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Members of the bmi Frequent Flyer scheme Diamond Club have been given one week's notice that the earning and redemption with some of the most significant airlines in the Star Alliance is to come to an end. An email warns members that from Thursday the 19th of April 2012, the ability for Diamond Club members to earn Status and Destinations miles and to redeem miles will cease on the Lufthansa Group airlines, which includes Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, and Brussels Airlines.
This is as a result of bmi being sold to British Airways owner IAG, from its owner of the past two years, Lufthansa.
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bmi Diamond Club The cryptic email |
The Email is however cryptic with some other information. In particular it says that "all Star Alliance status benefits will remain unaffected by this change". This appears to indicate that lounge access and extra luggage benefits will not be impacted, as bmi struggles to exit from the Star Alliance: this process can be lengthy – typically airlines have to give between six and 12 months before leaving an alliance. In this case, as Lufthansa and its subsidiaries are Star Alliance members, these benefits will continue in the interim, probably until 14th October and possibly until early 2013.
The Email also makes it clear that "any redemption tickets issued prior to this date for travel will be honoured". As a result, there is expected to be a flood of redemptions on Lufthansa group in the next few days: some tests of availability show that little availability remains on most popular long haul routes, in particular Lufthansa's A380 services.
The most cryptic part of the Email says "We are working with British Airways to offer Diamond Club customers the ability to earn and redeem miles on British Airways and its oneworld partners following completion of the sale." Suggesting that there may be an interim period when it is possible to earn and spend miles on oneworld, and on Star Alliance airlines: a distinct rarity.
Oddly, the day the email was sent out, bmi relaunched it's website, with a radical overhaul of the soon to shut bmi Diamond Club section.
In other bmi news, 1,200 jobs are also likely to go, as a result of British Airways owner IAG concluding its deal to buy the airline from Lufthansa for £172m. Many routes are expected to be axed.
IAG, which also owns Spain's Iberia, will gain 56 more slots at Heathrow airport as part of the deal. The Unite union in the UK said it was saddened by the proposed job losses and would seek to mitigate the impact of the cuts.
