BMI 20% Bonus Promo

[JohnK]

Given you only need 18750 for a cash + points redemption from TPE-SYD I would be buying now mainly because the exchange rate is good and you can lock the reward away.

I will start another thread but I will potentially have well over 10,000 points by June (SQ flights and car hire) so may need to buy the 24,000 points in my brothers/fathers/mothers names now and then book a return award for TPE-SYD from their accounts.

Is it worth buying the points for all 4 accounts now? I can only see another trip from TPE-SYD for March-October of next year so will have plenty of points left over.

 

[sr81]

Ok, that means you will need 37,500 per person for each round trip.

This presents its own problems. The first being that one person can only buy a max 24,000 points per calendar year. You can get round this by creating a family account then pooling all the miles but I am pretty sure that you are capped at six members of each family. 6* 24,000 = 144,000 points which is within cooee of the 150,000 need for a four person round trip. Obviously just create a friendly aunt, uncle or dog as the other family members.

You are then faced with the other costs.

Points: GBP255 per person * 6 = GBP1530
Cash: GBP255 per person * 4 = GBP1020
Taxes: BMI charges YQ which is pretty steep with SQ or TG. Using the BMI calculator I get about GBP235 per person roundtrip * 4 = GBP940.

That gives us a grand total of: GBP3490 or AUD5700.

Obviously this isn't bad and would be better with a 50% promo but who knows IF that will happen.

I also did this with the current USAirways promo and you get to about AUD1500 each that way so BMI works out marginal cheaper as you already have points.

From scratch it would be a USAirways win.

 

[auriga]

re BMI vs US, you can have a stopover each way, whereas with US, only one stopover or openjaw allowed.

 

[JohnK]

Ok, that means you will need 37,500 per person for each round trip.

This presents its own problems. The first being that one person can only buy a max 24,000 points per calendar year. You can get round this by creating a family account then pooling all the miles but I am pretty sure that you are capped at six members of each family. 6* 24,000 = 144,000 points which is within cooee of the 150,000 need for a four person round trip. Obviously just create a friendly aunt, uncle or dog as the other family members.

Sorry sr81 the trips are for me only not my family.

I have set myself up as the family account with the other 3 family members. All accounts have an opening balance of 1,000 miles.

For now I will need 2 return trips in business class TPE-SYD which is 75,000 miles + cash. I can probably manage to get the awards by just buying 2 * 24,000 miles but may need to buy another 12,000 miles.

I need to be careful about buying too many miles as we are not sure how long Diamond Club is going to last after the end of this year.

 

[stryker]

@ stryker BMI miles are known for good value when flying long haul. Eg. I went MEL-BKK-NRT in J for 18,750 + GBP255 cash + tax.

From the Italy you could get to India via ZRH in LX J for 15,000 + GBP210.

But hey, if you need a flight to DUB and you want to spend the miles then whatever works for you.

It was to connect with a UA Mileage Plus redemption (I still have over 500,000 miles in that program) in bus class DUB-IST-CAI-DXB, cost was 27,500 miles plus taxes of about GBP 25.00. Really makes BMI look a bit sick, doesn't it?

 

[alieninperth]

I have looked at the numbers BMI v US and the number were quite interesting.

BMI worked out to be about $4,300 PER-DUB, CDG-PER for Mrs Alien, jr Alien in lap, and me. Including $342 taxes and charges (from ITA). The same with US is $4,700.

It was the infant in lap fare of 10% (~$500) that killed it (again from ITA). This is from a standing start in both schemes.

The question now is, do I really want to have my first J experience with TG and a flight that has to transit through coughet. Or take a (much) longer flight via JNB. :-| or take SQ in Y?

BTW, it is a max of 8 in the DC family membership.

1. A maximum of eight individuals are allowed per each Family Membership. Subject to Clause 5 below, there is no age requirement to belong to a Family Membership, however if a member is under 18 they must be enrolled by the Head of Account

 

[stryker]

I have looked at the numbers BMI v US and the number were quite interesting.

BMI worked out to be about $4,300 PER-DUB, CDG-PER for Mrs Alien, jr Alien in lap, and me. Including $342 taxes and charges (from ITA). The same with US is $4,700.

It was the infant in lap fare of 10% (~$500) that killed it (again from ITA). This is from a standing start in both schemes.

The question now is, do I really want to have my first J experience with TG and a flight that has to transit through coughet. Or take a (much) longer flight via JNB. :-| or take SQ in Y?



BTW, it is a max of 8 in the DC family membership.

1. A maximum of eight individuals are allowed per each Family Membership. Subject to Clause 5 below, there is no age requirement to belong to a Family Membership, however if a member is under 18 they must be enrolled by the Head of Account

Nothing wrong with TG C class or coughet. Trust me.

But tell me, how do you come to transit through HKT. Never heard of that one.

I'm currently half way through a UA C class redemption on TG, MEL-BKK-DXB (round trip), great so far. Not sure how HKT could sensibly come into the equation.

Please explain.

 

[oz_mark]

Nothing wrong with TG C class or coughet. Trust me.

But tell me, how do you come to transit through HKT. Never heard of that one.

I'm currently half way through a UA C class redemption on TG, MEL-BKK-DXB (round trip), great so far. Not sure how HKT could sensibly come into the equation.

Please explain.

Thai has PER-HKT-BKK flights on some days.

 

[sr81]

Nothing wrong with TG C class or coughet. Trust me.

But tell me, how do you come to transit through HKT. Never heard of that one.

I'm currently half way through a UA C class redemption on TG, MEL-BKK-DXB (round trip), great so far. Not sure how HKT could sensibly come into the equation.

Please explain.

I would have thought that PER-BKK-FRA/ZRH/MUC/IST-DUB then CDG-BKK-PER would have been the desired route for this.

I will also happily admit that BMI is a left of centre program but you can get very good value redemptions if you have the time to spend. But, and this is the most important part, miles are only the value that YOU put on them. I sometimes spend the 5000 points on a QF upgrade on a Thursday morning MEL-SYD just because I can and lot's of people will tell me that's a waste of points.

 

[sr81]

Sorry sr81 the trips are for me only not my family.

I have set myself up as the family account with the other 3 family members. All accounts have an opening balance of 1,000 miles.

For now I will need 2 return trips in business class TPE-SYD which is 75,000 miles + cash. I can probably manage to get the awards by just buying 2 * 24,000 miles but may need to buy another 12,000 miles.

I need to be careful about buying too many miles as we are not sure how long Diamond Club is going to last after the end of this year.

I think you have already spotted the best strategy here. Just buy the points and book the trips you know you have coming up. That way you have minimised your exposure by not having heaps of points sitting around.

There will be other specials and for some reason I also remember CX having crazy cheap J from TPE to MEL/SYD in J. EG. In May TPE-HKG-MEL-HKG-TPE for AUD 2100 round trip.

 

[alieninperth]

I would have thought that PER-BKK-FRA/ZRH/MUC/IST-DUB then CDG-BKK-PER would have been the desired route for this.

This is exactly the route(s) that I get offered on aeroplan with the odd Oslo one thrown in, all the PER-BKK flights have a 2hr stopover on HKT on the way which is quite annoying, I am thrying to sort it so that there is as few stops as possible. I am not sure how alien jr is going to take to flying so it is a bit of risk mitigation on my part. I am keen to try as many types of J as I can on this trip as I am not sure when I am going to be able to get into the pointy end again.

 

[JohnK]

This promotion is on again.

From experience is the current promotion the best we are likely to see this year?

 

[sr81]

Last year they did 50% off for a week just prior to Christmas but they did no promotion so it was hard to catch. I would not be depending on it again.

 

[JohnK]

I think you are right. Not really wise to wait until Christmas to purchase this years miles quota.

 

[JohnK]

The 20% bonus promotion is on again until 31 October 2011 if anyone is interested.

I still have 3 accounts that could purchase the maximum this year but not sure what is happening with BMI.

 

[arraitch]

The 20% bonus promotion is on again until 31 October 2011 if anyone is interested.

I still have 3 accounts that could purchase the maximum this year but not sure what is happening with BMI.

Note that the annual purchase and/or gift cap of 24,000 miles per annum still applies. So, instead of purchasing 24,000 miles at ~£303, you can now purchase (a capped) 20,000 + 4,000 for ~£255. IOW, what you get is a discount off the usual price, but no increase in the annual limit. That's fine, but not quite up to the liberal nature of US bonus promos!

As £255 is <$400, should I? Hmm ...

 

[auriga]

The 20% bonus promotion is on again until 31 October 2011 if anyone is interested.

I still have 3 accounts that could purchase the maximum this year but not sure what is happening with BMI.

The current discussion about BMI's future is rather worrying!

 

[JohnK]

The current discussion about BMI's future is rather worrying!

True but as mentioned in the other thread if one restricts award bookings to the next 3-6 months then it may well be OK as I do not believe BMI is just going to collapse overnight. Well I hope not anyway.

And yes I know nothing is guaranteed in the airline business but I believe an award booking will be honoured by other airlines in the alliance. Travel insurance may also help if something goes wrong.

 

[proskyneo]

While by no means an authority in this area, I thought BMI is closing next year - confirmed or along those lines by Lufthansa? No one knows WHEN in 2012, but if you redeem and ticket before they close, it'll be honoured by the carrier.

Hopefully it won't fold until later in the year, but I know some people are burning their points by December 31st

 

[travelislife]

While by no means an authority in this area, I thought BMI is closing next year - confirmed or along those lines by Lufthansa? No one knows WHEN in 2012, but if you redeem and ticket before they close, it'll be honoured by the carrier.

Hopefully it won't fold until later in the year, but I know some people are burning their points by December 31st

Where did you hear this proskyneo? All my reading hasn't actually brought up that Lufthansa has made a decision to close them down, but yes they are analysing differing strategies and the best way to move forward.

I will be skipping this current deal as I don't have any immediate travel plans and have tickets locked in for the next 6 months. The latest ticket I have booked through BMI is a MEL-BKK in J for the 7th of Jan.

Interestingly no one, either here or on FT was able to really definitively answer the question of whether reward tickets that were issued but not used yet on *A partner carries would still be honoured. Had one person on FT say they wouldn't be and then someone from here with Ansett experience say they would, so really not sure with that one. Would be nice to find out what would happen as that would take any of the risk of booking with them out.