evaness

Never heard of them until they popped up in on-line AA ticketing from NYC to Berlin...

House

Flown them lots of times. They are a good airline, based (as the name suggests) in Brussels. They used to be called Sabena (the Belgian national airline) until some financial difficulties, then reformed under the SN Brussels Airlines name. They have recently rebranded again and are now know as Brussels Airlines.

They are a good quality airline and you will not be disappointed.

A major major advantage of this airline on the Berlin route is that they are one of only a few airlines still to use Tempelhof Airport in Berlin, which dates from the 1930's. This is a small but very historic airport just a few minutes by taxi or subway to the centre of town - a very very convenient place to use. They use large (100+ seats in a comfortable 5-across configuration) regional jets on this route.

SmilingBoy

SN Brussels airlines and Virgin Express have been owned by the same holding for about a year. From 25 March 2007, they will operate as one airline called "Brussels Airlines". SN flies mainly Avrojets, and a few Airbuses, whereas Virgin Express only flies 737s.

On the Brussels-Berlin route, SN flies to Tempelhof (small City airport, very close to the city), and Virgin Express flies to Schönefeld (way out of the city).

So if you are flying on or after 25 March, make sure you get a flight to Tempelhof.

Brussels is ok to connect, but can involve a bit of walking (and definitely better than most other OneWorld hubs that would show up in your search, except maybe HEL).

SmilingBoy.

JuPe

SN Brussels is also very nice on long-haul. I flew with them last December on the BRU-DKR-BRU route in business class and had a very good experience, especially the food and wines (and chocolates).

MACH81

Flew them on VCE-BRU. NIce and the chocolate is good!

catandmouse

They do the GVA-BRU run in Avros. They are OK, actually offer snacks (a sandwich) and drinks. BRU airport is a bit stupidely organized. The Avros usually end up at bus gates and the buses deposit you at the wrong end of the terminal leaving you with a very, very long walk to immigration/arrivals. But that's the fault of BRU airport not of SN.

beepee

Starting march 25th Brussels airlines starts a new concept on most intra europe flights.

Business Class is now called B-flex, only Brussels Airlines connections Brussels direct with Moscow, Helsinki and Tel Aviv, will still have traditional Economy and Business cabins on every flight. Flying medium-haul with Brussels Airlines, you'll enjoy a number of thoughtful touches - for example, the middle seats in every row of the business cabin are always kept free.

Flights to Africa also will still have traditional Economy and Business cabins


B-flex is now as they call it: The new economy generation:flexible, time-friendly European travel
these tickets offer:
Flexible & time friendly
Transparent one-way economy fares, always including service fees, taxes and extras
Flying from Brussels Airport to primary airports at over 50 premium European destinations
Choice of a fully flexible ticket without costs for changing date and destination
100% refund if cancelled before departure
Rebook onto an earlier flight at the airport at no extra cost (on the same day, and subject to availability)
Booking via website, phone, airport ticket desk and travel agents
Fast track through security*
Various check-in possibilities: online, by phone, express or desk**
Shorter check-in time**
Priority boarding
Seating at front of plane
30 kg checked baggage + 12 kg total hand baggage (laptop + 1 piece - dimensions limited by the new EU norms)
* currently Brussels Airport only

Comfort & service

Complimentary meal and drinks service
Complimentary newspaper service
Comfortable leather seat
Choose your seat when you book
Chance to earn extra Privilege miles
Top partner arrangements (hotels, car hire, travel insurance) to make your whole trip go smoothly
Access to lounges*
* Privilege Platinum members have permanent free access to the lounges. Gold Members have free access when traveling on a Brussels Airlines flight (not codeshare). All other b.flex passenger may use the lounge facilities subject to a fee.

and there is B-light: brussels airlines answer to the no frills airlines:
If you want a budget-friendly, no nonsense way to travel, b.light is for you. After all, why pay for extras you don't need? And since when was a friendly smile an extra? Booking is quick and simple, and it goes without saying you can earn Privilege miles on every flight.

b.light tickets are available for all our destinations. That means guaranteed lowest fares to major airports in over 50 top European destinations. If you find a lower price online, we'll even refund the difference*.
Snacks and drinks are available to buy onboard.
Lowest fare guarantee
If you find within the hour a better online offer from or to Brussels (service fees, airport taxes and extras included) from another airline for a direct flight leaving within 30 minutes of your Brussels Airlines plane from the same airport to the same destination, Brussels Airlines will refund the difference.
The lowest fare to every destination.
All prices are one- way and include taxes, service fees and extras
Europe from € 49,99* one-way all-in, all year round

http://www.brusselsairlines.be/en_be...e-of-services/

number_6

SN Brussels (soon to be just Brussels) is astonishingly good -- 10x better than Sabena ever was. One of the best LCC airlines in Europe now, and there are some pretty good LCCs in that market (unlike the US). I've only flown on their A320s which are new, clean and on-time for my flights.

A word of warning for the connection back to JFK from BRU: expect to take 2 hours for what should be 15 minutes. AA is very disorganized at BRU, and the airside transfer desk was closed when I did such a connection (Dec 2006). This required going landside to the AA ticket counter. Check-in took 30 minutes, and then over an hour to get through BRU security to be back airside. Any other airport would have taken 30 minutes, instead of 90. Despite this I think BRU is a very pleasant airport -- just not efficient.

SmilingBoy

I fly regularly from BRU (mostly Schengen, but sometimes non-Schengen), and never encountered queues that long. Maximum was 15 minutes.

SmilingBoy.

HobokenFlyer

Sabena's old IATA 2 letter code was SN hence why the new airline was called SN Brussels. SN Brussels was not a reorganization...it was a buyout from liquidation. Sabena went belly up and some financiers bought some of the assets of Sabena and called it SN Brussels...the SN was used to tie in the "romance" of the old Belgian national carrier.

Delta Air Transport was the company that took over the assets, hence why SN Brussels ICAO code is DAT and not SAB.

After several years, they can now remove the SN, especially after the merger with Virgin Express.

Why SN Brussels came into existence is similar to the new SWISS airline; Swissair's regional subsidiary Crossair bought out the liquidated assets of Swissair and renamed themselves SWISS.

http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/be$saben.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabena


Sabena was actually an acronym (like QANTAS; Queensland And Northern Territories Air Service)...it stands for Société Anonyme Belge d'Exploitation de la Navigation Aérienne.

- HF

gosha83

Etihad Airways also lists SN Brussels as its only partner in earning and redeeming miles from what I remember. Although when I called Etihad in New York a few weeks ago, they told me that they are redoing their partnerships.

number_6

Most of my delay was at the emigration queue; this normally takes 10 seconds per pax (literally), but every single non-EU queue was "blocked" with a passenger on a flight to Africa who had some irregularity in their paperwork and took 15 minutes to process (I timed it). And there were several more such pax later. Instead of taking them all over to one queue, and processing the other pax in line behind them, they left us to stay in line for an hour. The EU queues went through with 1 or 2 min at most wait time. Security after this took about 5 min. So I suppose it was my bad luck to be at BRU when the flights to Africa were leaving and all the people without passports or permission to leave Belgium were in line. Still I find the whole approach at BRU to be ridiculous, very inefficient and with disregard for passenger convenience. For example, the airside transfer desks were closed, which was the sole reason that I had to go landside. Real airports keep their facilities open and running smoothly.

A shame as BRU could be an excellent airport, and SN is a really nice airline now (nothing like the Sabena of old).

MACH81

Well BRU is not very well organized IMHO. You have to walk for miles if you connect from an EU flight to a US flight, really it happened to me the last 2 times I was there.Once I was sick and trust me, it didn't get better running half dead from the AA gate to the VCE gate, end of B to end of A or the other way around, as my AA flight was late and it took forever to park at the gate and get the airbridge!

On the way back, flight out of VCE was late and I had to run again. Got at the security line and I begged to be let in as my flight was leaving in 18minutes. I've never seen such a long line and there where 4/5 lanes open! FA was very nice in letting me sit in C (nothing to write home about) for the last 15 minutes as my connection was very tight!^

aw

I thought it stood for Such A Bad Experience Never Again. I miss SABENA. I got to experience it flying J from JFK-BRU a couple of months before they bellied up and I remember the experience fondly. On the outbound I had one of the most competent and professional pursers that I have ever encountered.

jabrams72

Is it just me or was there no English-speaking marketing person consulted when they decided to rename economy "blight"?