The Global Traveller lays out the plan to close bmi’s Diamond club.
Back in April, the bmi website said the program was ending and members being migrated over to Lufthansa’s Miles and More program. That turned out to be a bit premature, the notice was only intended for residents of specific countries where bmi had ceased service.
But since Lufthansa controls the carrier it was only a matter of time before they migrated its frequent flyers away from the more (too?) generous Diamond Club program and over to their own offering.
According to Kiwi’s post,
Lufthansa says the 2012 accounts will reflect the full effect of Diamond Club closure. This means Diamond Club will be closed by around 30 June 2011. Other aspects of integration refer to a country by country approach, and this may continue to be used for account closures.It will be a sad day for bmi die-hards. As I wrote in April,We have other hints from the Lufthansa treatment of Brussels Airline and Swiss programs. Roughly 6 months notice was given of changes
One strong benefit of Lufthansa Senator is the 50% off redemption for a companion on the same award. That’s not matched by bmi’s offerings.
But bmi Diamond Club was otherwise so much more valuable, in particular the items that will be missed:
■The Cash and Points award chart that really stretched the value of miles.
■One-way redemptions at no mileage premium.
■Better award chart
■Better partner earning with Hilton (I earn 1000 bmi miles per night up to 3000 per stay when I double dip with bmi)
■Less draconian mileage expiration rules
■The recently introduced family accounts (which were especially great for signing up family with signup bonuses, even if those family members never flew, just for the free miles you could use)
It’s worth thinking about how to use any accumulated Diamond Club miles before the transition, at least unless you’re planning to use the 50% off a second passenger on the same award offering for Senators.
Oh man that sucks. I have 550k, and I’m 7 years into my 10 year stretch. Now I need to work out how to spend a ton of miles 🙁
@Ben — Don’t despair, use your miles for the 50% off SEN awards in LH/LX first class. I am already envisioning SFO-FRA-JNB, SFO-ZRH-DXB, etc. And, above all, I am looking forward to booking these awards online (no ICC!!!).
Given that I plan to use most or all of our bmi miles miles on these 50% off awards, I am MUCH more concerned about how long our SEN status will last than I am about burning miles before the switchover.
@Gene Indeed, it *is* worth remembering that Miles & More members have more award inventory on Lufthansa and Swiss than do partner carriers, especially for first class in my experience. So with the 50% off companion awards the prices aren’t as crazy, and with better availability you can make nice use of those miles.
Thanks for the reminder about the expanded award inventory. Hopefully that means we can actually find a couple F seats on LX SFO-ZRH. So far, I haven’t seen much of anything using the KVS Tool/ANA.
Can we expect any devaluation of our miles give BMI’s generosity in this area? e.g., 1 bmi mile = 0.75 M&M mile
Also, moving forward, where would you recommend accruing miles for someone who mostly flies in *A premium cabins? BMI was a godsent for this.
Well I guess I’m pretty happy that I succeeded this year in re-qualifying for BD*G after the comp last year. The whole purpose was to get Senator when it was phased out.
I will sit Shiva for this one. A huge loss!
Well Today it happened. 19/4/2012 will be marked as the day BMI ceased to exist no more accumulation of miles. Although they tell you at the call center that benefits will continue indefinitely DO NOT BELIEVE. Yesterday I was at the lounge at Joburg. They were looking at each other whether i should be admitted in. One of them called over a supervisor who told them that benefits (at least as far as the lounge goes) is Only till the end of APRIL 2012!! Hey Damaxer – I made Kriya down to my Pupik.