While not worth arriving early for, the Diamond Lounge in Brussels (BRU) is a decent premium class lounge in Terminal B (the non-Schengen area) of Brussels Airport.
Diamond Lounge Brussels Review (BRU – Terminal B – Non-Schengen)
This is no longer a Priority Pass lounge, but used as a premium cabin and status lounge for both oneworld and Star Alliance. I used this lounge upon arrival from my flight from Newark on United before heading to the Schengen area for my connection to Warsaw.
If you are not flying in a premium cabin or hold status, you can purchase access for 36EUR each in advance (for a three-hour block) or 41EUR at the door, which really is not worthwhile unless you intend to eat and drink quite a bit and/or use the shower.
It is open daily from 5:00am to 9:00pm and located upstairs, above the non-Schengen transit hall. I arrived around 8:00am and the lounge was fairly crowded, but emptied out a bit by the time I left 30 minutes later.
Credit where credit is due: the lounge had a generous selection of warm and flaky pastries available, which I resisted, but they smelled great.
The coffee was Starbucks branded and the espresso machine pretty decent. I’m not a Starbucks fan, but it beats nothing at all.
Other breakfast selections included meat and cheese slices, bread, and yogurt.
Complimentary alcohol was available including hard liquor (vodka, rum, cognac, and gin) as well as beer. Soft drinks were also available in a refrigerator near the lounge entrance.
The seating area includes several smaller alcoves that offer work space. The main lounge area includes chairs, couches, and tables. Plugs are available throughout the lounge, but bring your adapter if you are coming from outside Europe.
Restrooms and shower facilities are also available. Request a shower at the front desk. You’ll exchange your boarding pass for a key. The showers were occupied with a long waiting list during my visit, so I do not have any pictures of the facilities themselves.
CONCLUSION
There’s nothing special about this lounge, but I’m not a fan of the gate area at BRU and think this lounge offers a far better alternative. Guard your expectations going in, but you can enjoy a modest selection of food and drinks and some tranquility from the hustle and bustle one level below.
It might be worth mentioning that access for status customers of Star Alliance is not universal anymore. For instance, Lufthansa elites have no access to this particular lounge, while Brussels Airlines elites do have access—even though both are Lufthansa Group airlines. Before the pandemic, all Lufthansa Group status customers were allowed entry.
This makes no sense, unless I have misunderstood something. Both LH and SN use Miles and More, how can you differentiate between elites within that?
The card bears the issuing airline’s name and logo. They looked at mine (LH) and told me that they were sorry, but I had to use the Terminal A (Schengen) lounge or pay 40€. I said no thanks and walked away. I was travelling on SN but that did not matter.
That’s bloody bizarre (and I didn’t know about the ‘issuing airline’ thing!). Were you flying to a non-Schengen destination?
The full story is, I was flying SN BRU-EVN and my boarding pass only mentioned *A status. They wanted to verify which airline I was holding status with as for some reason it wasn’t on the boarding pass. I’m a Belgian living in Belgium, but I’d been living in MUC for a time and so got an LH card rather than an SN one.
Anyway, what the agent told me is, ever since the airport has taken over management of both non-Schengen lounges and merged them (which must have been sometime later than February 2020, when I was still granted access), status-based access has been restricted to those airlines that have an agreement with the airport. I’d suspect that, apart from SN, most, if not all, other *A carriers don’t have such an agreement.
Yep same thing happened to me late last month *Gold isn’t good enough for this lounge (AC Aeroplan). The SN lounge really should be open for all star gold and not just limit it to SN’s elites it’s crazy. I would file a complaint but not even sure who to contact.
Similar to Matenaser, one month ago I was also flying SN non-Schengen, as a TK *G, and also was politely told to go away when trying to access this lounge. Contra Matthew’s post above, not everyone who “holds status” is welcome here. The big giant sign with the *G branding just outside the door doesn’t count for much.
Yeah they have an odd access policy. I can’t access it using my *A gold membership through United but I can access it using my Frequent Traveller status with Brussels Airlines which equals to *A Silver… I mostly fly United and reaching *A Gold through them is way easier that’s why I switched programs this year but missing lounge access in non-Schengen at my home airport (Brussels) is a bummer. I really hope *A or at least United will get an agreement with the lounge too because no lounge in non-schengen for Star Alliance is pretty bad…
the lounge actually rejoined Priority Pass again in July – both Diamond lounge in terminal A&B
Not on PP website yet.
the lounge appear in PP only if you logged in
So odd.
Dear Customer Service,
I am writing to express my extreme disappointment with the treatment I received from your staff at the business lounge during my recent trip on Brussels Airlines On15May23. I purchased three business class tickets for myself and my two children and economy ticket for the Nanny which I paid 42 EUROS in order for her to enter the lounge, looking forward to a comfortable and relaxing experience during our layover at Brussels Airport.
However, when an hour upon arrival at the business lounge, I was informed by the staff that children must be totally quite at the lounge, and that we needed to leave it immediately. I was shocked and frustrated, as I had paid for three business class tickets along with an entry fee for the Nanny and had not been informed of any restrictions on the use of the lounge beforehand.
We were forced to wait in the airport for four and a half hours without the amenities that we had paid for. This was an extremely unpleasant experience, especially as I was traveling with young children who were tired and in need of some rest.
I would like to request compensation for this incident, as I believe that I was not provided with the service that I paid for. I would appreciate it if you could look into this matter and provide me with a suitable compensation package.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to hearing back from you soon.
Sincerely,
After reading you review, I booked Diamond Lounge for my 10 hours stopover. The lounge is really great! I ate three(!) meals (breakfast/lunch/dinner), took away some cookies for my trip later on. I prepared my work so efficiently and I even took a nap.
I did not use the shower but if I need to stay that long in BXL again I will definitely do it. Thanks for the review, if I do not know about this lounge I might not decide to book it and literally save my life (due to the flight rescheduling)