Brussels Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | I have waited four months to post this for reasons that will become apparent. I was scheduled to fly on the evening flight from Birmingham to Brussels in June, the flight was cancelled at 4 hours notice and after I had left for the airport. When I arrived I was told 'you are booked on the 10.40 flight tomorrow'; strange as there is no 10.40 flight normally. I was offered no explanation for the cancellation and when I asked was told it was 'crewing problems'. I asked if I could go on the 06.15 flight next morning, they seemed surprised I knew about this and was told three times that 'it is already overbooked by four passengers'. I then asked what I was supposed to do for the night and told to go home; I pointed out that I lived a two hour drive from the airport and was very reluctantly booked into a hotel. On arriving at the airport the next morning I discovered that the 06.15 flight had also been cancelled, so two flights, one of which was 'overbooked', cancelled. A surprise then that the 10.40 flight was only just over half full. The result of all this is that I was delayed by 17 hours and missed a meeting that I should have attended. We now come to the really shameful part of this whole story. I contacted Brussels Airlines they day after my return from Brussels to claim the €250 compensation that they are legally required to pay delayed passengers. After six weeks and several emails I was told that I was due €250 and that I could expect payment in '4-6 weeks' - funny, when I paid my fare it took about 10 seconds. Well, six weeks has passed and guess what, no payment. I was also told that my original flight had been cancelled for 'technical reasons' and passenger safety; strange that they didn't mention that at the airport. I have been flying with Brussels Airlines and its predecessors SABENA and SN Brussels for over 25 years; they have always been at the poor end of the scale but this recent experience is a new low, they have nothing but contempt for their customers.Just for information, I paid £315 for the two one-hour flights between Birmingham and Brussels (by no means the lowest price I have paid over the years): for this I got no refreshments, no hold baggage - nothing except an economy seat. I am pleased to report that the response of passengers when cabin crew came round asking if we would like to buy a coffee and a snack was as you might expect. I have flown with around 80 airlines around the world, including several 'low cost' airlines, I would rather go with any of them before Brussels Airlines.

✅ Trip Verified | London to Mumbai via Brussels. The gate agent in London was very nice and gave me seats in which no one was seated next to me. The safety video on Brussels Airlines was quite entertaining and captured the spirit of Belgium quite well. We were served complimentary breakfast snack packaged in a box during short flight from London to Brussels. My connecting flight from Brussels to Mumbai was on a dated, but comfortable Airbus A330. The touchscreen IFE had a nice collection of movies for the 8 hour flight, and I was able to charge my phone with USB outlet. The vegetarian meal served on-board was delicious. Since Belgium is famous for chocolates, I was hoping that Brussels Airlines will serve chocolates in economy class (similar to Swiss), but they didn't. Overall, I had a pleasant experience and wouldn't mind flying Brussels Airlines again.

✅ Trip Verified | Had a ticket to Oporto with connection in Brussels. The flight departed 1 hour late and I lost my connection. Had to transform a 3 hours trip into a 10 hours trip. They gave a connection to Geneva and then Oporto that made me spend the whole day in the airport. Lousy airline, doesn’t care about the customers, doesnt care about schedules, is always understaffed so everything takes forever.

✅ Trip Verified | Entebbe to Brussels. Nice clean cabin. Food was decent but nothing special. Free drinks and headphones were provided on the flight along with the usual selection of old and bad films. All in all a decent budget airline.

✅ Trip Verified | Geneva to Brussels. Horrible airline, delay on both ends of the trip, one hour on departure, the next one two and a half hours. Staff totally unconcerned and the excuses are laughable.

✅ Trip Verified | Vienna to Manchester via Brussels. Lies, misinformation and appalling customer service. There was a 75 minute delay in Vienna with a stop over in Brussels for a connection to Manchester of 90 minutes. While on the Vienna Brussels leg of the flight I asked staff if baggage would be transferred to the connection. They told me to check at the gate. When arrived in Brussels there was a 45 minute delay on the second leg to Manchester. The staff at the gate in Brussels confirmed that my luggage had already been transferred, when I arrived in Manchester no luggage was delivered. I called customer service and was left on hold twice for more than 29 minutes. No answer. Sent message on messenger and got a 'cut and paste' robot answer stating the airline has 21 days to find the luggage. I submitted online form which took ages from a mobile phone. Other customers from other destinations also had delays. Thus is a cheap, low cost airline, pretending to be the same as a national carrier. I would never fly with them again. Avoid at all costs.

✅ Trip Verified | Birmingham to Brussels. Avoid this 3rd rate airline at all costs if you want to get to your destination. We were stood for 50 minutes on the bus after leaving the gate, no explanation as to why. When I did ask the response from the rude member of staff was, technical issues, then 10 minutes later it was crewing issues, then 10 minutes after that it was safety issues. So we were then told the flight was cancelled and given a number to ring, 1 hour 30 minutes later on hold no answer. Staff at the airport were more concerned about passengers returning their duty free than offering advice or any alternative flights. I suspect that the real reason the flights get was cancelled was because it was only 1/3 full and it was cheaper to cancel than operate the flight.

Not Verified | Milan to Washington via Brussels. Booked through United for trip to Italy from United States. Did not see in fine print that United subcontracted out to Brussels Airlines. Brussels Airlines cancelled full flight at the time of departure! This caused the entire flight of passengers to get reticketed. There is one person handling for the entire flight. Four hours later, I was rebooked through a different airline and forced to fly into airport in a different state in order to get home. I submitted a claim online as this is the only avenue provided by Brussels Air to do so. It has been over six weeks and I have yet to receive any communication from Brussels Air for the refund. I attempted to call and actually speak with a person - forget it! I called 3x and each time was on hold more than 30 minutes without anyone picking up. United will not take any responsibility for refunds either since it's Brussels Air despite their business relationship to this airline. Do not fly United or Brussels Airlines.

✅ Trip Verified | Brussels to Geneva. It’s pointless to “apologize” for the delay and blame it on the previous flight if every single flight we took with Brussels Airlines was over 1h late. If customers bother to take the time to arrive on time you might try to do the same. Not flying with you again.

Not Verified | Berlin to Brussels. Flight cancelled after 2 hour queue allocated to a flight 9 hours later. Said flight delayed. And in meantime they allocated a standby status to us which generated huge stress as we didn't know if we would even fly later. Cabin crew blase about the 9.5 hour delay. Nothing special about their treatment of customers at all. I can't recommend not flying with them enough.