Hi steve,

thanks for your reply. I'm still undecided as to whether I'm going to pre-book the seats. I like to have an aisle seat so I don't have to disturb other passengers when I need to get up. I feel a bit claustraphobic on a plane so don't like feeling confined to the window or middle seats. In the past I've prebooked seats where there are just a pair together so Hubby gets the window and I get the aisle. I wouldn't like the thought of no window in the row at all though.

I might just chance it and hope there will be 2 seats together (including an aisle seat), after all most people like to sit in a window seat

Hi Shirley,

I'm not sure whether this will be of any use, but I found a few photos online of the cabin of bmibaby's 737-300 (I will pm them to you as apparently I haven't met the required number of posts to post links on the forum :p)

It looks to me as though it is indeed 2-2 at row 12. I should be able to remember this as I flew on one 2 weeks ago and was seated nearby, but I've forgotten now! I'm not sure whether there will be a window view though unfortunately... probably not - especially as these seats are BC & DE and not positioned next to the wall of the aircraft. If you really wanted a window, you could always book AB or EF seats, and then if the load is light, you might not even end up with anybody sitting next to you anyway. But obviously that's a risk!

Hope this helps a bit.

The plan of the plane shows it's config is 3-3 with 26 rows. Row 12 only has 2 seats so I'm thinking about booking these for myself and partner. can somebody tell me, if there will be less room in these seats and also whether we'll have a window view or not? Thanks

Mmmm, a bit confusing.......Which type of aircraft usually does the route Cardiff to Malaga (737-300 or 737-500) because according to 'seat guru' neither planes have 26 rows. The 737-500 does indeed have only 2 seats on ONE side of the aircraft on row 10. ( emergency aisle)
The emergency aisle on the 737-300 is on row 12 with 3 seats each side of the cabin.
The two seats on their own do not have any extra legroom.

http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/bmibaby/bmibaby_Boeing_737-500.php
http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/bmibaby/bmibaby_Boeing_737-300.php

Sanji

Seat guru must be wrong, the bmibaby 733's do have 26 rows

Thanks Ben and Sanji. The plan BMI Baby have supplied for us to book the seats definitely shows 26 rows. I don't think row 12 will have a window view either. At the moment, only about a quarter of seats have been prebooked so I might leave it a while and see how this develops. Thanks for the pm Ben- much appreciated.

Seat guru must be wrong, the bmibaby 733's do have 26 rows

I wouldn't know if they have or they haven't, but maybe if you're sure, it would be helpful to let "seat guru" know.
Sanji

Hi
Sorry if this has been asked a million times...when do BMI baby usually release flights for May 2012?

Thanks
Jo

jojoxxx2001,

It's normally about 6 months before your date so sometime around November.

Darren

Low-cost carrier to pull out of two UK airports

Low cost carrier bmibaby is to pull out of Manchester and Cardiff airports at the end of this summer and focus on expanding at other UK regional airports instead.

Managing director Julian Carr said: "In the current economic climate it is essential for bmibaby to focus on airports where the airline already has a strong market presence and where are strong growth opportunities for the bmibaby business."

Sister airline bmi, British Midland International will keep a significant presence at Manchester Airport and recently announced a new service to Frankfurt, operated on behalf of Lufthansa, and a new flight to Basel. In addition bmi regional operates services from Manchester to Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Lyon.

Bmibaby will switch two aircraft to Belfast City Airport, from where it will offer seven new routes for summer 2012 to Malaga, Alicante, Palma, Faro and Ibiza, plus a new year- round service to Amsterdam and new ski flights to Geneva.

The airline will also expand at East Midlands and Birmingham, placing an additional aircraft at each one. It will offer two new ski from East Midlands to Toulouse and Chambery this winter. New routes for summer 2012 from Birmingham and East Midlands will be announced soon, said the airline.

With permission from Travelmole

What a hell of a blow for us in Wales We're flying with BMI Baby next week. There won't be any budget airlines operating out of Cardiff once they pull the plug. Bmibaby have enabled us to have a few cheap weekends away as well as a week away at Easter. don't the people of Wales matter any more Oh, I get so cross!!

Our next closest airport with budget airlines is Bristol which is a 2 hour drive away- I just hope that Easyjet don't pull out of there.

don't the people of Wales matter any more

one problem is that Cardiff isn't convenient for most of Wales. Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester are better located for those to the north of the Brecon Beacons.

And in a commercial world, nobody anywhere matters if they aren't spending enough money.

one problem is that Cardiff isn't convenient for most of Wales. Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester are better located for those to the north of the Brecon Beacons.

And in a commercial world, nobody anywhere matters if they aren't spending enough money.

I know you are right Steve but the news came as a surprise to me and I had to let off some steam. I suppose I shouldn't complain as I can get to Bristol airport in two hours. I feel sorry for the people of Pembrokeshire, some of whom won't have access to a budget airline within 3 hours drive.

My comment about Wales not being important comes at a time when they've also put back the electrification of the wales railway network. Add to that the awful service and frequency of public transport in our rural areas and it's no wonder I need to let off steam

Wales does have one airport within 2½ hours drive of virtually the whole country (except the far reaches of Pembroke). It's just south of Welshpool which sounds middle of nowhere but if you look on a trunk road map is actually the middle of everywhere - and it's got a railway station close by. Unfortunately it isn't quite up to passenger jet standards. Something for Ieuan to look at in the long term? Seriously, Welshpool International may not happen but when you compare them on a map you can see why Cardiff airport just can't get the catchment which is why Baby have struggled and presumably why flyforbeans never got off the ground (in either sense of the words!).

...what do you mean you've never heard of flyforbeans ???

While it is bad news for Cardiff - dont take it too personally...BMI and BMI Baby are struggling out there and both airlines have and are makin radical changes to where they operate.

Nivsy

It was mentioned on the news last night that it may open the door for other budget airlines such as Easyjet to negotiate with Cardiff. I do so hope they're right but won't hold my breath.

Bmibaby launches seven new routes for summer 2012

Bmibaby has announced seven new destinations as part of its summer 2012 schedule.

Flights will go on sale today from East Midlands Airport to Gibraltar, Corfu, Murcia and Naples, and from Birmingham Airport to Lisbon, Rome (Fiumicino) and Barcelona.

In addition, bmibaby will launch year-round flights to Cologne from East Midlands Airport and to Prague from Birmingham Airport.

The low cost airline will now operate 31 routes from East Midlands and 14 routes from Birmingham.

Managing director Julian Carr said the airline was committed to further growth in this region.

The new flights launch around the end of March, beginning of April 2012.

With permission from Travelmole

Hi

We are travelling with BMI baby next Tues from east mids airport...i have been looking at the same flight over the last few days and both times its been delayed 1 day one hr other day 2 hours.
Anyone know what the reliability is like from EMA genrally???? i know its variable on the day but just wondered if anyone had views on it ?
Thanks
Jo

I was wanting a flight in September, EMA to Malaga.
I was watching the flight I wanted for weeks, hoping the price might move, taking the risk that it could go either way.
When I looked last week, the return flight had in red "Hurry only 4 seats left", so as I do not want to go to Manchester, I bit the bullet and booked it.

Normally when I've booked a flight or a hotel I don't look anymore because it would upset me if it was cheaper, but out of curiosity later that night, I went back onto the BmiBaby site and sure enough it said "Hurry only 2 seats left".

I've been back on the site this afternoon and the same flight has now dropped in price ( that's a gamble you take, no problem) but how can a flight that was saying only 2 seats left last week, now continue to be advertised.?
So, was there really only 4 seats left last week.? or is it just a con.?

Sanji x

Interesting point. I've never really paid any attention to those numbers. I take it what you did was see 4 seats left, book 2 and then rechecked and saw 2 seats left. Now that you've raised my suspicions I would have said delete all your cookies before rechecking. If it had said only 2 seats left with no cookies I'd have been happy, if the cookies were still there it's possible that it was simply remembering what it already told you and deducting what you had bought!

What the notes I've seen usually say is "only x seats left at this price" which doesn't mean there aren't some more at another price -or that the other price isn't lower!

At the back of my mind I have a feeling that Baby offer a higher flexible fare that allows cancellation (even easyjet do that through a specialist business travel agent), in which case there's always a possibility that a few extra seats will appear, although it would be too much of a coincedence for that to happen as you booked yours. And I don't know whether they save an allocation for smaller tour ops and then release them at a cut off date.

But now you've made me think I'll pay more attention in future!