Brussels Airlines

Not Verified | Low cost attitude without any respect for prime customers. Brussels airlines is the only airline where they have somebody who seems to privilege friends or family and often kicks you out of your seat of choice. I am a 1K lifetime gold/million miler on United and my seat was changed twice, without notice on this specific flight. When checking in, the airline staff was even lying and said that the seat I booked was 'defect', while it was clearly occupied when in the plane. I further had 3 more similar incidents this year and will avoid the airline for sure. Unlike the fact that i fly over 100,000 miles per year, cannot even remember such issues with any other airline. Besides this the aircraft are very old A330 with average service. The airline is focused to Africa where low standards may be acceptable but there are much better alternatives for transatlantic. To avoid for sure.

✅ Trip Verified | Departure was delayed by 3h 30' due to a sick captain to replace and technical problems with the aircraft. Despite the terrible delay (I was also flying with a pet in the cabin, imagine keeping an animal in a cage for 3h30' extra time), the company only provided a voucher for 5 Euro (minimum cost of a drink in the airport 5.20 Euro) Reicompensation was refused because the arrival delay was 2h55' In a few words, Brussels Airlines thinks that 5 Euro are enough to compensate for such a disservice.

✅ Trip Verified | I am thoroughly disappointed with my recent experience involving my flight booking with Brussels Airlines and the associated travel agency, flysmarter. What initially seemed to be a simple 12-hour journey turned into an inordinate ordeal that continues to persist. My original flight booking was set to have a total travel time of slightly over 12 hours. However, I was recently notified that due to a prolonged layover in Brussels, my travel time would inflate to a staggering 27 hours. Given the unwelcome increase of 18 hours, I felt compelled to cancel my journey. Shockingly, upon deciding to cancel, flysmarter demanded a cancellation fee of 500 NOK, despite the drastic alteration in my travel itinerary by Brussels Airlines. This appears highly unreasonable to me. The substantial changes to my journey were beyond my control and it seems deeply unfair to be financially penalized for such unforeseen adjustments. I've exhausted all efforts to seek resolution through customer service at both Brussels Airlines and flysmarter, but to no avail. It has been a fruitless game of passing the buck between the two entities, with neither willing to assume responsibility. The fruitless back-and-forth communication resulted in three hours of wasted time, leading to mounting frustration. I am deeply dissatisfied with the lack of customer-centricity displayed by both Brussels Airlines and flysmarter. I strongly caution potential travelers to weigh their options carefully before choosing to fly with Brussels Airlines or book through flysmarter. Should your travel plans not unfold as anticipated, it seems there's a clear absence of support or assistance. What's worse, you may find yourself unfairly financially penalized for circumstances entirely outside of your control. I wouldn't wish this disheartening experience on anyone else. Please take a look at the attached screenshot that clearly illustrates the blame game being played by Brussels Airlines and flysmarter. It is a reflection of their incredibly poor service.

✅ Trip Verified | Extremely bad customer service. There are always delays and I have had the problem of adding extra luggage a few times, they say that you can add it for 30 euros (official fee) and when you try, they say it's not possible and that you have to pay 70 euros instead at the airport to do so! They never reply to any emails or messages or complaint forms etc. The tickets cost a fortune and they don't even offer a glass of water for a five-hour flight. The seats are becoming harder, less comfortable and narrower, and Brussels Airlines is acting like a low cost airline which it most definitely is not given the exaggerated fees. What a rip off! Highly disappointed.

✅ Trip Verified | I am profoundly disappointed by the treatment I have received following the cancellation of my upcoming flight. Upon the cancellation, I was rebooked on an alternative flight that is completely unsuitable for my needs. Seeking assistance, I reached out to the customer service center, hoping for a solution. To my dismay, I encountered inflexibility, misinformation and deception. Such disregard is simply unacceptable, especially when facing circumstances beyond my control.

Not Verified | Flight cancelled without a proper reason. No way to get help after being cancelled, the chatbox is AI, it didn’t help at all. No one picked up the phone from the call centre. No compensation after the journey is highly disrupted. An email from the airlines said there is a voucher for food and drink automatically available on my boarding pass, but it is not available and I tried many shops which listed on the website provided. My flight was cancelled without any reason and it was cancelled 1 day before departure. However, there are 4 flights from Berlin to Brussels on 3 July. Except for my flight, the rest 3 flights are not cancelled, so obviously it is not bad weather conditions or strike.

✅ Trip Verified | Easily the worst airline of the Lufthansa group, not even water is served. Luggage policy leads to delays as they asked a lot of people to check in the luggage leading to a delay and then the luggage racks were free. At other Lufthansa group airlines you can pay with miles for the buy on board. Also delay, personal experience, are more frequent. On the flight I was reviewing my seat pocket was broken.

✅ Trip Verified | Brussels-Barcelona return. I have never had any serious issues with this airline so far and I have flown several times with them. Outbound leg arrived with about 40 minutes delay in Barcelona due to late arrival of the plane in Brussels. Return flight was on time. As always, very pleasant, professional and pro-active crew on both flights. Their food and drink choices are good value as well! The ticket that I bought was the cheapest on those dates.

✅ Trip Verified | When i used the web portal of brussels airlines for purchase, i noticed that each time the web page was reloaded, the prices went up. Since the payment procedure each time got blocked (issue with the backend server that brussels airline side), and the purchase procedure had to be restarted, the price of the particular flight i wanted to book went up from 223 Euro to 248 Euros. This looks like unacceptable sales practices to drive up the prices of the flight.

✅ Trip Verified | Based in Brussels, I have no choice but to fly Brussels Airline for business trips. While it’s priced similar to Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss (all part of the same group), it is the step child / black sheep of the group and is more like EasyJet or RyanAir. 4 out of 5 flights are delayed. They run very few flights and given the popularity of Brussels as the European capital coupled with their monopoly in Belgium, flights are generally full. Your cabin luggage is more likely to be checked in than with any other “normal” airline. You’ll wait a long time to collect your luggage. I’ve often waited over an hour. They cite lack of labor as a reason. 5. Their ground staff have no compassion or sense of customer service. Nothing is free on the flight, a small bottle of water will run you €4. Brussels airline operates like a discount airline, and the only different between it and them are that they are cheaper. if possible.