British Airways buys BMI

[arraitch]

And from a BMI email this morning:

We’d like to advise you that the EU Competition Authority has today approved the sale of bmi to IAG. We are very aware that Diamond Club members want to know what will happen to their accounts when bmi is acquired by British Airways.

The deal between bmi and British Airways is due to be completed around 20 April 2012. We would like to reassure you that we plan to operate our summer schedule as normal and you can continue to earn and redeem Diamond Club miles during this period.

We are working together to announce a Diamond Club partnership with British Airways. This will include the ability to earn and redeem Diamond Club destinations miles across the bmi and BA networks.

We will be communicating regularly with you as more information becomes available and flybmi.com will also be updated with the latest information.​

So, no news on redemption rates just yet.

 

[JohnK]

It would seem that the completion of the sale is due April 20 - two days after my last booked *A flight!

Should there be any concern for booked awards in say July?

Can anyone speculate what is likely to happen when they merge with BA? One FF program or separate FF programs?

By the way in my experience it has been a lot harder to get the redemptions I wanted with BMI. It is shame it going as the miles earned from car hire and hotels do not even come close in any other FF program.

 

[StevePER]

Should there be any concern for booked awards in say July?

No. I think the only concern might be if you wanted to make changes after the merger and they try to push you onto oneworld flights instead (which may or may not be acceptable depending on the routing).

I will miss bmi. I've redeemed ICN-HKG-SIN-PER, PER-AKL-BHE and PNH-BKK-PER, all in business. The call centre is a bit hit and miss but you can't beat their cash+miles redemptions (especially when they forget to charge the cash component). And my silver status earned in July 2009 is still going, and hopefully will be status matched by someone.