LUC

Just received an email.
SN apologizes for the problems with their IT systems in 2006 and offers as compensation a 512 MB memory stick and 1 year extra Platinum membership.

That's nice : I was not sure whether I would qualify again, thanks to their new "simplified" rules. And moreover : saves me 200 Euro for my AMEX SN gold card.


Luc

SmilingBoy

And I, a humble blue member, received the following (which won't help me as next year is SEN requalification year, so no time to fly SN):

A special Christmas thank you to all our members

Dear SmilingBoy,

We admit it - nobody’s perfect… We know we’ve had some problems with our IT system upgrades and that some of our Privilege members haven’t been able to take advantage of our full range of services. So we’d like to thank you for sticking with us while we’re ironing the bugs out, and to ask you to make sure you let us know in case you are still experiencing any glitches.

We would like to apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. As a special thank you for your patience, we’re offering you a bumper Christmas present of 5 000 extra Status Miles on your first Brussels Airlines flight for travel from March 25 till June 30, 2007. These Status Miles will enable you to become a Privilege Gold member faster with extra benefits such as lounge access, separate check-in, extra luggage allowance and more!

Thank you for bearing with us… as you know, our aim is to bring you the best, and we expect to do so shortly. In the meantime I would personally like to wish you a great holiday season, and to assure you we look forward to welcoming you on board again very soon.

Yours sincerely,

Philippe Vander Putten
Chief Executive Officer

Terms and Conditions
Offer valid on the first Brussels Airlines flight. Travel period: from March 25 till June 30, 2007. Miles for this promotion will be credited six weeks following your flight. Offer only valid for 1 flight within the promotional period. Standard Privilege Terms and Conditions apply.

number_6

I wondered about the transition from SN Brussels to Brussels Airlines. Looks like they are keen to use the FF plan as a marketing tool, which bodes well for the future. Rather interesting that the LCCs are now starting to use FF plans for competitive advantage, a rather quaint service and cost creep. SN is great for schengen flights, but awful for non-schengen thanks to the inefficient BRU airport operation.

SmilingBoy

Are you mixing up something or do you actually like walking through endless corridors, escalators etc to get to the Schengen gates??

SmilingBoy.

royalwing

And for Privilege Gold members: I received the following message (in Dutch) that I will keep my Gold membership. I am very happy as I feared I would not obtain enough club miles on time.

Dear royalwing,

Toegegeven - niemand is volmaakt. We hebben problemen gehad met onze IT systemen en daardoor hebben sommige Privilege leden niet ten volle kunnen genieten van onze diensten. We willen u dan ook bedanken voor uw geduld terwijl we de laatste puntjes op de i zetten. Laat het ons zeker weten, mocht u nog problemen ondervinden met uw lidmaatschap.

We verontschuldigen ons voor het ongemak dat u hierdoor heeft ondervonden. Om u te bedanken voor uw geduld, bieden wij u graag een jaar extra Privilege Gold status. U zal uw nieuwe Privilege Gold kaart en bagage labels met ons nieuwe merk, Brussels Airlines, toegestuurd krijgen kort nadat onze eerste vlucht opstijgt op 25 maart 2007.

Zoals u weet willen we enkel het beste voor onze klanten en we verwachten spoedig opnieuw een optimale service te kunnen leveren. Intussen wil ik u persoonlijk prettige feestdagen wensen. Wij kijken er alvast naar uit om u volgend jaar opnieuw aan boord te kunnen verwelkomen.

Met vriendelijke groeten,




Philippe Vander Putten
Chief Executive Officer

Ducatibiker

BRU AIRPORT
I totally agree with number_6...BRU is airport is one of the least efficient airport in the world. The security staff is untrained and rude. There is no special security lane for Business or First Class....It is announced but in the meantime, with Xmas heavy traffic, this airport is to be avoided by all means. From check in to the gate, it is so un professional and un friendly.


MESSAGE FROM VAN DER PUTTEN
I received my Platinum card with 6 months delay ! So I welcome this message and have big hopes that Mr. Van Der Putten will improve communication with their best passengers. For the past years, such communication was almost non-existent or ridiculous (I am not interested at all in SMS, Wine or Car promotions !)....Maybe Mr. Van der Putten will recreate the enthusiasm we, former Circle Members had for our national airline !

SmilingBoy

Now, I use BRU regularly, and to call it one of the least efficient airports in the world is simply not true. True, the walk to a Schengen departure is long, and I have on occasion waited for 10 minutes at security but otherwise I can't see anything wrong with BRU. ORD is much worse for example as can be FRA. And don't get me started with LHR or even JNB...

SmilingBoy.

number_6

I don't blame BRU for the physical layout (which leads to long walks), though they could have prevented that when designing the airport.

The principal problem at BRU are the long lines (for everything) and the slow service, which makes it take much longer than at many other airports. For example AA check-in takes 30 minutes when it takes 2-3 minutes at every other AA counter in the world (astonishing). The agents really work hard to make it slow, you can see them struggling to stretch it out. The first time that happened, I thought it was a disgruntled agent, but it is the same every time.

The emigration check is more efficient, but has separate lines for each agent (instead of a single line for a pool of agents). The many flights to Africa from BRU ensures that there are dozens of passengers leaving BRU with irregular documents. When one of those is in front of you, it takes 15 minutes to process them instead of the usual 30 seconds. Most countries don't have such emigration processing at all (so it takes 0 seconds); on my last flight out of BRU it took 30 minutes! And it was not particularly busy. Then the security line is also very slow and inefficient (compared to other European airports). The net result is that it took almost 90 minutes (instead of the normal 10 minutes). Almost all of the delay was unnecessary, preventable and it is clear that BRU airport does not give a damn about solving the problem. So I will solve it myself, by not flying via BRU. Given the good train service to Belgium, there is never a need to actually fly to/from BRU.

Ducatibiker

I totally agree again with Number_6. They do not seem to care !
The lines are long and since no F/C dedicated line it is a mess in the non-Shengen terminal. Most people flying to Africa do not seem to know the restrictions about water - with poor communication in Africa I find this somewhat normal.

But what I question is the attitude of the security managers, finding this amusing, especially when they see a F/C boarding pass. They really do not care and because at the end of the day, they can refer you to the police, they are very arrogant.

Since ORD is mentioned, in the United terminal, there is a dedicated line for F/C and elite members, one person checks before you enter the line, there are enough compartments to put your computer, etc..., enough chairs to put your shoes back on. The entire operation took me 5 minutes on several occasions. In BRU, it took me 35 minutes to pass security for my C flight to Washington on United this month.

As for immigration, my suggestion is to have like in the US, a person who checks that you indeed have a European Passport before you enter the line for European passport.

McBill

as far as I can see I received nothing from Santa SN (still some mail back-log from being away for 3 weeks and some pre-X-mas mess to clean up).

Is it because I only spent miles last year (2 returns BRU-GVA), no SN earning?
For the first one, I had to call up to get my 1000 miles online booking bonus, for the second one, I could not book online, so was upset that I had to call them and loose 1000 onlinebooking...

LUC

My wife is a blue member and the last time she earned miles must be about 5-6 years ago. In fact she doesn't have any mileage in her account.
And she did also receive the email that SmilingBoy received as a blue member.


Luc