website Brussels Airlines : most user-friendly website 2009

[LX-LGX]

Not so long ago, Brussels Airlines was criticised by a number of people who thaught (and probably still think) that everything about Brussels Airlines is bad, including the website. Here is a very neutral opinion on Brussels Airlines' website, from AGConsult (http://www.agconsult.be)

http://www.usabilityawards.be/winners

http://webusability-blog.com/brussels-a ... ards-2009/

"... Task-oriented homepage. Good sectioning off of the different reasons people visit the website for. You can start booking on the homepage. Clear homepage. The navigation is aimed at the important stuff. Things 99% of the visitors are looking for. The odd user wanting to know more about the history of Brussels Airlines is going to have to try a bit harder to find that information. ‘Book now’ is very prominent on the homepage..."

- - -

AG Consults isn't saying that the website is perfect: "...There’s no such thing as the perfect website. The Brussels Airlines website is good, but of course there are points of improvement as well..."

[tolipanebas]

Personally, I think the Brussels Airlines website looks pretty good indeed, although I'd prefer it to be less cluttered with banners, but more importantly I feel our booking engine is a total mess, mainly because of the uncompatibility between our 2 economy class products and that of the many codeshare partners, thus giving very different visuals when booking a flight on a self-operated flight vs on a codeshared flight... If you get a visual at all, that is, because there are just too many errors generated when doing a booking on codeshare partners really, thus making it almost impossible to book anything other but simple journeys on SN flights.

I hope that with the integration of SN in STAR alliance, SN will have to seriously upgrade its booking module.
It needn't be complicated: just take the LH one, it's a dream to work with...

[grnkg]

but more importantly feel our booking engine is a total mess

I coundn't agree more. It's a total nightmare!
A couple of weeks ago when I wanted to book a flight to Berlin, after 15 minutes, I gave up and decided to go by car!

Kind regards,
GR.

[tolipanebas]

I coundn't agree more. It's a total nightmare!
A couple of weeks ago when I wanted to book a flight to Berlin, after 15 minutes, I gave up and decided to go by car!

That's really bad, because TXL is an SN operated flight, so at least those bookings should work.

Worse yet, try to book one of those new SN long haul flights operated by LH through FRA, for instance to JNB... they aren't even shown on the SN website!

In fact, I think the software behind the booking engine still dates back to the early days of Brussels Airlines and isn't up to standards really, so it can't handle multiple segmented flights like BRU-FRA-JNB; totally unacceptable for a soon to be STAR alliance airline, IMHO.

[Ducatibiker]

This must be a joke...the "book now" part nevers works; after filling your data you are re directed to another window where you have to start all over again...You are still not able to reserve any specific seat at the time of reservation (see United, Qatar, etc.). Ah yes, there is a major improvement for Privilege. It is gone and replaced by Miles & More.

Just have a look at the Jury and the other recipients...another self congratulating award with no significance outside Flanders !

[Air Key West]

Indeed, the "Book Now" section never works. If there is a section that must work perfectly it is this one.
And on www.usabilityawards.be they even show the horrible and incomprehensible, laughable destinations map !
The jury must habe been drunk or .......you know wh€t I mean....
This is another bad Belgian joke for our Northern and Southern neighbours.
Have a look at the LX website, my favorite (although flying with LX has been very disappointing lately).

[ExSabena]

but more importantly feel our booking engine is a total mess

I coundn't agree more. It's a total nightmare!
A couple of weeks ago when I wanted to book a flight to Berlin, after 15 minutes, I gave up and decided to go by car!

Kind regards,
GR.

Completely agree with you ! Two weeks ago, it was impossible for me to book a flight to Venice (Marco Polo). I'm booked with Ryanair to Treviso (88 EUR all included) in 5 minutes only !

[dna]

I find it impossible to manage existing bookings on this website. Gaining access to your own booking is a great success, because half the time I fail to do so. Adding a Miles and More number proved to be completely impossible. Very poor compared to many other airlines. I recommend Qantas in this respect.

[brusselsairlinesfan]

Congrats!!!

[JOVAN]

The Usability is not so much appreciated by the users, apparently.

Try Ryanair website, really professionalism to the top !!
Why can they fill their planes so easily, and not SN ??

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

The Usability is not so much appreciated by the users, apparently.

Hé ? What are you guys talk about , SN booking site is as good/bad as nearly any other!
Tried a lot of them ( just for fun poorly enough (jammer genoeg)! ) for finding the best fares
to some places ..
If one is bad as hell.. I choose IB/Vueling !

Can't talk about frequent flyer-sort / codeshares of thing because ( as above J* genoeg) !
Code-shares, I search on the original flight operators.
( The price is the same and you get better service if something changes.. (instead SN try LH )! )
( This was mine conclusion after 1 trip )

I coundn't agree more. It's a total nightmare!
A couple of weeks ago when I wanted to book a flight to Berlin, after 15 minutes, I gave up and decided to go by car!

are you an air-enthousiast..???
if I have the possibility to fly I even search nights/hours to do so !!!!
15 min ? aarghh, success with the german roadworks in progress...

I think SN booking site is quite good, not to messy !
Maybe a better promotions search engine would be more appreciated!
( for us non frequent flyers )

Ciao,
CX-B

[grnkg]

are you an air-enthousiast..???
if I have the possibility to fly I even search nights/hours to do so !!!!
15 min ? aarghh, success with the german roadworks in progress...

CX-B

For your info, yes I am. And since you want to go personal, more of an enthusiast than you'll ever be. Because I made it my profession!

The stress, the countless shift changes, nights, days, weekends, the constant awareness that whatever you do wrong may cost tons of money, possibly lives, I accept it as part of everyday life!
And that's one of the reasons why I, unlike you, cannot afford to spend nights/hours to book a simple flight, which, as annotated here by others, shouldn't take more than 5 minutes!

Kind regards,
GR.

Oh, and by the way German roads are a bit more advanced than the ones in Belgium... thanks for your concern anyway

[cathay belgium]

Because I made it my profession!

Hey, LuckIE you!
Pity for me I didn't have the chance to do the same,
but I didn't have any booking problems for a flight!

Good luck on the germans roads ,Mr.Pilot !

cathay belgium wrote:
are you an air-enthousiast..???
if I have the possibility to fly I even search nights/hours to do so !!!!
15 min ? aarghh, success with the german roadworks in progress...

CX-B

So you see, some enthUsiasts need more efforts to go airborne than others !
But as I didn't meant to go personal in the first place...

CX-B

[SmilingBoy]

Agree with the comments that this prize must be a joke.

Have a flight in 22 hours with LH code on SN metal. Want to check-in online, but it neither works with the LH booking reference nor with the e-ticket number. "No valid flight(s) available – Please contact airport check-in staff".

Moreover, the "LH [SN]" in the carrier dropdown box of the online check-in is not explained, but I assume it means "LH code, SN metal".

Clicking on the little question mark next to the booking reference field in order to get help opens a new window with a "page not found" page.

[euroflyer]

I can only confirm, this prize is a bad joke!

Had the very same problem as smiling boy. Came this morning from TXL to BRU. Ticket is part of a kind of round trip FRA-TXL, TXL-BRU, BRU-FRA and is a LH ticket, but of course the leg from TXL to BRU was on SN metal (OO-VEJ, nice and smooth flight, just a bit windy on approach in BRU this morning ).

Check-in on the LH website was not possible (only for the other legs which are operated by LH), the flight with SN was shown on the LH website, but online-check-in for that flight was 'not available'. OK, going to the SN website than, but that was even worse. The check-in website only loaded after several tries, it is absolutely unclear what to choose from the drop down menu (SN, LH [SN], ... ??), even after several tries it was not possible to even activate the 'continue' button on the website ... I tried it with eticket number, booking code, with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari (just to be sure), nothing worked ... At the end I had to get up in Berlin half an hour earlier than necessary to be early at the airport.

Really sad, in the past it had worked fine for me to check-in online with SN flights, but the 'inter-operability' (?) between LH and SN is not yet there it seems (at the end I could not even check-in for my flight in TXL at the LH First Class / Senator counter as this 'is not possible for Brussels Airlines operated flights' , had to go to the Brussels Airlines check-in counter. This normally works for all code-share flights I had, especially within *Alliance, still some work to do for the IT guys it seems before 9 December ...

[RoMax]

The problem is that the system of SN isn't connected on a perfect way to the system of LH. I suppose this will change from 9 december.

[Ducatibiker]

Each time I want to do a booking, I have to re-enter all my data. Why is there no automated profile when I enter my M&M frequent flyer number. User friendly ? what a joke! Privilege has been discontinued a month ago and this is still not fixed.