‘Couldn’t make it up’ #2: bmi regional gives out topbonus miles – but you can’t spend them

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• Allardyce Mallon says:

  21 Dec21 December 06:01

  It’s just beyond believable. Who would have thought that Germany is such a banana republic? Of course, I have a stash of TB miles, a large chunk of which will expire at the end of this year. And you can be sure they won’t extend them, despite the absurd circumstances of having a frequent flyer programme without an airline to spend them on. After all, in Germany the rules are the rules.

  • Andrew says:

    21 Dec21 December 08:52

    When it comes to the failure of a company, points (like giftcards and vouchers) are absolutely worthless.

    Never leave it too late to spend them.

    • the real harry1 says:

      21 Dec21 December 09:20

      anybody holding ToyRUs giftcards?…

• Bob says:

  21 Dec21 December 06:32

  It sounds like top bonus is acting as a travel agent only, sort of, with the need of using a specific url.

  Very odd.

  • Pr99 says:

    21 Dec21 December 07:45

    Travel agents tend to arrange travel though.

• RussellH says:

  21 Dec21 December 10:35

  My e-mail from topbonus re Germania states that using topbonus miles for Germania flights is planned from the beginning of 2018.

  But as I commented on this yesterday, the only ex-UK Germania flight I could find when I got that e-mail was LGW-Priština.

• the real harry1 says:

  21 Dec21 December 10:39

  O/T google ‘Investors fret over Norwegian Air’s rapid growth’ to get behind the FT paywall and read an interesting article on Norwegian.

  I remember I caused a few raised eyebrows when I said Norwegian are a basket case a couple of weeks ago – now we have the mighty FT agreeing with me!

  “They are growing too fast and they can’t execute it,” says Mr Lobbenberg. “They are currently doing whatever they can do to absorb the planes. They’ve started leasing some to Hong Kong Express, selling older aircraft, setting up an Argentine airline. It’s very much the tail wagging the dog in terms of the strategy, or more simply the entire strategy of the airline ends up being dictated by the fact they need to digest the aircraft order.”

  Mr Wober agrees that while Norwegian’s starting principle — that there are a lot of underserved and overpriced long-haul markets — is true, the airline’s execution has yet to be “fully convincing”.

  The rapid fleet expansion has caused a big increase in net debt — from almost NKr3.8bn in 2012 to NKr21.1bn in 2016. Mr Wober points to concerns over the balance street “getting more and more stressed”.

  In September Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s chief executive, said both Monarch, the UK’s fifth-biggest airline, and Norwegian were running out of cash and perhaps would not survive the winter. A month later, Monarch collapsed after it failed to find a buyer for some of its assets.’

  • Cate says:

    21 Dec21 December 13:09

    *further down the same article:

    ‘Some analysts agree that fears are overblown and Norwegian is unlikely to succumb to a Monarch-like collapse.’

• Nick M says:

  21 Dec21 December 12:49

  Very OT – We have a BA flight from T5 departing at 08.30am and are traveling with a baby and toddler… is there any way to drop the car seats off the night before? I have a feeling someone mentioned something a while back?

  • Joe says:

    21 Dec21 December 16:01

    Afaik lhr does not offer day before check in, only gatwick

• Save East Coast Rewards says:

  21 Dec21 December 13:36

  Here’s me thinking Virgin Trains East Coast had a screwed up loyalty policy!

• James says:

  21 Dec21 December 15:09

  Still fuming I lost two business class flights DUS – Curacao which were TopBonus points redemptions.
  I seem to have no way of recourse 🙁

  • the real harry1 says:

    21 Dec21 December 15:24

    did you pay any element on Visa/ MC? eg (not knowing how TopBonus redemptions work), did you pay something similar to RFS fees on credit card?

    if so, you might have S75 protection, possibly for the whole, ie you could ascribe the TB points a value or simply give the flight a value similar to the cash cost of buying it when you claim using S75

• the real harry1 says:

  21 Dec21 December 15:27

  O/T just tracking my wife’s flight on planefinder.net – seems a good app – and it is about to fly over our place in the sun! 🙂

  • the real harry1 says:

    21 Dec21 December 15:32

    ha ha too cloudy and a bit of snow coming down, but I distinctly heard it, about 5 or 6 clicks away as it passed by lol

    • Gavin says:

      21 Dec21 December 16:37

      place in the snow?

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