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Home » Meal of the Week » Fifth Freedom Dinner On bmi From Baku To Bishkek
British MidlandMeal of the Week

Fifth Freedom Dinner On bmi From Baku To Bishkek

Matthew Klint Posted onSeptember 15, 2018November 14, 2023 6 Comments

Each week, my Meal of the Week  feature examines an airline meal from my travels over the years. This may be a meal from earlier in the week or it may be a meal served over a decade ago.

I certainly miss bmi (British Midland International), a former British airline and Star Alliance member that was acquired by British Airways in 2012. Not that I flew it much…

The airline’s real value was in its Diamond Club loyalty program, which offered tremendous values on redemptions around the world and helped to influence some of the sweet spots in BA’s current Executive Club pricing scheme. I held Gold status with bmi for several years, but did not renew it when it became clear the program would no longer exist in 2012.

That’s a shame because every year I received upgrade coupons I could not use. Finally, in 2012, I had my first chance to fly bmi: from London to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan via Baku, Azerbaijan. Sadly, by then my upgrade coupons from the previous year had just expired and I spent the flight economy class even though business class was virtually empty. At least the economy class seats were fairly comfortable.

a blue and white airplane at an airport

a sign with an airport sign and an airplane sign

a row of seats in an airplane

seats in an airplane with windows

We departed London in the late morning and lunch was served after takeoff. It included chicken with potatoes and chickpea salad. I’d describe as the quintessential mass-produced 1950’s frozen dinner.

a drink can and a glass of water

a soda bottle and a glass of water

a tray of food and a cup of coffee

a plate of food on a tray

The flight landed in Baku before continuing to Bishkek. After we took off again, a second meal was served, this time vegetarian pasta with cake.

a group of drinks and a bag of chips

a plate of food on a tray

Neither meal was healthy or tasty…sadly this flight is how I will forever remember bmi catering.

CONCLUSION

Writing about this brings back so many memories about bmi redemptions over the years. Boy do I miss this program. The food…not so much.

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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6 Comments

  1. MeanMeosh Reply
    September 15, 2018 at 7:51 pm

    That cake looks absolutely dreadful. I thought it was a giant piece of SPAM from the photo!

    My only memory of BMI is nearly getting stranded in AMS on the way to Chennai about 20 years ago. After initially telling us they would do nothing for us since it was weather related, my groveling resulted in a phone call to BA, which had a flight going to London a few minutes later. Fortunately BA took pity on us since we were connecting on them via LHR and put us on.

    • Paolo Reply
      September 17, 2018 at 9:12 pm

      Dreadful cakes used to be a feature of economy catering, often lurid , always that gelatinous top , invariably full of sugar. I have a certain nostalgia for them.

  2. Gene Reply
    September 15, 2018 at 10:06 pm

    @ Matthew — Oh, how I miss bmi. 😉

    • Matthew Reply
      September 16, 2018 at 5:37 pm

      I was thinking of you as I wrote this post!

  3. ptahcha Reply
    September 15, 2018 at 10:06 pm

    At least there was some food. At one point they switched to all buy-on-board in economy. At least when I flew with them LHR-AMS. Granted, actual fare was $9 round trip with some $75 in taxes….

  4. Phil Duncan Reply
    September 16, 2018 at 4:37 pm

    The interior shots look like one of the BMed Airbuses that BD acquired when they took over. They had been used for a BA franchise operation for quite a few years and were in BA colours and had standard BA shorthaul cabins which BD did not upgrade to their usual standard though they were painted in BD post 2000 colours i.e. BMI.

    Ironically those same A321s were eventually refurbished after BA bought BD with the product BD had specified for their new mid-haul cabin and to this day they are still flying. G-MEDF is an example of one that has done the rounds of BMed for BA, BD and back to BA now with the new BD interior. Some of the A321s have been enhanced recently and now have the ultra-dense BA shorthaul cabin which I haven’t experienced but by all accounts it’s one to avoid.

    Whatever about the branding and although I liked the colours post 2000 I think the bmi branding was ill conceived as apparently until LH bought them it did not stand for anything and they were just bmi, it was LH who determined it meant british midland international though to the end their legal trading name was British Midland Airways Ltd.

    I have many good memories of it and the great people who worked there, My first ever flight was in 1966 on a BAC1-11 from MME-LHR, their first domestic service to London. The 1-11s were short lived and too costly to run and they reverted to a fleet of Viscounts not returning to use jets for quite a few years but when they did it was DC9-10s which were certainly an experience and a far cry from the A320s at the end.

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