BMI scraps business class seats

What do you do if your company decides it will no longer authorise business class travel? This little conundrum has already been thought out by BMI who have recently ’scrapped’ their business class cabins for UK/domestic flights.

Or have they? Very cleverly, BMI has done what amounts to a re-brand of their business class by giving business travellers all the perks of flying business, but with an economy tag. The way it works is like this : instead of buying a normal, inflexible business class ticket, BMI will ask you to buy a flexible economy ticket. This guarantees you a seat on any flight. More importantly for business travellers, it also gives you lounge access and seating at the front of the aircraft. And while ordinary economy passengers will have to pay for food and drink, the flexible economy ones won’t.

It makes sound business sense, too : BMI still gets its premium fares, business travellers still get their little perks and companies can still say that their executives are not flying business – everyone’s a winner!

Mr Prock-Schauer, the new(ish) chief exec of BMI is obviously making some changes to try and improve the profitability of the airline. And it’s no secret that Lufthansa are thinking of selling BMI off once it becomes a slightly more attractive entity. But if things stay as they are at the moment, it might be quite a while before we see that day.