Airbus A319
Seeing I live in Gent but work in Brussels, I went to the airport directly after work, arriving there with my friend by train around 17.00. Check in went very smooth, seeing we only had hand luggage, we used our Privilege card at the self check in. Very nice system indeed, letting you choose your own row. We went for row 10, lucky guess, as it turned out we were sitting at the emergency exits = more legroom
After enjoying a slice of pizza on the first floor, we proceeded to the border post of the Federal Police at the B pier. My friend, being of Singaporean nationality, had to cue up, while I could walk through without any problems. We browsed through the overpriced tax free shopping, and then went to our gate. Our A319 was already there. Unfortunatly, it was already quite dark, so I couldn't catch the registration. And taking pictures proved problematic too, with all the reflection coming from the light inside the pier...
Boarding went very relaxed, as there weren't a lot of passengers. We were greeted on board by two very friendly F/A's, and got our free newspaper. (btw: When will SN stop buying that tabloid Het Laatste Nieuws and get a real newspaper instead).
Our purser, (Ms Steemans I think...) greeted us welcome on board and explained we were gonna have a twenty minute delay due to a strike in France (the french striking? what a surprise
). The flight was not even for a third full, by the looks of it mainly business people. The purser went up to about 3 persons, apparently very frequent flyers, apologizing to them in person for the delay, and offerd them a glass of champagne to make up. A very nice gesture indeed, though it got some strange looks from the people around, who probably were asking themselves why didn't get such a treatment. Anyway, after indeed a short delay, we took off smoothly. Around 20 minutes later, the crew started distributing the Brussels Bistro.
The cheese sandwich was quite hard, but I did like the small salad a lot 
Shortly after, we experienced some (rather minor) turbulence, our F/A rushed to re-assure the passengers that this was totally normal and that there was nothing to be worried about
Apparently there were some first-flyers aboard Just before landing, we got our selection of Neuhaus chocolates. And with only a short delay we landed safely at GVA... Where the stupid dotted windows made making good pictures nearly impossible
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Finding GVA a rather boring city, and because my friend, who was there for business, was at meetings all the time, I went to spot at GVA the second day of our visit. I was pleasantly surprised to discover an open air terrace looking out over the runway... Lots of various A320's, and a whole lot of Easyjets. Also at the airport: a Kuwait Airways A340! Rather unexpected.
pushback of OO-DJX
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GVA - BRU -- 07/10/05 SN2720
Airbus A319 -- OO-SSK
We arrived at Geneva International Airport around 17.30. I noticed that SN Brussels Airlines was the only airline who actually made an effort in having a decorated info-desk, all the other desks just had a white wall with a small label with the airline name, while SN had replaced the white wall with a blue sky picture, putting the airlines name in big on it, and decorating the cubicle with various A/C models and a route map
Our departure time was 20.10, so we had some time to go back to the terrace to see some more planes
No self check in this time, so we went to the desk at around 18.30. Shortly after, we proceeded to the customs area. A quick check, and we were in tax-free country
We arrived at about the same time at gate A3 as our A/C, again an A319, OO-SSK. There were already a lot of people waiting, and as soon as they saw the plane, they started cueing up... Some people still don't get that there are assigned seats, so it makes no sense in having to rush to be the first on board... anyway, we waited till the cue was gone and proceeded at ease to the plane. Upon boarding the plane, we had to wait a bit (too many people still standing up to put their hand luggage away). I remarked a small tray still carrying the Sabena logo and couldn't resist taking a quick picture of it.
The stewardess looked a bit weird when I got out my cam, so I explained I was pleasantly surprised to still see Sabena labels. She said laughingly that recycling is a good thing Our purser introduced herself as Annick Peeters, with Cpt Grenier being the pilot.
Though departure was foreseen at 20.10, push back only was at 20.18. We took off at 20.30 sharpish. The pilot apologized for the delay, and promised he would try to make up for it by flying a tad faster. The flight went very smooth, no turbulence, Brussels Bistro consisting of two "boterhammen", one with egg and ham, the other tuna salad.
We arrived at a foggy BRU at 21.25, and got gate B1, so after exiting the plane, we were at the customs immediatly... everything seemt to go very smooth... but...
The biggest disappointment still had to come... general strike in Belgium! So that meant no train, leaving a lot of stranded and frustrated passengers. Really irresponsable from the ABVV to held hostage everybody, while they probably didn't even know what they were striking for... Anyway, in stead of going to Gent, I caught the last SN bus to Antwerp, praising myself lucky I could sleep over there, and feeling sorry for all those stranded pax...
