Brussels Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | Long haul service on Brussels Airlines is very good and I now have a number of experiences. On the positive side, a number of things: The service is very nice, the crew being very attentive to the comfort of the passengers. Food and wine are always good and nicely presented. The seat is a true lie-flat which is comfortable and the design of the business cabin is quite intelligent as you have the choice of truly individual seats or having a neighbour. The short haul flights between Brussels and Paris has improved since one year. On the negative side, 3 things: the choices of films and music are both limited and not very attractive (I'm not speaking specifically about this flight but in general) and if the commute in Brussels is often a pain it is only because of long queues at immigration with no fast track which must be unique in Europe. And a true shame: there is no business lounge available in Paris even if Brussels Airlines could easily use their Star Alliance partners lounges in the same terminal (LH and SAS). A big cherry on the cake: the price of the business tickets are truly most competitive.

✅ Trip Verified | Vilnius to Heathrow via Brussels. The staff at the boarding gate wouldn’t allow to take onboard cabin size bag with laptop arguing the have limited luggage space in the aircraft. Upon boarding it was obvious that 1/3 of luggage racks were empty. Why?

✅ Trip Verified | My first experience flying with Brussels Airlines, and I was impressed. The seats were spacious and comfortable, and I slept well when it was converted to a flatbed. IFE was OK, but there wasn't such a large variety of movies available. I enjoyed all of the meals that were served, and they were accompanied by a good selection of wines and beers - I really liked that they stock quiet a variety of beers, including ones from smaller, lesser-know brewers. The crew were all excellent - friendly, polite, attentive and chatty - they were proactive about drinks and refills, which was much appreciated. On my return, the flight was postponed for 24 hours, but the airline was very quick in sorting out accommodation and it was relatively painless. A good airline, made all the better by friendly and cheerful staff.

✅ Trip Verified | Brussels to Rome. Staff on board terrible, no more Brussels Airlines! I had only one Personal bag with me, no trolley, no bag pack, no luggage. Staff told me he would have helped me putting the luggage in the cabin, instead he sent it to the luggage belt without even informing me. I would have liked at least to be informed about my bag sent to the belt so that I could have removed the laptop.

✅ Trip Verified | Zurich to Brussels with Brussels Airlines. If everything goes well, you have a nice trip, but as soon as something happens, customer service is really bad. They don't understand very common situations, move you around from one place to another, mail, phone. I had a 1 day trip, fly in the morning, come back in the evening, it had to be 2 different bookings because of these time constraints it seems. My morning flight was cancelled due to the weather. So I had to cancel my meeting and the evening flight back as well. I had paid the proposed cancellation insurance, so no problem right? Right, after communicating everything to customer service you are pointed to the website, then to email, then to insurance company, then back to email, then to another website form, then back to email. Nobody understands this very simple situation, each person knows only his very own confined set of rules and claims he can't help you. This is just really bad customer service. I thought major airlines were past these issues, but apparently, Brussels Airlines still hasn't figured this out.

✅ Trip Verified | Brussels to London Heathrow. It was supposed to be a short, 50 minute flight, but it ended up taking over 2 hours. When the gate was announced in the airport, the moment we arrived we saw that the plane would depart at 9:55 and not the 9:40 scheduled time. The reason for this was apparently "changing a tire", although oddly the plane was right in front of us the whole time and no tire was changed. As 9:55 loomed, the time of departure was again changed to 10:10, again for the same reason. We finally boarded the plane at around 10 a.m, local time, and departed at about 10:30 a.m. A gentleman sitting behind me lost his connecting flight because of the delays that we experienced, and the flight attendant was rude with him when he asked for help. I was content with the flight comfort wise. The leg space was surprisingly good. I am 1.87 cm tall and i could stretch my legs. Same cannot be said with the service whilst on board. I tried to buy coffee and a sandwich, but they only accepted credit card and no debit card 'because of a fault in the system'. When i offered to pay cash in British Pounds, they refused. Not quite sure why, but it left me without breakfast. Also note that if you are a non-EU citizen landing in the UK, you will need to fill an immigration landing card, but bring a pen on board because to quote the flight attendant "we have pens but are not allowed to give them to passengers". All in all, it was an average experience. I fly this route almost twice a month, but it has always been with British Airways. My first experience with Brussels Airlines, and I think there are things they can work on and improve.

✅ Trip Verified | Manchester to Entebbe via Brussels. We purchased flights back in February 2018 for flights in December. Three of us selected seats and paid the same day. My companion bought at paid for an 'Extra leg room aisle seat'. This was verified by the airline on an itinerary mailed to us. Over the ensuing months a regular check showed all selected seats moving around the plane for no reason and several long distance calls to "Customer care" failed to resolve what was obviously a computer glitch. We received assurances that all was OK and the seats would be provided only to see that the problem persisted right up to the date we were due to fly. At one point we were accused of not having paid for these selections and it took more conversations and mails of the Credit card charge to convince them that the error was theirs and we had paid for all six selections. So it came as no surprise that on check in we received boarding cards for seats we did not reserve. Attempts at the airport to remedy this were just shrugged off as were further attempt by cabin staff. In short Brussels Airlines did not provide the goods purchased. If there was a negative score possible on this site I would use it. Never trust them to perform the simplest of tasks. Happily the flight crew and plane were OK but the rest sucks.

✅ Trip Verified | Brussels to Toronto. I booked this ticket as an Amsterdam to Toronto trip. It turns out Brussels Airlines uses the AMS to BRU airport rail link in place of a flight, which is a great option if travelling light. I wasn't expecting much from this airline, especially after the rigmarole I had to deal while trying to check in. There were a number of airport-related issues, and despite having booked in September already, I was somehow placed on standby. I was given a seat at the gate with no issue, but it was a concerning start to my journey nonetheless. Thankfully, the chaos of the airport was just that. My onboard experience was quite pleasant. Clean newish cabin, comparatively comfortable seats with decent headrests and a good entertainment system. Cabin staff were professional and helpful. It was confusing to be spoken to in French, Flemish and English all on the same flight, but that's Belgium. The food was tasty and was warm when it arrived. However, the speed of the meal service was not great. Sitting towards the back of the plane didn't help this, but it was still over an hour and a half into the flight before I received my meal. An interesting note, I was assigned to seat 41D, which is the first '3' row towards the back. This meant I got 2 TV screens to use, and a choice of 3 tables (two tray tables and fold out). There was also a bit of extra leg room. Overall, Brussels Airlines did what it needed to do quite competently. I would recommend a trans-Atlantic journey with them over a raft of other Euro and North American based airlines.

✅ Trip Verified | We took a round trip to Mumbai from Brussels. The flight to Mumbai on December 9 was okayish. The boarding process was rather chaotic with poor instructions on how sequential boarding is to be done. The in-flight entertainment system is poor (not much choice) and rarely updated. The food and beverages were just about average. On the return flight, however, SN602 on December 31, our experience was really bad. We had provided our food choices (vegetarian food and child meals), while booking the tickets. Thus, the airline had almost 9 months to prepare our meals. However, they ran out of vegetarian meals, which is simply because of bad planning and incompetence. What I was offered instead was non-vegetarian food; when I said 'no', I was offered just a plate with fruit salad and the dessert. I refused that saying that I had pre-booked meals for the family while booking the tickets. The flight crew was a mix of Belgians and an Indian. The two Belgian ladies serving the food just gave up and one of them was not even apologetic and just said - we cannot do anything about it. After a while, the Indian air-hostess came and offered me the child menu. Again ridiculous, but at least she was apologetic about the situation. The child menu contained soggy french fries - never seen worse french fries before. Secondly, the food service was started quite late during the flight. I have flown with various airlines for the last 14 years and from experience I know that on long-distance flights food service and trash collection is completed at least 20 minutes before the flight lands. In this case, there were people still in the toilet 7 minutes before the landing. I have flown with Brussels Airlines both to India and US. Although, the flights to US are not great compared to other airlines, I see a clear difference as to how the flights are handled and how the crew behaves depending on whether the flight is to/from India or US. The flights to US are a little better managed, serviced as compared to flights to India. This is not good! I am glad that Brussels Airlines is stopping their services along Brussels - Mumbai route. I would never fly with this airline again.

✅ Trip Verified | Brussels to Kigali in Economy on A330-200. Boarding was confusing: gate agents were yelling out rows to board but not many people could understand them because they couldn't here them. Otherwise, the flight was a smooth, physically and mentally. Snack of pretzels and crackers was served about 30 minutes after takeoff. Was okay, a bit dry though. After that, a drink service came, with a large variety of juices. Lunch was served about an 1 hour and 45 minutes after takeoff. Choice was Fish or Chicken, I choose Chicken. The meat was very tender, and was served with green beans, carrots, and potato wedges. The meal was also served with couscous salad, Brie cheese, whole wheat bread roll, butter, with lemon tart for desert. Delicious and filling meal. After lunch I napped for an hour, Seats with very comfortable, with flaps on the headrest to support your head and neck. Seat pitch was 32 inches(81 centimeters)very spacious. Seat width was about 17 inches(44 centimeters), so still not bad. Also watched a few movies and tv shows, selection was good but could be better. The magazine had lots of interesting articles so read, but I mostly read my own book. Halfway though the flight, we were served cookies and a drink service. About an 1 hour from landing in Kigali, we were served with a mushroom calzone for dinner, and another drink service. It was better than it looked, with soft crust and flavorful mushroom, though it was a little heavy on the stomach, would've enjoyed something a little more lighter, but I'm not complaining. Soon after, flight attendants served coffee and tea. Landed it Kigali 5 minutes late, but really wasn't a problem. Undoubtedly, the pros were the comfortable seat, good service, good food, and good selections of entertainment. Cons were the confusing boarding process, the aging cabin, and the late departure. To be honest, it was a great flight, would fly with Brussels Airlines again.