I’ve blogged before about full-cost carriers stripping out costs by getting rid of nice things like free food, so I was interested to see an e-mail from BMI today saying that from the beginning of April, all Diamond Club members holding blue plus, silver or gold cards and flying in Economy will get priority seating near the front of the plane, and complimentary food and drink.

I think this is great – I fly to London a bit with work, and I think my last ticket worked out at something like £187 return. Expensive, right? But you get no free food (they took that away ages ago) and you can’t choose your seat. That means there’s very little difference between BMI and Easyjet or Flybe.

This announcement is good news I think – it does reward loyalty and at the end of the day, it is a better service than what’s provided at the moment.

When I’ve been travelling with BMI, I’ve been using an old Lufthansa frequent flyer card, as I’ve nearly got enough miles for a round trip to the US in Business Class. However, this might make me re-think which card I’ve use, as I just recently signed up for Diamond Club.

To get the new blue plus Diamond Club card, you only need to get 3000 miles in 12 months with BMI. That is two round trips from Belfast to London on BMI with a mid-price ticket. It’s also worth noting that BMI recently announced that flights on BMI Baby – their budget airline – will soon earn Diamond Club points.

Nice to see airlines increasing their service rather than taking them away for a change! You can read more about all of this here.