Some of you may have missed my Brussels Airlines A330-300 review yesterday, so in a separate post I just want to warn you that you may be in for an unpleasant surprise if you fly Brussels Airlines in business class….or maybe a pleasant surprise. It depends on the day…
Brussels Airlines Uses Ex-Lufthansa A330s And Now Wet Leases Air Europa 787-9
Brussels Airlines retrofitted its business class cabin on its A330 fleet in 2019, giving the cabin a smart and fresh look:
These are not industry-leading seats…in fact, I’d rate them as below average. Even so, every seat has direct aisle access and the cabin is quite attractive with lamps and mood lighting.
One thing I loved about flying on Brussels Airlines was all the Belgian touches to the experience, especially concerning the food and beverage menu and amenity kit. I looked at the cabin in the same way…
But Brussels Airlines has been treated like the ugly step sister of the Lufthansa Group (with Lufthansa seemingly unsure of how it even wants to handle the carrier) and that is perhaps best exemplified by the two A330s that were handed to Brussels Airlines that were formerly used by Lufthansa and Eurowings. Wi-Fi internet has been turned off, the planes have not been fully repainted, and the cabin interiors are worn and tired.
It’s one thing to hand over a plane and then retrofit it, but these two planes–OO-SFP and OO-SFJ–have not been retrofitted and still feature the old Lufthansa seats. So instead of 1-2-1 seating in business class, you have 2-2-2. Passengers seated by the window do not have direct aisle access and the cabin is drab and gray.
While these planes do not operate strictly on any set routes, they are often inserted on the JFK route. Just a warning to US readers who may be flying Brussels Airlines.
Brussels Airlines Wet Leases Air Europa 787-9
Even more strange? This week Brussels has been running EC-MTI, an Air Europa 787-9 on the route…
It appears that some serious issues were found during routine A330-300 maintenance, forcing Brussels Airlines to wet lease an Air Europa 787-9 to avoid suspending any route:
Since February 22, an Air Europa 787-9 has been operating Brussels Airlines’ four-times weekly service SN501/502 from Brussels Zaventem to New York JFK. Besides the Air Europa cockpit crew and several cabin crew members, Brussels Airlines has three of its own cabin crew onboard these flights.
Suddenly, passengers on Brussels Airlines flying to or from New York will enjoy an upgraded reverse herringbone seat on this route…with Air Europa crews.
I’d call that a very nice upgrade over both other seat variants.
As it awaits more aircraft of its own, Brussels Airlines will also lease Airbus A220 jets from Air Baltic this summer.
Do check the status of your flight…you can use ExpertFlyer to pull up seat maps or FlightRadar24 to look up the tail number of your flight and get a better sense of which of the three business class cabins your flight may feature.
Flying on Brussels Airlines right now is like a box of chocolates…you never know what you’re going to get!
You consider a third-tier Sky Team business class to be an upgrade? That’s what I call a loyal LH Group flyer right there!
Compared to the Lufthansa seat or the regular Brussels seat? Absolutely an upgrade.
Sorry, I meant the “royal you,” not you personally. Sad that it is in fact an upgrade
@ Matthew — Couldn’t agree more, even though Air Europa has a very poor reputation. That just shows how horrible LH has become.
Air Europa have always been reliable and good value whenever I needed them, whether it was doing a double connection via AMS and MAD to AGP for rounding off my OK+ segments to renew Elite Plus, buying a last-minute Y ticket to CCS, bagging a business class redemption to EZE and back on the exact dates I wanted, or ensuring the FQTV and FQTS fields in my reservation were correctly populated to allow me to enjoy AZ status benefits while crediting to SAS for the millionaire challenge (the ONLY airline that managed to do that out of the 14 I flew in Y).
They’re an airline which focuses on the core business of taking people from one place to another without pretending to elevate public transport to some kind of life-changing experience. Works fine for me.
The Air Europa planes used have an older 2-2-2 configuration, not the 1-2- which you refer to.
It’s operated by the 787-9, not the 787-8.
Ah, the Beer Bar in the Sky. Particularly good for the daytime TATL flights west. I also have a soft spot for the national peculiarities on SN, as I also do on OS. Just makes for a pleasant flight. But then, I don’t seem to feel much difference between all the lie-flat seats, though I know to others that is much more important.