BMI Airlines

BMI is an affordable way to fly regionally throughout Europe once you are in London, but don’t expect and frills, ladies and gentlemen. This airline takes «budget» to a new level. In fact, my first flight from London to Edinburgh didn’t have anything complimentary. You wanted a snack or even a soda and you had to pay. Perhaps that was because the flight was so short… about an hour or so, if I am recalling correctly. The second leg of our trip from London took us to Nice, France. This flight was about two hours, so we did get complimentary food and drink, including wine. Between the two trips (four flights total), I would say that averages out to a 3-​star experience.
The airline charges an extra 12 quid for every extra pound of luggage over 20 pounds, so be careful not to go over. We got screwed on that one going to Nice! YIKES!
The people who work for the airline are nice enough. In fact, I was really pleased with their friendly demeanor (even when they were demanding that we pay more for our extra luggage). What I didn’t appreciate, and what I am sure they don’t appreciate either, are their HIDEOUS uniforms. Good lawd, those things are UGGGGGGLY! I mean, the hats? Are you kidding me? Are we in Miriam’s Wedding? Is it 1983? Are you going to give them easter baskets as well. My word! I pray the flight attendants unionize soon and demand better uniforms because this is cruel and unusual punishment, especially for a group of super nice people who work really hard at their jobs. You don’t get many folks like that around airports lately, so I think they deserve a little respect, don’t you?
Anyway, I would take BMI again for sure, however, I would make sure to a) pack my own snacks if it is a short flight and b) compliment a flight attendant and his or her smile while I am a passenger. Those uniforms have to be a blow to the ego daily. :(

BMI (British Midland) are running a baggage scam when they are the first leg of a long haul flight.
My experience:
I book a ticket from Dublin to San Francisco (
) that consists of two legs: Dublin to London with BMI and London to San Francisco with Virgin.
I decide to bring an extra bag and call Virgin and they tell me an extra 23Kg bag will cost me £32– and I can book it over the phone. All good. I pay over the phone, they confirm. They tell me to call their Partner Airline, BMI, to pay them separately for the Dublin — Heathrow leg.
OKaaaay.
I call BMI and explain the situation and find out they do not honor the 23Kg Virgin weight but will honor a 20Kg bag. They tell me to go to check-​in and pay £15– for an extra bag.
Two days later I get to the airport in Dublin at 6 AM and put my passport in the BMI self check-​in kiosk and enter my Virgin ticket reference number. Sure enough both legs of the trip show on the screen and I go to the bag-​drop check-​in.
At check-​in I expect to pay again– this time for the BMI leg.
The check-​in person, As_​_​_​_​, tells me that I will have to pay the full amount for the extra bag from Dublin to San Francisco for the flight — and not just an extra bag — € 12– per Kilo over the allowed 20Kg weight. The reason: firstly I cannot show a receipt from Virgin that I paid for the extra bag and secondly, I have to pay a per Kilo amount for the «combined» weight over 20 Kilos. (There is not, of course, any indication of *any* baggage on the online Virgin boarding pass.) I remind As_​_​_​that this is a Dublin to San Francisco ticket but this does not impress her and claims my extra bag payment to Virgin does not show in the BMI system. I ask her to look at the Virgin ticket information and she claims this is not possible (even though I had used the Virgin reference number in the BMI self check-​in kiosk and both legs showed on the screen. So I decide it’s not worth the argument (getting late) and checked the bags and go to the ticket counter to pay (more than € 120-​) and there, in a breath, make my case again. Confusion here as the ticket counter person asks me if my bags are overweight. Now I had carefully weighed my bags to make sure they did not individually weigh over 20Kg. So I assured her that the bags were not overweight. She charged me € 17– (£15-​) for the extra bag. (She, I found out from As_​_​_​back at checkin, after the bags went on the belt, had meant: was the *combined* weight over 20Kg?)
Nowhere, at any time, had the term «combined» showed up in any of the online booking process nor was it introduced during the BMI phone call.
At this point I left the checkin desk as I had my boarding pass and As_​_​_​_​_​was starting to get abusive.
It was sheer accident that I was not fleeced by BMI at checkin. ‘Am trying to ascertain which is the correct authority to report this experience to. (I would be very surprised if this activity is not in violation of EU travel regulations.)
(Anyway I arrive in SFO and the second bag never got on the plane. It was delivered to me the following day.)
To avoid this scam (avoid BMI, off course) make sure the first leg of the journey takes you to the US — then the second leg will honor your extra checked baggage payment.)