Brussels Airlines

Brussels to Philadelphia on Christmas eve or at least we tried. Brussels Airlines was supposed to get us to London so we could get our connection with US Airways. Due to weather conditions flight got cancelled. I am not complaining about the cancellation weather conditions are beyond anyone's control however I am complaining about the lack of information and help given to us from this point on. We were rebooked re-cancelled they lost our luggage on the way and there is no way to get through to their luggage tracing department they just do not answer any calls! When you send an email to their Baggage department you do not get an answer either let alone an automated message saying they received your mail! It does not stop there. Brussels Airlines changed my return flight to London with US Airways without consulting me and decided to change it to return to Brussels even though I live in London. I still to this day do not know why! They had to add a flight to my itinerary so I could get home to London. To this day I still do not have my luggage and have not been contacted once. My emails and calls remain unanswered. I have never had to face such problems in all my previous travels with any airlines.

Brussels to Bilbao on 25 December. No delays were indicated on the website nor at check-in. But when departure time arrived things got wrong. A 1 hour delay was announced. After a while change of gate and an airplane was there but no crew! On Xmas day there was not much traffic and runways were active. Some passenger had been going to the airport for the 3rd consecutive day due to cancellation linked to snow. A new 1 hour delay was announced with no clear indication that the flight would leave. There were children old people and a pregnant woman. We had to pressure and harrass the airline agents to get food vouchers as legislation provides for. Eventually we left with a 3 hour delay. Information was non0-existant. Flying with Brussels Airlines is a poor experience.

MXP-BRU. Very average at best. We were 45 minutes late leaving due to weather (ice) at MXP and will give them credit for the updates. Of course all had connections and this created havoc on the plane with questions from many passengers. Will say the Purser handled this with dignity and answered all with a good attitude. Surprised at the amount and size of carry on baggage that was allowed. This was a smaller plane and noticed many oversized pieces that were not able to fit any where. Many people had piled their pieces on empty seats and left them there. Nothing said by crew. No inflight service at all in my section. They did get me there and transferred my luggage so happy about that.

LHR-Bujumbura. Overall a very poor experience. Service and facilities on the ground in Brussels were very poor. I had to queue at the Brussels Airlines desk for an hour to get a boarding card whilst the sole employee dealt very slowly with the 2 or 3 people in front of me. On the flight seats were uncomfortable with limited leg room and very little recline. The inflight entertainment was near non-existent - at least the screen was so far away that it was impossible to watch. Food was average.

BRU-LFW/ACC-BRU. Mixed experience overall and not up to what I would expect. Online check-in did not work for either leg. Boarding in Brussels well organized in Accra was complete chaos with the airport trying to board three different flights through the same gate at roughly the same time. No information screens or announcements people milling around and gate agents shouting instructions but only managing to add to the confusion. The aircraft interiors were old with no PTVs and just a single screen at the front of each cabin. The food on the flight to Lome was horrible - worse than US-based airlines. The food on the flight back to Brussels was much better. Cabin crew were also variable with a few trying hard while others were disengaged and uninterested. But since the fare was the cheapest by far I got good value for my money overall.

Even though I had a low-cost ticket I enjoyed nice service in the old Sabena style on a flight BRU-Nice in A319. I was lucky to book two exit-row seats using online check in so plenty of space. Did not use the meal or drink service. Four stars not five.

Business Class seats are very average no flat bed position and not very comfortable if you happen to be tall. During our outward bound flight my seat (03C) malfunctioned and became immovable. I brought this to the attention of the crew and without apology was rudely informed that I should choose another vacant seat for the remainder of the flight. I found this unacceptable as there were no free seats accessible for myself and my wife to sit together. Eventually after complaining once more a member of the crew was able to correct the problem by resetting the mechanical unit under the chair. I would also add that the screen in front of my seat was also faulty cabin was dirty and the quality of the food was well below Business Class standard. On our return flight to Kigali before taking off we noticed that both our seats were malfunctioning and once again advised the flight crew. A member of the ground technical staff was called on board and together with the cabin crew attempted to repair the seats without success. At this stage we were politely asked if we would mind moving to the free seats one row behind. We complied with the request only to find that these seats (4A & 4C) were likewise not operational and were finally relocated to 4H & 4K. The crew on this flight were attentive apologetic and informed us that the problems with seats in Business Class are recurrent and assured us that a report would be filed. I personally bore the expense of upgrading our tickets to Business Class in order to enjoy a more comfortable and relaxed journey. Unfortunately this was not the case as we were troubled by the overall poor condition of the aircraft cabin and casual disregard for the comfort and safety of passengers by Brussels Airlines.

B-Flex (the Premium Eco) can be a good deal but be very careful never to take a codeshare flight. I did it with a flight to Lisbon using TAP and I must say that the website of Brussels Airlines is very misleading you would need a magnifier to note that this is a codeshare flight. As a consequence you are denied any of the B-Flex perks: staff at Brussels Airlines check-in does not even recognize you and send you to make the full queue at TAP check-in. You receive no fast track at the security. You receive no preferred seating no snack not even a drink. You are basically a simple economy passenger stupid enough to have paid a B-Flex fee instead of the cheapest economy fare. I got the Brussels Airlines flight on my return and then had nothing to complain I received all the perks and was quite happy of the flight. In my view the Brussels Airlines website is totally dishonest as even their confirmation told me about those perks I was not going to receive on the TAP flight.

Flew NCE-BRU and BRU-NCE b economy flex. Good onboard service with free coffee drinks and snacks Brussels Airport convenient and easy to use. All this with a low ticket price. A good choice also if you want to connect to Africa cheaply.

BRS-BRU return (twice). These flights are operated by bmi aircraft and crews. All flights on time or a little early. Embraer aircraft are a fairly small but I like them particularly if they are not full (only one of these four flights was nearly full); they are light smooth and the leg room is fine for a short flight. My one complaint is the price one of my trips was economy (B.Light) and the other economy plus (B.Light+). Although the latter was over twice the price (and even economy is not particularly cheap) there was virtually no difference in the quality of service - a bit more food and that is it. I believe the hand luggage weight limit is a bit higher but if you check-in online nobody knows. So my advice is buy the cheapest ticket; though as previous commentators have said that is not always possible.