BruAir continues to rip off privilege members!

[SN1203]

I forgot to mention that also Etihad and American Airlines will charge you an expensive fuel surcharge. Your comments do not only apply to Brussels Airlines, but pretty much to the whole industry.

I'm not taking a position in this matter (pro or against fuel surcharges). The only comment I want to make is that changes in fuel surcharge policies etc. shouldn't be coming from Brussels Airlines. Only if some of the legacy carriers start incorporating fuel surcharges into the base fare, Brussels Airlines should follow. As long as pretty much everybody in the industry applies fuel surcharges (I know there are exceptions like BMI), you shouldn't be asking Brussels Airlines to change their policy and you certainly shouldn't be calling them 'amateurs'.

[Air Key West]

Please, be honest, sn1203. When you claim that you offer FREE tickets, but in the end the ticket costs maybe 100 euros or over 200 euros for a "free" ? return ticket to Africa, you are an amateur in communication and probably in legal (juridische/juridique) language. Let alone that offering so-called free tickets that are not free is probably on the brink of legality. Any communication expert (do you have them at b.air ? or aren't you outsourcing the job to real experts ?) would have known that you don't call a free ticket a free ticket if it is not free, certainly if there are easy alternatives (award or bonus tickets). And have a look at the new web sites for b.air and Privilege : nothing to be proud of. The new web site must have been there for a month now and don't tell me nobody has told b.air that on their destinations map Basle is still in Eastern Africa and St-Louis (Missouri) still in Senegal, to name only two examples.
As for your explanations concerning the FFPs, I accept them. Indeed, I'm not an expert in it. I just notice a number of things and wonder (or speculate since I'm not an expert) why they happen. And then, occasionally on this forum, you get the answers. Thanks for the answers.

[Air Key West]

And I forgot to mention that I know most airlines don't offer "free" tickets through their FFPs. That much I know. This is why they call them "award tickets" (AF-KL-AA) or "reward tickets" (EY). The only FFP I know which will give you the possibility to get real free FFP tickets is probably Miles-and-More where you can also pay for taxes and fees with miles.

[sn26567]

The only FFP I know which will give you the possibility to get real free FFP tickets is probably Miles-and-More where you can also pay for taxes and fees with miles.

Correct, but then you end up spending 45,000 instead of 30,000 FF miles for a roundtrip in Europe.

[Ducatibiker]

I totally agree with Air Key West. I really hope that the future Privilege program will be competitive enough to look professional. Here are some points:

·Has any Gold or Platinum members been invited to exclusive events like it is promised in the membership page ?
·Why do Belgian residents have to accumulate more miles to be upgraded to higher membership levels ? I hope this will go away as it should only be based on the routes/booking class you fly
·With the former version, base miles were awarded for Avis Car rental. This was suddenly switched to Hertz. Is this going to be switched again ? Careful as car rental have their own Frequent Customer programs.
·Several Star Alliance Programs reward the member when she or he recruits another member - it is the case with Miles&More
·Star Alliance Company Plus: is Brussels Airlines going to be member like Lufthansa, Swiss, Lot, ... ?
·Credit cards: Huge opportunity to talk to Deutsche Bank along with American Express
·Possibility to check award inventory on line on Lufthansa, Swiss and Brussels Airlines
·Phone companies: Proximus and Mobistar: will they continue to award miles ?
·Code share flights: the policy has to be very clear as to which flights, booking class award miles on *alliance programs.
·Lufthansa/United flights: you can accumulate base miles, elite bonus regardless on who operated the flight between Germany and the US. That way, the FF is really encouraged to fly any code share partner. It should be the same on flight US950 and SN ???
·BMI elite card holders get free meals on certain flights. As Brussels Airlines is code sharing with BMI on certain routes, time to think of extending this courtesy to *alliance Gold members
·System wide upgrades and Regional upgrades for elite members - example: United deposit electronic certificates valid for upgrades in the next cabin on US routes – no miles needed – confirmation 72H prior to the flight. Certificates can also be purchased.

Details, yes, but important for those frequent flyer who are members in more than one program !

[euroflyer]

Privilege is really not very generous and it is quite expensive regarding tax and fees to book award tickets (this usually makes it totally inattractive to book award tickets as on many destinations you can get 'normal' tickets with BruAir itself or with other airlines which do cost just a bit more than the tax and fees for the award ticket). And to fly in b.flex instead of b.light is nice, but I do not know many people who would be prepared to pay 50€ or more for this 'extra service' on short flights.

Miles&More, as has been said correctly, is much nicer (even if it is not perfect either) as you can pay for tax and fees with miles as well. You might need more miles than, but the tickets are REALLY for FREE. PLUS you can go shopping in the Lufthansa Worldshop, and this is the real advantage, as you have a big choice of what to do with your miles (just have a look at http://www.worldshop.eu.

I am waiting for Privilege and Miles&More to be merged and than my 100,000 plus Privilege miles will hopefully be transferred to my Miles&More account.

[b720]

I agree, Privilege miles worth ZIP.. better exchange them for Del Haize 5 euro vouchers as ...
A. They get u no where, unless you want to fly to Bujumbura..
B. Very high taxes and charge after charge..
C. they even dared to introduce a charge for paying with a credit card (even Brussels airlines AMEX card!)
Or simply save the miles, hopefully our privilege accounts will merge with miles & more.

[tolipanebas]

Simply save the miles, hopefully our privilege accounts will merge with miles & more.

Privilege will be absorbed in Miles&More by the end of October this year... believe me.
However, who said it will be on a 1:1 basis?

I have a feeling Privilege was never seen as a Frequent Flyer Program by Brussels Airlines in the sense that it wasn't aimed at rewarding the most loyal customers of the airline; to me it was always perfectly clear Privilege was set up as just another method of getting in contact with frequent travelers to send them publicity.

It was just a pure marketing tool which gave SN another channel of cheap promotion (through direct mailing), not a workable alternative payment method, which is why everything from checking miles to using them is so complicated and amateuristic with Privilege: the only thing that really works well are the newsletters and the regular adds you find in your mailbox.

Can't wait for Privilege to be replaced by a real and professional FFP, just as I can't wait for many other fancy yet pointlessly complicated and utterly useless things and even persons at SN to be replaced by German know-how and their well-known no-nonsense efficiency.

[Desert Rat]

C. they even dared to introduce a charge for paying with a credit card

I noticed this as well while booking a european flight with them last week....

but i booked a AUB-BRU-AUH in business at the same time , and the credit card was no extra charge...the only good news is that i'll fly Etihad in business, looking Fwd to this though...

[euroflyer]

It was just a pure marketing tool which gave SN another channel of cheap promotion (through direct mailing), not a workable alternative payment method, which is why everything from checking miles to using them is so complicated and amateuristic with Privilege: the only thing that really works well are the newsletters and the regular adds you find in your mailbox.

But even as a marketing tool it is not that good, sorry. If I compare how many mails (and real letters!) I receive from Miles&More and from Privilege, Brussels Airlines is far behind ... Miles&More sends me a mail at least once a week, sometimes even 3 or 4 a week PLUS real letters to my home address with any kind of special offers of Austrian, SWISS or LH (I have opted NOT to receive any information from Miles&More on non-flight related promotions, no idea how many I would receive if they would use my address for such mailings as well ....)

[tolipanebas]

But even as a marketing tool it is not that good, sorry.

Oh I know, don't get me started about it!

All I can say is I am looking forward to a regime change soon and to those co-CEO's, EVPs, Special Project Managers and exernal consultants (which litterally flock the HQ) who have been telling us what a wonderfull job they have been doing for some years now, all I have to say is this: "Don't let the door hit you on the way out, dudes".

[Ducatibiker]

Only a consultant can come with an award of 15,000 miles in B.Light and then cancell it a few months after.
Now it is 20,000 but you are in b.flex....what a great way to improve occupancy in b.flex and to alienate frequent flyers. But enough said on those amateurs...the faster we change to Miles & More, the better.

[sn26567]

Now it is 20,000 but you are in b.flex....what a great way to improve occupancy in b.flex and to alienate frequent flyers. But enough said on those amateurs...the faster we change to Miles & More, the better.

OK, but on M&M you will need 30,000 miles to book a return flight in economy (unless you book less than 14 days in advance). Is that really a progress?

[fcw]

And here we go AGAIN: received an e-mail from BruAir saying: "enjoy 30% off ALL our european destinations"
a ticket from 219 goes down to 206, strange calculator BruAir is using...

[SpottairBRU]

Well, it is clearly stated that the discount is applicable on the base fare... I did several simulations on their website, and their calculator seems to work fine.

See example below (click on picture to enlarge).



Base fare is 18 EUR. Discount is 5,40 EUR, which is exactly 30%. And then after that you add all taxes and surcharge. They also state that it is depending on schedule and availability (note the difference between "fare" and "price".

(...)Book your seats with Brussels Airlines now to enjoy a 30% discount* (valid on base fare, excluding taxes & fees) on every European destination departing from Brussels. If you use the 'book now' button below, the discount will be applied automatically!(...)

*)Offer depends on availability. Return prices in b.light economy from Brussels. Valid only on Brussels Airlines operated flights. Total price includes all taxes and fees, 20kg luggage and online check-in. Available if booked on Brussels Airlines website.

Do not forget that any business' main goal is to make money, and that when they make some promotion, they never want to please their customers (as main objective) but to attract them to try to look at the fare and tempt them to book (after all, I would be tempted to book a return flight to Lyon for less than 74 EUR). If the customer is pleased, that is a bonus, but it is not the first reason why they make these promotions. It is the same for all "fidelity programmes", being Miles&More or your client card at your Delhaize. They don't aim at people who will anyway book/buy their products because they need to, whatever the price. But they will aim at people who don't really need it but will buy because "it was a good deal!"

[sn26567]

I accept that SN cannot discount airport taxes over which they have no control, but they could discount the airline fees, which are entirely under their responsibility.

[Stij]

Especially the fuel surcharge, it was even there when fuel prices were low. In fact, why can't they just calculate it into the fare? Now it's VERY misleading. At least that's one point where Ryanair is NOT misleading (see, I can say something positive about them as well!)

Cheers,

Stij

[euroflyer]

OK, technically there might be a difference between fare and price. However, for the normal customer, that is just bu....it. If you read 30% off you expect the final price to be 30% less than normal. What would you say in a supermarket if they claim "50% off today" and at the cashier desk they tell you, oh well, that is only 50% on our part of the total price, VAT stays the same of course and the logistic operator involved to bring the good to the supermarket has higher diesel prices at the moment so they need still the extra payment and so on and so on and therefore the final price is only 20% less than normal
This kind of fishing for customers is what you would expect from the well known lcc's but not from a full service flag carrier ...

[SpottairBRU]

OK, technically there might be a difference between fare and price. However, for the normal customer, that is just bu....it. If you read 30% off you expect the final price to be 30% less than normal. What would you say in a supermarket if they claim "50% off today" and at the cashier desk they tell you, oh well, that is only 50% on our part of the total price, VAT stays the same of course and the logistic operator involved to bring the good to the supermarket has higher diesel prices at the moment so they need still the extra payment and so on and so on and therefore the final price is only 20% less than normal
This kind of fishing for customers is what you would expect from the well known lcc's but not from a full service flag carrier ...

I fully agree with you, and also fully agree that for anyone not familiar with aviation world and pricing practices, such discount statement is misleading at first sight. And I fully understand the frustration of people going on the websites to find out that only one element of the full price gets the announced discount. However, no matter how unpleasant it is for us customers, airlines do what they want and what they must do to attract people in their planes, even if some of the means to achieve this goal are not the most "glorious/honorable" ones. If this kind of fishing allows SN to fill their planes a bit more, why wouldn't they do it? At least, the full price appears almost immediately on the booking page, and not after several clicks on new pages like some well known LCC's. As a customer, I have of course a lot of wishes and expectations from SN, but I also know that if SN can't find any benefit in my wishes, they won't fulfill them. Sorry if I sound fatalistic but it is how I, personally, feel about all promotions. Even though, I repeat, I fully understand that people can get very disappointed after realising that their interpretation of the discount was not exactly how it is applied in reality

[airazurxtror]

To be fair, I have this to say about Brussels Airlines regarding the honesty of their pub : they recently advertised some destinations at 59 euros return, taxes included (book until 3 April, travel from 1/11 to 29/2) and it was just that, and even less : I got me a Stockholm return for 58,09 euros and an Oslo return for 57,54 euros all included.