We are going to Austria and have a choice between flying on Sabena or Swissair from Boston. I know that Swiss owns the majority of Sabena but have also heard that Swiss is the better overall airline. We are flying business class and the airline rep told me that Swissair's business class is superior to Sabena's. Anyone got an opinion?? THANKS!

IMO, SR is one of the best airlines & I always look forward to a chance to fly them. Sabena, I have not flown for years.

I recently flew Sabena business class from Brussels to JFK. IMHO I have flown better business class but I have no complaints about the Sabena service. I have not flown SR business so I cannot compare. The video screens on SB were quite nice, larger than several other airlines. The flight attendants were also great about my request to never let my water glass go empty (H2O is the best way to avoid jet lag).

Have a great trip!

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I wish I were 1,000 miles away

Take Swissair. I flew Sabena business for the first time this September, IAD-BRU-IAD, in Business. It's OK but nothin' to write home about. The seats on their A330 had a 60" pitch but I found them less comfortable than United's 50" seats. The food was pretty basic- served to you on the tray in small portions. One thing that sticks in my mind were their chintzy little pillows with paper covers. Also, their business lounge in Brussels sucks- supposedly they're building a new one that will open next year. I tried to get into their frequent flyer lounge (can't remember the brand name) which looked brand new and great, but was shown the door. Oh, and the flight attendants on my 2 flights were basically standoffish (kind of reminded me of Air France) and they wear really ugly grey and a strange shade of turquoise that totally clashes. Again, I'd do Swissair.

nokias: my recommendation would be SR. Their business class product is simply superior in all levels to SN. As Redhead had pointed out, SN is not bad, but it isn't anything special either.

Simply put, Swissair is a great airline and Sabena sucks. Simple as that. Seriously, I would always opt for Swissair when given the choice vs. most int'l and all domestic carriers.

Cheers.

Why not fly one each direction and then choose for yourself?

This summer I flew ORD-BRU on SN (A330) and ZRH-MIA on SR (MD-11) both in C.

I thought that SN was superior from a comfort perspective. The 60"+ pitch meant that you had to get out of your seat to reach the seat in front of you and offered significantly more recline than the seats on SR. The interior was brand new on the A330 compared to the MD-11 and the seats were more advanced with electic operation compared to manual on SR.

SN seats had individual video units, while in SR, we were relegated to watching whatever was on the main screen as the video units had been removed after SR111. This was a major dissapointment. SR was moving to offering DVD players in biz, but at that time they were for F only. Hopefully, by now, they have switched.

In general the food and service on SR are a bit better than SN, but I found the SN service to be quite good and the food good as well, just a bit less involved food service.

SR and SN shared the same small but elegant lounge in chicago. The SR lounges in ZRH were nothing special. I didn't get a chance to see the lounges in BRU.

My bottom would be tha SN offered better sleeping arrangements while SR would be my pick for a daytime flight if they had the DVD players.

One other thing about SN is the lack of a first class, so if you're in C, you don't have that nagging problem of knowing that someone up front is getting better treatment than you.

5 or 8 years ago it was a no-brainer: SR far more comfortable, better service, ZRH 100 times better than BRU as a connection point.

Since then, SN has become a lot better, SR has slipped, and BRU has been modernized a lot.

SR is still the better choice, but not by as much.

For me, SR over SN anyday of the week. Their F product is GREAT too!!!

Such A Bad Experience Never Again

Seriously, SN has improved a lot but there's still the "we don't give a crap" attitude that is the hallmark of most people in the service industry in Belgium.
SR is still superior.

I can't verify Dudster's comments on SR MD-11s, but the SR coach A330 is second only to the 777 in my book. I think they now fly the A330 BOS-ZRH, replacing a worn 747-combi.

I flew from ZRH to JFK last month in Biz. on Swissair. Except for the FA's initial insistence that there be NOTHING next to or under the seat in front of us, the service afterwards was excellent.

I will be flying to Brussels tomorrow with the cattle ;-( I'll try to post a brief evaluation here.

Lastly, the A330 in my opinion is a nicer plane than the 777. It is much quieter and the video screens in the Swissair planes were several inches larger than the AA 777 screens.

NEil

Folks, SR opperates a 2 class A330 on this route, thus making the points about the MD11 and the 2 vs 3 class planes moot. The lounges between the airlines are pretty standard. There are First class lounges in ZRH, but you have no chance at using them from Boston, since both Qauliflyer flights dont have F. They have C class lounges and travelclub lounges. Often, many C travellers can get access to both C lounges and Travelclub. It makes for an interesting decision. AT BRU, definately the Travelclub, at GVA or ZRH, the least crowded is the best. Any way at Boston dont forget your pass to the CRC. I know that they arent together, but SR same day travellers can still use that lounge, since SR and Sabena still go from terminal C. Have a good trip
Ps. I think there will be more flights to more, smaller destinations in Austria from ZRH

SR, as I'd noted in the "other" parallel thread!
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum...ML/000148.html

Thanks for everyone's opinion! This was my first posted topic on FlyerTalk and I really appreciate all of the great input. We made our reservation today on SR thanks to your enthusiastic comments about it.
(The case was pretty much closed after I read NYC1's funny acronym)