Brussels Airlines website

[dna]

Why is it I always get an error message whenever I try to add my frequent flyer number to an existing booking on the Brussels Airlines website? It was impossible to do this a few weeks ago, and it still hasn't been fixed. I'm trying to add the number for another flight next week, but when I fill in my name and booking reference it still says "There was an error while processing your request.". Why is it so hard to get this thing working properly? I can access the other details of my flights without problems. This website can do with a major overhaul in my opinion.

[kimdaenen]

Hi dna,

I work for Brussels Airlines.
Thanks for reporting that issue. I'm going to check with our webteam what is wrong. I'll get back to you as soon as I have an answer.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
Shall I add your frequent flyer number manually to your booking in the meantime?
If you want me to do so, please send your FF number + booking reference to hello[at]brusselsairlines[dot]com

Greets,

Kim

[airazurxtror]

Whilst you are at it, here is a complaint recently logged on a travellers site (translated from French):

Quote
I want to warn those who want to book a plane ticket on the Brussels Airlines website.
For several months I do a simulation to find the best flights (departure within three months), and every manipulation I have my cart that displays a price, of all taxes etc. INCLUDED mentioned, and each click on the next page to confirm, there is an extra 50%!
Of course, I called the helpdesk:
- Is a premium number (I'm abroad)
- Puts you on hold for 16 minutes!
- Spoke broken French
- Incompetence shines in its response: somebody has got the seats before you and the price is no longer valid.
These comments and this practice is strictly illegal, the price displayed is the only valid one.
Moreover, I have made at least 70 searches, what bad luck, just before me, a guy has, 70 times, taken the same flights for the same destination on the same dates; amazing!
Any request by mail resulted in a nonsense, like, try again, try this site ... all for the same result.
Company to avoid at all costs. Lousy service, also on board.
Unquote

[Duke]

I had the same (bad) experience.
I booked (through the travel agency) flights for me, my wife, and my 4 children Brussels - Kinshasa return in April.
At the time of the booking, we got reserved (and confirmed) seats. Never I was able to check online if the seats were still confirmed.
On the way down, we did get our reserved seats.
The flight was on OO-SFY, and we all had our PTV (no AVOD, but still...).
As it was not possible to go online in Kinshasa, I supposed we could have our reserved seats on the return flight.
At the airport, we were told we didn't have any reserved seats, when I showed my printed reservation with the mention of our seats, we were told that these reservations were changed afterwards... I asked who changed it, but nobody could answer.
I was really disappointed...
On the plane (OO-SFO) the lights above my seat didn't work. As it was a night flight, and as there was no PTV (!!), I wanted to read a book... Nobody could make the lights work... In the end, a flight attendant gave me a torch so I could read...
I was really surprised by this... knowing that the Kinshasa flight is about the only flight where Brussels Airlines makes money... Brussels Airlines gave me a very bad impression.
Brussels Airlines should better wait a little longer before they announce the new interior of the planes...
My complaint mail about not getting the reserved seat was never answered by Brussels Airlines...
Regards,

Duke

[RoMax]

I was really surprised by this... knowing that the Kinshasa flight is about the only flight where Brussels Airlines makes money... Brussels Airlines gave me a very bad impression.
Brussels Airlines should better wait a little longer before they announce the new interior of the planes...

I can't say anything for the rest of you bad experience (it seems it indeed was a bad experience...).
But about the FIH route...it's not quite the only flight were SN makes money...they make money on most of their AFI routes. They just lose it all with their EU network...

SN also always said they can't guarantee the new interior on the AFI routes until the end of the year, only their JFK flights are always with the new interior. No way an airline would wait to announce their new interior. As from the moment the first aircraft with the new interior enters service the airline (not just SN, they all do it)announces it.

In most cases the routes to East- and Central- Africa are operated by the two A332's with PTV's, tough an outdated interior. But better than nothing. The A333('s?) with the new interior is mainly operating on the Cameroon flights, next to FIH (and ABJ?) probably the most important market for SN with a lot of premium traffic.

But I understand you have no reall message to this, as you had a bad experience and this doesn't change that...

About the M&M number problem. It's probably depending on several things as I didn't have any problems with my recent bookings. Recently I booked two flights online (Stockholm and Madrid), with Madrid I forgot to add my Miles&More number while booking. But it was no problem to add it afterwards through the website. But I heard from more people they have problems with it, so probably there is indeed a problem for certain kind of bookings?

[papysn]

This website is a total mess...and it has been the case for years
Bruair management, you can take example on EZY or Ryanair web
I don't understand how it is possible to give such a bad first impression to your clients... It's supposed to be you selling point,it has to be perfect...but maybe the Net departement is also dramatically understaffed in good,motivated staff.
So,please Bruair,less numerous unefficient managers and more frontliners to fix this kind of problem!!

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

@papysn : OMG ! Did you booked any FR lately ? Guess not otherwise you should know that FR is the most fucked up website ever, or you do like typing and searching wordpuzzles every 5 moves you make anytime !!
EZY is a bit better but I won't ever say this is an example for others..

Some good/better sites are to me : AA,KL,LH.. and these don't look so different than SN's BTW..

Just off-topic but :

I think every topic is lately being taken over by some SN-bashers
Why ? Because we Belgians like to punish ourselves like always
It's not because we heard some bad finacial news lately that every SN concerned thing is doomed..
And maybe you didn't noticed but I don't see that many aviation fora where the noticed airliner reacts on topics on sites like these.. so guess SN is more modern that you suspect..
Didn't found here any reply by any FR - PR officer on this site..
( sorry sean and tolepanebas but I can't call you official - FR/SN spokesman .. )


Greetz,

CX-B

[papysn]

FR or even EZY are a counter example for me,I hope Bru air will never be like those two...I love Bruair,but i'm convinct the bad situation they're in is due to bad decisions taken by uncompetent managers,no bashing here,just what i think!

We had the possibility to do great things,it has not been the case for the moment,but who knows maybe some day they'll wake up and put money in the company...

p.s: For EZY or FR,you don't pay a penny for your flight,so you don't have to expect more that what you paid for.

And maybe you didn't noticed but I don't see that many aviation fora where the noticed airliner reacts on topics on sites like these.. so guess SN is more modern that you suspect..

...i dont see your point here,we are only using our freedom of speech,are we here on a private forum or has SN anything to do with it? we are just trying to build up/share our experiences in airlines,and SN is the one I care the most... that's my motivation.

Regards.

K.

[andorra-airport]

Seat reservations are often cancelled after an aircraft change. It's up to the local editing department to do something about that. I guess that department does not exist in Kinshasa, or they only do it for C-class and the highest card members.

I understand some people have complaints, so it's nice to see a member like "kimdaenen" to listen and work on solutions. It is so easy to complain, and difficult to make people happy! My respect.

[papysn]

True,if i'm prompt to condemn,i can also see the good things:
Nice to see some SN mangement online.

[AFApresident]

I agree that the Brussels Airlines website needs to be improved. I always have issues when looking for flights which originate from an airport other than Brussels (e.g. Dakar - Brussels), from the homepage it never gives me the pop down to select the 2 airports. This results in an error and directs you to another page where you have to re-enter all data.

In all honesty if it weren't for the mostly great on board experiences I had with Bru Air, I would just go to the competition if the website doesn't give me immediately what I want.

So I agree with what others have said here, Bru Air should put it on their top priorities to fix it since they may lose out on a lot of passengers who don't try 2-3 times before something works.

(PS I am using Google Chrome).

[kimdaenen]

Whilst you are at it, here is a complaint recently logged on a travellers site (translated from French):

Quote
I want to warn those who want to book a plane ticket on the Brussels Airlines website.
For several months I do a simulation to find the best flights (departure within three months), and every manipulation I have my cart that displays a price, of all taxes etc. INCLUDED mentioned, and each click on the next page to confirm, there is an extra 50%!
Of course, I called the helpdesk:
- Is a premium number (I'm abroad)
- Puts you on hold for 16 minutes!
- Spoke broken French
- Incompetence shines in its response: somebody has got the seats before you and the price is no longer valid.
These comments and this practice is strictly illegal, the price displayed is the only valid one.
Moreover, I have made at least 70 searches, what bad luck, just before me, a guy has, 70 times, taken the same flights for the same destination on the same dates; amazing!
Any request by mail resulted in a nonsense, like, try again, try this site ... all for the same result.
Company to avoid at all costs. Lousy service, also on board.
Unquote

Dear Airazurxtror,

We had come accross your post on Voyage Forum yesterday, and was just going to ask you for more details, because your explanations are too vague for us to look into the issue.
Can you please provide us with the following information:

- the date when you were trying to book.
- the travel dates you were looking up
- the number of passengers (+ if any children or infants, please indicate those too)
- the destination
- do you by any chance have a screenshot?
- do you have the issue today?

Thanks in advance. We value your feedback.

Kind Regards,
Kim

[Inquirer]

True,if i'm prompt to condemn,i can also see the good things:
Nice to see some SN mangement online.

Indeed!

Refreshing to see an airline accepting positive criticism from an anonymous poster in order to improve their way of doing and is even seeking more feedback to help out in the individual case; let's hope Airazurxtror can provide the requested details.

BTW, Airazurxtror have you also bothered getting a helpful reaction of RYANAIR on their introduction of puzzlewords on their website, which are put in place solely to prevent customers from seeking the best possible deal? I mean, this is so annoying to use and should be removed again!

Last week, I wanted to book tickets for my family holiday this summer, yet simply stopped after 3 trials: used my M&M miles to book tickets to Bologna on Brussels Airlines instead.

[Inquirer]

I agree that the Brussels Airlines website needs to be improved. I always have issues when looking for flights which originate from an airport other than Brussels (e.g. Dakar - Brussels), from the homepage it never gives me the pop down to select the 2 airports. This results in an error and directs you to another page where you have to re-enter all data..

The same happens to me from time to time...

BTW, while we are at it:I also never get a pull down calender when clicking the logo and need to enter the dates manually, which is a bit of a hassle, but okay, whatever....

[kimdaenen]

I agree that the Brussels Airlines website needs to be improved. I always have issues when looking for flights which originate from an airport other than Brussels (e.g. Dakar - Brussels), from the homepage it never gives me the pop down to select the 2 airports. This results in an error and directs you to another page where you have to re-enter all data..

The same happens to me from time to time...

BTW, while we are at it:I also never get a pull down calender when clicking the logo and need to enter the dates manually, which is a bit of a hassle, but okay, whatever....

This problem probably occurs because you click the fields too fast, while the page is still loading. If you then reload the page, you will get the dropdowns and the calendar.
Hope this helps!

[Air Key West]

B.Air's web site, indeed, needs to be improved. I don't find it user-friendly, it is slow, it often sends you error messages back, which I don't experience with most other airline websites. My favorite airline web site is definitely Swiss (LX). Why : they display ALL fares on one single page. You can immediately compare the fares, easily see the fare rules, the miles you will get and, when booking, you can even combine two different fare categories or classes of service. Furthermore, it has a very clean look (which b.air's doesn't have ; looks a bit messy, but not as much as FR's, thank God). Thank you to the webteam member on this forum who is really making an effort in communication (which I'm not used to from b.air). Please, have a look at Swiss's web site. Perhaps you can use it as a source of inspiration to revamp b.air's web site. Good luck.

[kimdaenen]

Why is it I always get an error message whenever I try to add my frequent flyer number to an existing booking on the Brussels Airlines website? It was impossible to do this a few weeks ago, and it still hasn't been fixed. I'm trying to add the number for another flight next week, but when I fill in my name and booking reference it still says "There was an error while processing your request.". Why is it so hard to get this thing working properly? I can access the other details of my flights without problems. This website can do with a major overhaul in my opinion.

Dear dna,

in order to investigate the issue, I would need your pnr and FF number. Can you give it to me?

thanks
Kim

[airazurxtror]

We had come accross your post on Voyage Forum yesterday, and was just going to ask you for more details, because your explanations are too vague for us to look into the issue.
Can you please provide us with the following information:

- the date when you were trying to book.
- the travel dates you were looking up
- the number of passengers (+ if any children or infants, please indicate those too)
- the destination
- do you by any chance have a screenshot?
- do you have the issue today?

Thanks in advance. We value your feedback.

Kind Regards,
Kim

The message has been posted by a forumist on Voyage forum, that is right, but it's not me - I have just translated it in English. According to what he tells, he has already contacted SN more than once about his problem, to no avail.

[airazurxtror]

BTW, Airazurxtror have you also bothered getting a helpful reaction of RYANAIR on their introduction of puzzlewords on their website, which are put in place solely to prevent customers from seeking the best possible deal? I mean, this is so annoying to use and should be removed again!

The subject here is : "Brussels Airlines website".
The Brussels Airline website, in my view, is not customer friendly, and others apparently are of the same opinion. It may well be that other airlines websites are still worse, but that is another matter entirely.
At SN, are they content just with not being the worst ?

Off topic :
The "puzzelwords" that Ryanair has introduced are not to prevent customers from seeking the best deal. Quite at the contrary, they prevent travel agents from seizing the best deals and reselling them at a profit. The Ryanair best deals are to be had by the individual customer, not at a travel agent's.

[RoMax]

Interesting to see these complaints about the website. Tough I didn't experienced any of the 'technical' problems before, but I agree at certain points that should improve.

Back in 2009 SN's website was even the final public vote winner of the Belgian Usability Awards:
http://webusability-blog.com/brussels-a ... ards-2009/
That was only shortly after an "updated" version of the website came online, currently the website is still the same.

Skytrax gives SN's website 4 stars for "ease of use" and "online check-in", but only 2,5 stars for "product information"
http://www.airlinequality.com/Airlines/SN1.htm

Tough even back in the days of the public award I already heard A LOT of complaints about the website (both about the use and about technical problems). As said before I agree on several points (tough not all), but I never had problems with the booking engine for exemple (I only get error's when the route is simply not available during a certain period...which is quite normal). I can say I have seen much worse airline websites...