Instant bmi Diamond Club Silver [Offer Now Closed]

[Joshua]

Re: Instant bmi Diamond Club Silver [not any more]

I think Keeley will be a 'she', and seems to be the generic face of the Diamond Club program (apart from also Joanna, who is a main communication channel for the BD board on FlyerTalk).

Oops, my mistake... I've now read it properly! I've never even looked at BD until this came up. Will take a look at their FT board now.

full email...

Dear Joshua

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


Keeley Downing
Diamond Club Manager

Just to rub it in I may scan my QFF card and add some newly purchased BA flights into my cancellation email. That said I understand these offers get taken total advantage of by people who just want free luggage on some LOTFAP carrier for example. Tough call I guess.

 

[drmikki]

Just got the email and considering the exact same thing...

A quick google search reveals a linkedin profile, however as an non-member no contact details accessible... Keeley Downing | LinkedIn

I think that given there are only likely to be a small number of people to gain any benefit from silver status, this decision will cause far more discontent and disloyalty and in fact disadvantage them far more than sucking it up and paying a few more extra bucks for *A checkin and luggage privileges would have. Like others here, if they had granted me silver I would be far more likely to consider them as a flying option than beforehand, whereas now I am more likely to consider AF/KLM. Superficial? Yeah, probably, but its promotions like these that introduce new customers to their business, and I'm not going to become a loyal customer if I never find any indication to try their airline for the first time!

 

[drmikki]

Also, how hard is it to have an online email address or cancel button to end your membership? There is no email address or online help, and apparently to end your membership you need to send back your card. Great.... so I wait til they send me a card then send it back? Logical....

I don't recall anything in the terms and conditions - who was originally their email target?

 

[anat0l]

In the possible face of what could degenerate to a debate of infinite theory and the vitriol suppliers getting fat rich again, the relevant thread on the FT BD board has been closed by the moderators. Reason: "This thread can go no where except further downhill."


I don't think BD really care about losing a few pax from this offer. Would it have brought in more $? Highly doubt it. BD operate a really small network, and I'll bet that most who took advantage of the BD*S match would not be stepping onto a BD aircraft by two lengths of a mile, even if their status matches stuck. And I challenge anyone who says otherwise - that BD have lost their business due to BD rescinding their status to honestly say they would've made an effort to fly BD - without post factum bias.

In a sense, at worst BD are back to where they started before the match was offered.



I suppose I should confess here that having started the spread of the link, I am guilty of perpetuating what actually was not meant to be spread so widely. Those who spread the word so far in such a way have their own contribution to misleading those who took advantage of the offer in error. So apologies to those here who will have their BD*S rescinded.

 

[thewinchester]

In the possible face of what could degenerate to a debate of infinite theory and the vitriol suppliers getting fat rich again, the relevant thread on the FT BD board has been closed by the moderators. Reason: "This thread can go no where except further downhill."

Agreed, this could just turn into another DJ email screw-up kind of thing.

Having said that, if they had known the invite had got into the wild you might think they would have picked it up sooner. This is the third time in the last 12mths that I know of where an instant status promotion has leaked out. You'd think the various loyalty program managers would learn by now to keep a better eye on their promotions to catch trouble at the first signs and not a week after the horse has bolted.

I suppose I should confess here that having started the spread of the link, I am guilty of perpetuating what actually was not meant to be spread so widely. Those who spread the word so far in such a way have their own contribution to misleading those who took advantage of the offer in error. So apologies to those here who will have their BD*S rescinded.

I wouldn't beat yourself up over it. There were several other channels where this information was published, I picked it up from Gary Leff's blog if my memory serves me correctly. Not your fault that you passed on what you had every reason to believe was a legimate promotion.

Leave the looking like idiots to BD for not managing their loyalty program properly and learning from the mistakes of the rest of the industry.

Having said that, there are various ways that they couldn't have looked like complete morons - they could have turned it around and offered the chance to keep your status. Assuming you could prove similar or higher on another carrier (specially their targets for acqusition, BA, VS, et al), they could have made a recovery from the problem by offering another legitimate channel.

In any case, we've not lost anything apart from a shiny new card (albeit not the one you were expecting) arriving in the post soon. Just add it to the growing plastic collection.

 

[Joshua]

...the FT BD board has been closed by the moderators. Reason: "This thread can go no where except further downhill."

I don't think BD really care about losing a few pax from this offer.
...

Typical FT. For some of us (this would be me) BD is very much a foreign company so no real loss to me but they would of made a few flights out of me +1. Sometimes these things stick (VS anyone? ) but not this time. It really does present a business as quite incompetent. In the DJ case at least it was an obvious, big error - they did their best and upped a few people who were close case-by-case. For me I also worry like drmikki how to now close the account. I'm not interested in empty accounts, value my privacy and try to keep a tidy house on these things.

I remember this being posted & discussed on some of the US coupon/cheating websites. As I mentioned, the discussion centred on avoiding a bag check fee for flights within the US. Quite funny as people who clearly never fly discussed how to elaborately save their precious $10. The sort of classly Ozbargain demographic that thewinchester can attest to after posting the Qantas Club promo late last year. If that crowd started biting at the pie then no doubt it would of looked quite bad to person that pulled the noose.

Oh well, I'll have to make do with the BA first lounges at LHR. Oh bother...

 

[ozmille]

Got cancelled here as well. Was looking to fly BMI a couple of times over the next year but hey...

 

[farstar]

I joined as was going to use with a trip to UK in June. There seems not much use in having Silver unless you are travelling you are flying BMI anyway. I really can not see the point in joining just to save $10 on some US carriers.

No great loss to me but some loss to BMI.

 

[oz_mark]

Having said that, if they had known the invite had got into the wild you might think they would have picked it up sooner. This is the third time in the last 12mths that I know of where an instant status promotion has leaked out. You'd think the various loyalty program managers would learn by now to keep a better eye on their promotions to catch trouble at the first signs and not a week after the horse has bolted.

The ability to sign up was pulled sometime late on the 14th or early on the 15th, so they had picked up that something was going awry with the promotion.

Also, FWIW, my understanding is that the link was not from an email, but provided to selected people on a printed form. Having said that, you'd think that the powers that be would have ways of preventing multiple sign ups - one time codes for example (although they have an issue of people trying to guess new ones)

 

[anat0l]

Well I guess if it was targeted they knew the identities of those people who they wanted to encourage to sign up. A simple solution would've been to keep a list of targeted people and match these with new applicants. Any inconsistencies can be solved over the phone on a case by case basis (although unlikely as long as more than one person with the exact same name doesn't try to sign up).


As to be expected, there is a snowballing fallout (not too much, after all, it is just BD and just BD*S) coming out of this. FT Boarding Area Blogger OneMileataTime has said that the deal is up and no surprises that a sizeable plethora of people have come out in fervent criticism of BD for their decision to cancel accounts but probably more precisely their email (or what the email said). No surprises that the majority of such comments are coming from the thin-skinned LOTFAPians