Business Class come-back on B.Air

[taz001]

Business class will be available again through the European Network. Target date is March 29th with sales available 3-4 weeks in advance. The 'new' product will be called 'b.business'. It will exist next to 'b.flex' and 'b.light'.
b.business will give free lounge access again, middle seat free, free newspaper, champagnewelcome drink, no box but real cutlery, 'better' food and beverage concept, priority luggage, extra miles, ...

[tolipanebas]

As was widely expected, SN has today announced that starting with the summer season, it is to re-introduce a full frills business class on ALL of its flights in view of the upcoming STAR alliance membership.

b.flex and b.light are said to live on (probably to save face of the genious who invented the weird concept), although SN said that both economy products will be re-alligned and re-positioned in the market to make a clear distinction with b.business, meaning that in practice b.flex will be stripped of most -if not everything- it offered and become just a regular economy class again, whereas b.light will live on as cheapest booking class and as class offering year-round promotional fares to holiday makers and bargain shoppers.

Expect more information in the coming weeks, including the formal annoucement of code-share agreements with LH, SK and TP, which are now no longer hindered by the weird product offering of SN.

It seems that LH has made sure common sense is returning quickly to SN.

[euroflyer]

Wow, so they are really going to offer a 3-class service in a RJ85 ?!

I have seen it in an A319 and A321 of SAS, but an RJ85 is something different.

What about the price tag? Will it simply be a higher price than b.flex today and the rest stays as it is? Or will b.flex in return become a bit cheaper on some routes as well as it will not be the "premium product" anymore?

[tolipanebas]

Wow, so they are really going to offer a 3-class service in a RJ85 ?!

From the sound of it, b.flex will be turned into just a regular economy class (like on other STAR alliance airlines), whereas b.light will be what it is now, so I don't know in how far these are still 2 separate classes really...

Mind you, SN Brussels Airlines (so before it chanced concept and name in the wake of the merger with VEX) actually had 3 classes on board all of its European flights:
- business
- flexible economy (so the comfort of business class on the ground, but economy class in the air)
- regular economy.
Although the 2 economy classes were mixed in the cabin...

Looks like we're just heading back to this system once more (why did they ever change it, it was a winner and got us 4 star ratings?), with the only exception now being that the lowest class of the 3 (i.e. b.light) will no longer offer any free in-flight service and get allocated to seperate rows in the cabin, although it is not yet formally confirmed that b.light will indeed not see any free service in future as well: it could also be that b.light is kept as brandname for the year-round promotional non-flexible economy tickets, but offers the same on-board service levels as the fully flexible economy tickets of b.flex...

What about the price tag? Will it simply be a higher price than b.flex today and the rest stays as it is? Or will b.flex in return become a bit cheaper on some routes as well as it will not be the "premium product" anymore?

Obviously nothing was mentioned on this sensitive issue, but it was said that SN expects to fill its business class not only through its STAR alliance codeshare partners, but also with a considerable number of pax who currently fly b.flex and will swap to b.business as they need a premium product.

As such, I'd expect b.flex to loose some of its advantages and certainly its premium product status ("SN hopes to be perceived as a higher class of airline" thanks to the decision), so whether or not this means cheaper prices for the standard economy tickets (i.e. b.flex), I don't know, but personally I wouldn't count on it.

[euroflyer]

... but it was said that SN expects to fill its business class not only through its STAR alliance codeshare partners, but also with a considerable number of pax who currently fly b.flex ...

I guess this will NOT be easy. Many people flying mainly from BRU and mainly with SN have become used to the b.flex service level and have found out that you do not need much more on real short-haul flights - or at least they (or their company travel department) will be thinking twice if they really want to pay more for the additional service for a one-hour flight or so. PLUS in the current economic climate a number of companies restrict travel or at least move to economy only on short-haul flights ('b.flex' could always be explained as 'economy' to travel departments, 'b.business' cannot ...)

I would expect most of the future b.business pax will be connecting pax from long-haul flights. But we will see.

[b.lufthansa]

Proudly presenting b.business!

[Coppelia]

Well, I really do hope that there will be a "re-think" of the different products, because if b-flex and b-light remain as it is now, I can't imagine 2 Flight Attendants on a RJ85 having to perform 3 different services with, for example, 25 pax in b-business, 25 pax in b-flex and 30 pax in b-light, mostly on short flights.

Also, it is already a mess now regarding catering loading on board the B737 when high b-flex passenger figures, how will it be with an additional business class ?

When I see that on some destinations (CTA, PMO and even BCN), red cap was not capable to say how many pax we had in b-flex and/or in b-light (for them there was only 1 class and the pax were all mixed up in cabin for months), it's gonna be very, very funny to deal with 3 different classes, really, if ground ops on certain destinations don't follow...

[sn26567]

The 3-class concept already exists with SN's future Star partnet SAS: a full-fledged business class, a regular economy class (with free meals and drinks and newspapers) and a thrift economy class without anything but the smile of the flight attendant. I guess that the future SN flights will be something similar.

[tolipanebas]

Also, it is already a mess now regarding catering loading on board the B737 when high b-flex passenger figures, how will it be with an additional business class ?

Those 737s are completely unsuitable for an airline like SN, really!
I mean, there are no coat hangers, the first row of pax has no cabin devider in front, the galleys aren't big enough, there are not enough ovens, there's no ACARS system meaning connecting pax are sent into the terminal blindly not knowing the gate of their next flight etc etc...

When I see that on some destinations (CTA, PMO and even BCN), red cap was not capable to say how many pax we had in b-flex and/or in b-light (for them there was only 1 class and the pax were all mixed up in cabin for months), it's gonna be very, very funny to deal with 3 different classes, really, if ground ops on certain destinations don't follow...

The only hope we can have is that this time round, the new concept is fully IATA compliant, meaning that at least all computer systems will immediately understand there is a difference between b.business and the rest so at least it shouldn't be such a mess to figure out which pax need to sit where, something which indeed was overlooked the last time by the smart asses from VEX who thought up the b.light/b.flex concept!

Now, ideally one can hope for b.light to be dropped completely in a few more months, or if not to be just the name of the booking class for the cheapest tickets without noticable difference in on board service (heck, give them a mealbox for god's sake, who cares about the 2 euro it costs?), so that by the end of the summer we're all happily flying for a quality airline once more, proud to be joining STAR alliance soon under the strong wings of LH. The whole hybrid concept which was invented to accomodate VEX can then quickly be forgotten, as well as the obsession with European low cost flights inherited from Neil Burrows...
We all know it's long haul which is where the money is made. I have a feeling LH is thinking exactly along these lines too...

[HighInTheSky]

Great!
We all knew this was going to happen, but I didn't expect it to be already with the start of the summerseason...

As you said Tolipanebas, we'll have something again to be proud of

[Ricard]

Except OO-VET, I really have my doubts if a nowadays business clas traveller coming from long haul, is going to appreciate a B-air 737 seat/cabin lay-out...but still great news about the re-introduction of C-class !

[Ducatibiker]

In the past, SN Brussels Airlines used to have passes in C Class with different zones. I think they were called Freedom Pass/Largo. I hope those passes will be back as well !

[brusselsairlinesfan]

VERY GREAT NEWS!!!

[regi]

Computers are great things. But I think this will create even more problems with regular customers who have all kind of airmiles and ask for upgrades. Upgrade to what? Business or B-Flex?
And in (seldom) cases of full airplanes, how will the check inn staff fill the plane? Who will be upgraded to Business Class first?
I guess that the booking through the website will give a different screen if you ask for business class. If you try to book economy, it will probably not show the prices and availabilty of business. And certainly also not the other way around ! If you look for business class, you will not be given the prices of economy. I guess.

[euroflyer]

Computers are great things. But I think this will create even more problems with regular customers who have all kind of airmiles and ask for upgrades. Upgrade to what? Business or B-Flex?
And in (seldom) cases of full airplanes, how will the check inn staff fill the plane? Who will be upgraded to Business Class first?
I guess that the booking through the website will give a different screen if you ask for business class. If you try to book economy, it will probably not show the prices and availabilty of business. And certainly also not the other way around ! If you look for business class, you will not be given the prices of economy. I guess.

Hm, operating flights with three classes should not be in problem in itself, as far as I am aware it is a concept quite well known in the industry Even if it is not as common on short-haul as it certainly still is on long-haul, B.Air could easily turn to their future STAR partner SAS and ask them for some short-haul experience and help. It works quite fine with them (from a pax perspective). The only difference is indeed the high number of relatively small aircraft B.Air operates (Avro's). But as on many routes they are far from being 100% full today there should be enough space to accommodate three different classes.

I guess it will not be so easy to bring a real b.business feeling to the older ex-Virgin 737s so, because their whole layout really "smell" low-cost. But lets see what ideas people at B.Air headquarter have to tackle this ...

[HighInTheSky]

And in (seldom) cases of full airplanes, how will the check inn staff fill the plane? Who will be upgraded to Business Class first?

That will be as it is now i guess. First Privilege Platinum Elite, then Platinum, Gold, VIP,... Now with al the changes to the FFP there will be a shuffle to M&M Silver, Gold, Senator & HON Circle

[euroflyer]

That will be as it is now i guess. First Privilege Platinum Elite, then Platinum, Gold, VIP,... Now with al the changes to the FFP there will be a shuffle to M&M Silver, Gold, Senator & HON Circle

Just for information, there are no official levels for M&M as far as I am aware, but the colour of the cards matches with the following levels at LH and STAR

M&M Black = LH HON Cirlce = Star Alliance Gold
M&M Gold = LH Senator = Star Alliance Gold
M&M Silver = LH FTL = Star Alliance Silver