Change Planes from CO to LH in BRU
 

Hi!
I am arriving in Brussels on a Continental Flight at 8:00 am and want connect to a Lufthansa flight leaving at 8:40 am. Is the 40 min connecting time enough to make the flight. Are Lufthansa and Continental going form the same Terminal and how far is the way from the CO gate to the LH gate, where I also have to check in for the LH flight as both flights are booked independently.
Any comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

uewi

Looks very tight to me. Arrival and departure are in 2 different Gate areas (Schengen / non Schengen) and the walk between the two can easily take 15 minutes (in my opinion BRU is one of the worst airports in terms of distances). If you still have to check in for your lufthansa fllght you may want to consider a later flight.

Cheers, Stefan

I'll second that opinion. In my experience, the CO 60 arrival
tends to park at the very end of the terminal - naturally, the
exact opposite side of the terminal from which the Schengen
flights depart. (You didn't say if your connecting flight on
LH was within Europe, but I guess we are assuming that.)

Unless the CO flight arrives very early, the 40 minutes will be
a tough one, in my opinion.

LH only flies shorthaul (i.e. to Germany) from BRU.

The onward flight with LH goes form BRU to HAM so indeed non-Schengen to Schengen. I could check-in at the gate carrying only handluggage.
Do you think its safe to assume that they would put me on the next flight if i wouldnt make it? I would fly on a low fare but they did that already before. If would book the later flight straight awy, I'd have to wait for 9 hrs :-(
So is it safe to take the risk??
Thx!
uewi

From the time when I lived in Brussels (1999-2002) I found the Global Ground staff which handles LH in Brussels very unhelpfull and unwilling to make any exceptions. So I wouldn't count on them putting you on another flight if you miss it. I think you have an 80-90% chance to miss the morning LH flight. I would consider booking a flight on SN Brussels airline or a connection through FRA or MUC which gives you more time to connect. Please also keep in mind that the evening flight to HAM is often fully booked (only 50 seats in the CRJ they use)

Cheers, Stefan

I would not do this - the staff will not be impressed that you allowed 45 minutes to connectv - this is less than the minimum connecting time permitted. They can (and will) want to charge you full fare.

Book a later flight to Hamburg if you can.

you will be sooner in Hamburg if you take the train than waiting for 9 hours... maybe check if the EWR-BRU flight is overbooked and asking to be rerouted via Germany (HAM best, TGL or FRA are also closer to HAM than BRU) might be succesful.

Thanks for all the advice. I think i will go with CO through FRA instead.

Good choice, as there is NO way you could make the connection IF you have to check in. For the last 5 weeks security in the Schengen Area has been very tight, leading to waiting times of up to 30 minutes in the mornings. And if you get out of the non-Schengen, check-in... it might take you way more than 1 hour.