you are not logged in to your DC account. You can then enter your reference and surname and it should come up. This is worked the same for me on the Thai website check my booking.

I have not looked on BMI website again but I was able to go into the booking on SQ website and select 11A on the A380. No luck with booking on TG website.

Will give Thai Airways a call tomorrow.

 

[k3nnis]

Hi Guys,

If I need 3 return J fares from SYD-BKK-SYD on TG using BMI miles, how many accounts I need to open up to be able to purchase the required miles? Is it even possible?

Cheers,
K.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi Guys,

If I need 3 return J fares from SYD-BKK-SYD on TG using BMI miles, how many accounts I need to open up to be able to purchase the required miles? Is it even possible?

Cheers,
K.

Something like 5 accounts given max 24000 miles per account, and you need 37500 per round trip on the points plus pay option. (37500x3 = 112500 / 24000 = 4.68 accounts)

I am pretty sure it would be much easier and cheaper (or around the same cost at least) to use US airways miles and just have three accounts each buying their own ticket.