British Midland Airways

BMI is the British member of the world-​spanning Star Alliance. «*A» includes the much larger US partners United (even bigger with the Continental merger) and US Airways, plus European «big cheese» Lufthansa. BMI flies out of Terminal 1 at Heathrow, where they maintain an executive lounge available to elite Star Alliance members.
For a business trip to Dublin, I was pleased to see that while BMI sells the ticket, they also operate the flight. (As opposed to a recent trip to Munich where they sold the ticket and Lufthansa operated the flight.) A simple transaction that worked well. Easy to see different prices and flight itineraries without having to click through a bunch of screens (Yes, I’m talking to you, United.) Once I made my choices, eliminating the option to double my price for a slightly earlier flight, I was booked and my confirmation email arrived moments later.
Unfortunately, BMI does not allow seat selection to «regular» fliers until check-​in, 23 hours prior to departure. So I was stuck in a regular seat rather than an exit row. :-(
Check-​in was easy and my boarding pass arrived promptly and displayed properly on my iPhone. The flight was quite simple, though I was disappointed that they do not have any complimentary food or drink on board the aircraft. Soft drinks and snacks were between £1 and £2 with beer/​spirits at £3.50. Not even a free bag of pretzels. :-(

I’ve flown BMI several times in between Manchester and Chicago. They declined pretty steadily in quality from when they started and where they are now. But they’re still much better than any US airline. Expect to have a hard time with getting seats together.
For some reason my husband and I were split up the last 3 times we flew with them. No idea why. The planes are also slowly going into disrepair. Frequently the TVs on the back of the seat wouldn’t work. But the quality of service and on time frequency raises them up. They’re pretty meh down from being well loved. Would fly again, but no A++.