BMIbaby cancellations

Hi All

My friend told me last night that she just happened to phone BMI to change something on her flight and was told that the flight home from Alicante to Cardiff had been cancelled. She said she had not received an e mail and they said that the e mails would be sent at a later date. So I am going to check on ours from Murcia to Cardiff. Hers were September to come home. Just thought I'd mention it. She has had to re arrange to fly home a day later then the kerfuffle started with trying to book the car for an extra day. They said they would have to cancel the car with a 60 pound cancellation fee then re book just for the extra day. Needless to say, after a fight with them on the phone, and a long wait to speak to the supervisor, she eventually got them to waiver the cancellation fee. Why is life sooooooooo complicated

I seem to remember they did the same last year too with Murcia, as one of our guests had to re- book their outbound/ inbound flights with Easyjet from Bristol. 

Hope you get it sorted Gina. Either way, please let us know then I can alert our community of another potential problem.

Mark

Yes this happened to a couple of friends last year. They were take to Alicante airport and then discovered the flight had been cancelled, they were not informed but had not checked.  But I never do with easyjet.

So they went back to their apartment  and were put on another BMI  flight the next day.

If this is what they do it is worth checking before.

Pat

Customer Service is definately going down with BMI Baby. I recently returned to Birmingham from Alicante it took over 1hr to check in they were getting you to put your hand luggage in the relevant container to check the size and then weigh it and this was causing many problems. Also they were not allowing you take a hand bag if you already had a piece of hand luggage. Due to this delay I didn't have time to purchase a drink before flying and I was very thirsty, then to top it I had to wait over 1hr to get a drink on the plane and I was only in row 9, I was lucky got what I wanted but alot of people were told that certain items had run out and their reply was this plane has been flying since 5.00am that morning ( my flight was 21.50pm) don't they re-stock. Their prices are going up and customer service going down.  

It seems that the problem with flights and other probs are the mostly Alicante routes so I've heard.  Although, I might be speaking too soon as Mark said they had probs in Murcia last year.The one hand luggage only and no hand bag has been going for ages and still they argue going through departures which holds everyone up! What is the matter with them? One piece simples!  We never go from Alicante so hopefully Murcia will be ok, who knows?  But, I will still ring them and check it out just in case. Fingers crossed. Keep you posted.  

P.S. I checked on the BMI site and they are still advertising the cancelled flights on there
 

So in that case their is not much point in checking your flight online before you go then!!. If it is not saying cancelled oh well will tell them that then. Thanks.

Hi Pat

How are you? Well, I didn't go all through the booking procedure so not sure if you tried to book they would tell you at the end, but I checked the flights that my friends had cancelled and they are still available. Suppose just have to ring them I guess to check. Good job they have their own place, imagine the kerfuffle for people staying in hotels or whatever. It was the car thing that was more annoying for them. They really didn't want to waiver the cancellation fee and re book the extra day. Cheeky sods

It was BMIbaby that cancelled our East Mids to Almeria flights for Sept 09 about 6 weeks before. Cost us hugely to rebook with an alternative airline so close to the holiday, plus further costs as we had to totally cancel our car hire and rebook as we ended up going into Murcia. We'd booked our car hire well in advance and before all the problems started last year so it just about trebbled. BMIbaby did not even give us the option of rebooking our flights on another route, they just cancelled them and refunded. Swore I'd never use them again due to their poor crappy customer service.

 Interesting comment re your car hire problems Carol & Richard. We had a flight delay in May due to volcanic ash so our a.m. flight did not  take off until early evening. It was not until we were boarding that they told us we were going to Alicante instead of Murcia, but a coach would be laid on to take us to Murcia. We had a car booked from Murcia but staff at Alicante said to go to the car-hire desk & they would sort it for us - which they did with no problem.  May be worth asking if they can transfer the car pick-up to another airport if it happens again to save rebooking.

Hope no more flights are cancelled this year, or next, as I've already booked for next June.

Hi Eilben

Trying to 'edit' the car hire we'd already booked was a total no no from the start. I contacted carjet who we'd booked with to explain the situation and they said the only thing they could do was cancel the original reservation and told me to rebook. Even when I explained that the prices were now treble they were not interested, plus we were booked with Auriga which had many many problems last year. Carjet actually cancelled one of our other bookings with Auriga and rebooked us with someone else, interestingly the cost did not change for that booking (4 days in Oct), it was the three week booking in September that really annoyed me, up from about £250 to £700.

For this year, I can't understand why car hire prices are still so high, we've been in and out of Murcia airport quite a few times already this year and there is a huge number of new cars in the car park, so I am sure there is definately not a shortage. More likely we paid that price last year so the hire companies can happily charge the same this year! I've started voting with my feet and have located a couple of alternative suppliers who bring the car to the airport, at a much reduced cost, with free extra drivers, full/full fuel etc. Haven't used them yet (first one is in August) but so far their customer service is second to none.

 We have noticed car hire seems to have gone up. We usually book a small car when there are only the two of us, but on the last 2 occasions we have been given a large car, the last would have seated 7 easily & they were diesel which is more costly. My husband is reluctant to ask for a change in case they take it as a new booking & charge even more.

I'd be interested to know who you have used as an alternative & if they are any good once you have been in August. 

Enjoy your stay when you go.

We have bookings with two companies that we have not used before, both bring their cars to the airport (Murcia), and both have very good terms, and as I say excellent customer service.

www.alandaluscarhire.com  we have a booking for September and November

www.laracars.com we have a booking for August.

I am more than happy to come back after each hire and comment on the cars, service, reliability etc etc.

The first company was a recommendation from a friend as they are based near where we have our house.

The second company was a recommendation from an EOS member.

I have no affiliation with either company before anybody asks.

I know a few people who have used   AlAndalusCarHire I haven't personally but they have had very good reports and cheap too.  Their email address is carhire@ntlworld.com.

Kel

 Is there any more news on the cancellations? Is it one offs are are they all being cancelled for the winter season?

Mark