Foreign Perspectives

For the first time in several years, I managed to fly out of Perpignan airport straight to Belfast.

It was my first time on BMIBaby, the discount airline arm of British Midland.

As discount airlines go, they seem to have gotten several things completely wrong but hopefully they will continue in the same vein for quite some time.

For a start, they allow 20kg in checked luggage although they did get it right by charging to have the bag checked in. They didn’t even have a weight limit on carryon luggage (although there is the usual size limit).

Then they went on to be friendly and even displaying a caring attitude towards the passengers. You just can’t legitimately call yourself a discount airline and do stuff like that.

But they didn’t stop there. Those with small children (and they sensibly limit to those up to around 6 years of age) get priority in boarding. They even try to allocate a window seat as the little guys usually like to see what’s going on. Yeah, seat allocations!

Finally, you can even get airmiles on the flights (well, BMI’s version).

We’d a notionally connecting flight in Manchester but as I wasn’t too sure how long it was between flights, I booked a slightly later one. Had I been a bit sharper in getting off the previous flight I think they’d even have let me go on the earlier one but I just missed it. 

Overall, as you can probably gather, I was very impressed with them. Aside from the lack of a weight limit on carryon luggage, none of the little things which they do really cost them any money but together they add up to making the flight a much more pleasant experience.

No, I think BMIBaby will definitely have to try harder or their “discount airline” label will just have to be taken off them.

In case anyone from BMIBaby reads this… a big thanks to Sue on the 1030 flight from Perpignan to Manchester on Thursday!