Brussels Airlines BRU-MXP-BRU on 12/01/2012

[sn26567]

A one-day business trip (the first one since 19 months) to a small city near Bergamo. I had the choice between Ryanair from Charleroi to Bergamo and Brussels Airlines from Brussels to Malpensa + 100 km driving. Since I did not trust Ryaiair for a business trip, I selected b.air.

I purchased the tickets on 26 December. Company policy (the company of my customers: they pay for the trip!) requires the cheapest option. There was no b.light ticket available anymore, so I had to buy a b.flex, but I got a sizeable discount and paid only 357 euros instead of 570.

The day before departure, I connected to the SN website and selected seat 3F (window) on both flights. The scheduled aeroplanes shown on the seat maps were respectively an Avro RJ85 outbound and an Avro RJ100 inbound. I asked for the boarding passes to be sent to my smartphone by SMS in addition to a printed copy of a PDF for safety. The problem is that the SMS links to a website where the documents shows up.

Before leaving home, I made sure to have the boarding pass shown on my phone: it was a bright idea. I arrived at Brussels Airport at 05:35, parked my car at Front Park 1, which was quite empty at that time of the day. Since I has only hand baggage, I could go immediately to the entrance of the tunnel to Terminal A and I got through the control with my smartphone for the first time: a little bit further, it allowed me into the fast lane and at the end, it also got me onto the plane. This it works! But if I had not got it on my phone before leaving home, I should have purchased a one-hour connection from Telenet: that is a rip-off!

While waiting, I saw a special flight to Dakar (SN1201) due to depart from Terminal B at 07:40. Unusually early for an African flight! I saw also that my own plane had been changed from an Avro RJ85 to an Airbus A319: nice surprise.

Flight: SN3153 BRU-MPX (Brussels-Milano Malpensa)
Date : 12 Jan 2012
Aircraft: A319 OO-SSD
Seat: 3F
Scheduled/Effective Time of Departure: 06:40/06:50 (GMT + 1)
Scheduled/Effective Time of Arrival: 08:20/08:15 (GMT + 1)
Scheduled/Effective Duration of the flight: 1 hr 40 mins/1 hr 25 mins

Boarding at Gate A57 started at 06:20 and was completed at 06:30, but we still had to wait until 06:50 before pushback due to traffic. Friendly welcome by 2 stewards and 2 stewardesses. Safety demonstration on the screens (which were not used further in the flight...). Take-off from the usual 25R.

The load factor was below 50% because of the switch to a larger plane: only 1 pax in Business, most pax in b.flex, and 3 rows at the back for b.light.

At cruising altitude, we were served a breakfast consisting of a piece of bread, Belgian butter, ham and cheese; a piece of melon; a kind of yogurt; and a choice of drinks, for me orange juice and coffee.

Breakfast on board of SN 3153 BRU-MXP

It was still dark when leaving Brussels, but above the Alps the sun was rising, which enabled me to make some nice pictures like this one.

The sun rising over the Alps

We landed in Milan Malpensa a few minutes before schedule. No jet bridge for us, but a bus, and this disembarkation on the tarmac in a bitter cold.

Disembarkation in Malpensa

Flight: SN 3160 MXP-BRU (Malpensa-Brussels)
Date : 12 Jan 2012
Aircraft: Avro RJ100 OO-DWI
Seat: 3F
Scheduled/Effective Time of Departure: 19:00/19:01 (GMT + 1)
Scheduled/Effective Time of Arrival: 20:40/20:36 (GMT + 1)
Scheduled/Effective Duration of the flight: 1 hr 40 mins/1 hr 35 mins

No free WiFi in MXP. Thus I could not retrieve my boarding pass on my phone and I was lucky to have printed a copy, first to let me through the fast lane, and later on the plane itself.

Again a bus to the plane in a remote position. We embarked in the bus 30 minutes before departure, but had to wait there more than 15 minutes with the doors open in the cold.

Friendly welcome on board by the gtwo stewardesses. On-time take-off, safety demonstration by the SN girls, and cold meal once we had reached the cruising altitude. It consisted of chicken, pasta and salad; bread and butter; a frangipane; a Côte d'Or mignonette (Belgian chocolate);

Dinner on board of SN3160 MXP-BRU on 12/01/2012

and a choice of drinks, for me red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon du Pays d'Oc) and tea.

Drinks (wine and tea) and chocolate

We landed on time and disembarked somewhere in the middle of Terminal A, after a flight without problems.

Good job from Brussels Airlines.

[sn26567]

While waiting, I saw a special flight to Dakar (SN1201) due to depart from Terminal B at 07:40. Unusually early for an African flight!

I just learned that this was due to the fact thyat the flight of 11 January had been cancelled for technical reasons: see http://www.rewmi.com/MAGAL-2012-Plus-de ... 55051.html

[capetown]

Great picture of that sunrise over the alps ! 1 question, do you get that priority lane just if you show your boarding pass on a smartphone, or is it linked to whether you book b.light or b.flex ?

[airazurxtror]

A one-day business trip to a small city near Bergamo.
I had the choice between Ryanair from Charleroi to Bergamo and Brussels Airlines from Brussels to Malpensa + 100 km driving. Since I did not trust Ryaiair for a business trip, I selected b.air.

Another question, if I may : why don't you trust Ryanair - to the point of rather driving 100 km than landing near your destination ?
I have taken dozens of FR flights to and from Bergamo, and Ryanair has never let me down.

[crew1990]

Yes, why don't you trust FR? I'm interested as I'm CCM bases in Bergamo, I can tell you that yes we have a some business man with take Ryanair the morning and go back the night, the same for the tourist.

And more weird... it happend sometimes to fly to stockolm or Oslo and having family that go to Bergamo to make their shopping in Orio Center (A huge center commercial just in front of the terminal) and come back in the night flight as it's cheaper to fly Ryanair and make the shopping in Italy than shopping in Sweeden!

[luchtzak]

Great picture of that sunrise over the alps ! 1 question, do you get that priority lane just if you show your boarding pass on a smartphone, or is it linked to whether you book b.light or b.flex ?

Tickets in b.flex give you automatic access to priority lane, if you show your ticket or your smartphone you will be able to enter

[sn26567]

Why I did not use Ryanair?

1. BRU is closer to my home than CRL
2. I had absolutely to be near Bergamo that day. If there had been anything wrong with the SN flight, they had alternatives. If anything had been wrong with FR I would have been stranded in CRL.

Yes, the sunrise above the Alps was unique: first time I saw that in my life from a plane. The sun was coming from beneath the aircraft! Fantastic! I have a few other pictures of that.

[regi]

Why I did not use Ryanair?
2. I had absolutely to be near Bergamo that day. If there had been anything wrong with the SN flight, they had alternatives. If anything had been wrong with FR I would have been stranded in CRL.

Thank you for this report, which reflexts a bit the same dilemma's I face sometimes.
I have used Ryanair for business flight and the result was I missed an important meeting at Charleroi because of a 4 hour delay in Scotland.
I have used Ryanair for private matters where it is less important.
Maybe the example of Crew 1990 says it all: Norwegians who use Ryanair to go on a shopping spree.( I assume it is for liquor and cigarettes.)
Hey, don't accuse me of looking down on FR passengers. I don't.
But I don't use Ryanair anymore for business trips ( but still do Easyjet - interesting matter for the marketing department of Ryanair ). And I feel right about this because some of my customers contractually forbid their employees to fly Ryanair ( and other LCC) even for private matters. A cancelled or delayed flight by Ryanair cannot be held as an excuse for a missed meeting. The fun part is that it doesn't mention non LCC airlines.
( because those have opportunities to rebook their passengers on partner airlines )

[regi]

frustrating for you to see just 3 rows in B-light if you tried to book it but it was full.

[airazurxtror]

some of my customers contractually forbid their employees to fly Ryanair ( and other LCC) even for private matters. A cancelled or delayed flight by Ryanair cannot be held as an excuse for a missed meeting.

You have some strange customers.
As if no other airline had ever any delayed or cancelled flight ...
As to forbid their employees to fly Ryanair even for private matters, they simply don't have the right to ...
In what world do they live ?

[azingrew]

I thought that flying into MXP for a meeting in Bergamo was pretty ludicrous, but hey, to each his own. Especially since MXP is west and BGY is east of Milan, meaning you had to take the dreaded autostrada through the North of Milan, probably at rush hour. Hope you didn't do it by taxi ! It must have taken you at least 2 hours! And how about AZ to Linate ? LIN is only 30km from Bergamo! oh well. Indeed, there are companies that forbid their employees to fly LCC. One of my clients ( an opera singer) had to fly from BRU (he lives in Huy) with AF via LYS for a concert in Bordeaux ( no allowed to take FR non stop from CRL) and he was not allowed to consider EZY ( to NCE) for a concert in Monte Carlo. Both tickets where paid by the cities respective Operas, but what a waste.

[SN1203]

frustrating for you to see just 3 rows in B-light if you tried to book it but it was full.

Actually, it doesn't work like this. Before the check-in of a flight opens, a system running in the background calculates the passengers per cabin, in order to assign a certain amount of seat rows for b.business, b.flex and b.light.

The b.light cabin usually get's the lowest percentage of empty seats, to give more comfort seating to b.flex and b.business.

So it's not like only three rows of b.light could be sold on this flight, it all depends on demand and price elasticity.

[regi]

some of my customers contractually forbid their employees to fly Ryanair ( and other LCC) even for private matters. A cancelled or delayed flight by Ryanair cannot be held as an excuse for a missed meeting.

You have some strange customers.
As if no other airline had ever any delayed or cancelled flight ...
As to forbid their employees to fly Ryanair even for private matters, they simply don't have the right to ...
In what world do they live ?

Those customers belong to the biggest anufacturing companies in Belgium.
They have the right to stipulate that if you work for them, it is no excuse to be missing a meeting if your flight was delayed or canceled and you are blocked somewhere.
The answer is very simple: you shouldn't have flown with that specific company.
No offense to Ryanair, it is Easyjet as well.

[airazurxtror]

The answer is very simple: you shouldn't have flown with that specific company.
No offense to Ryanair, it is Easyjet as well.

It's none of my business, and besides, I couldn't care less, but just for the record :
- what if you fly with a "good" company but your flight is late nonetheless ? (delayed flights can happen to any airline).
- moreover, Ryanair can be criticized on a score of subjects, but not on its ponctuality record, which is excellent ...

[tolipanebas]

it doesn't matter, the problem for many businesses is not with LCCs as such (heck, they probably love their pricing strategy), but the lack of any flexibility or alternatives in case of cancellation or delay.

Let's face it; when a U2 or FR flight get's cancelled or delayed, a pax on a short business trip is screwed:
1- they have very few daily flights, so the next flight may be a very long wait
2- they have very high loadfactors, meaning the chance of getting a seat on the next flight are slim
3- they won't help you onto a connecting flight of a partner airline to reduce your time loss

While I can agree the chances things go badly are slim indeed, the fact there's no plan B at all in that case is an automatic disqualifier for a whole lot of businesses as they like to be able to plan ahead and calculate up front how much and how long something is going to cost them to achieve, and hate it when there is a large degree of incertainty attatched to it all.

Let's face it: larger international businesses prefer to rent their offices rather than buy them (even though it means that after X years, they have basically paid the complete value of the building), just as they prefer to lease their cars, their furniture, their computers and even their plants rather than buy them (because when something breaks down, they just call the lessor and it gets fixed asap and at no extra unbudgetted cost) and they prefer to book their business trips with network airlines that give out a guarantee of getting you to the destination on the first available flight there, even if that isnt the one operated by them: it's as simple as that really and it perfectly matches the 'just in time' as well as 'lean structures' concepts many businesses now advocate.

It's all very nice to be able to make a saving of a few euro on a ticket by flying a LCC, but if just 1 out of 100 times the LCC flight get's cancelled without any good alternative available within the hour, it means that the sales team which was sent abroad for instance will be stuck there and somebody at the HQ will need to scramble to arrange them hotel rooms as well as organize full back up for the next day's sales campaign which was already planned to follow of course. All that "standby power" costs money too, you know?

Many businesses hate having to have dedicated staff at their HQ just following the whereabouts of their constantly traveling staff only to help solve schedule problems they may encounter en route: better to fly a network carrier which is going to take care of all possible schedule mishaps for them, as all this is included in the ticket fare: it makes a very lean back office and indeed, nowadays, you can see HQs of large multinationals where basically EVERYBODY is permanently on the move with just 1 officed based staff member remaining at the HQ to provide minimal support only. THAT is what many companies want to see and it's only possible if you can shift as much responsability as possible to your contractors, which airlines are in a way.

[regi]

yes, right.
But we have to avoid that this nice report is straying off again to the neverending Ryanair story.

By the way: did everybody also notice that despite later departure times, the 2 flights arrived earlier than scheduled? Is this a in build reserve by SN? Or do they have "an extra gear ?"
Hm...afterburners on commercial airplanes...nice new subject.

[tolipanebas]

we have to avoid that this nice report is straying off again to the neverending Ryanair story.

Indeed, for some reason, a very nice trip report on a day trip to Milan on SN turns into a 'why don't you fly with FR?' topic, whereas from the trip report itself it is perfectly clear the obviously very satisfied customer had it's very good reasons for it!

The most interesting part of this trip report is the picture of the disembarkation at MXP:
Please notice the high number of pax of African origin on the early morning flight from BRU.
It's quite normal for me to see this, but it clearly shows to people not frequenty flying SN just how important African connections really are for them.

[airazurxtror]

Indeed, for some reason, a very nice trip report on a day trip to Milan on SN turns into a 'why don't you fly with FR?' topic,

The "some reason" is that the subject was introduced by the writer himself at the very beginning of his report :

" I had the choice between Ryanair from Charleroi to Bergamo and Brussels Airlines from Brussels to Malpensa + 100 km driving. Since I did not trust Ryaiair for a business trip, I selected b.air."

[tolipanebas]

Yes and he also gave a very clear reason for his choice of SN over FR, which you felt was needed to question nevertheless. If customer distrust alone is not a good enough reason not to fly a particular airline, than I don't know what is, really?

[airazurxtror]

I was interested to know why the writer did not trust the biggest European airline and preferred a small one.
That is what a forum is made for, I think : to ask questions, and discuss.