Welcome b.business europe!

[SabenaForever]

Brussels Airlines is introducing business on european routes.. The other Classes b.flex and b.light will be te same... So a hole new class.. Not bad, i think

http://www.luchtvaartnieuws.nl/news/?ID=29797
(only dutch)

Full press release on Luchtzak viewtopic.php?p=215132#p215132 (English)

greetz

[sdbelgium]

Small translation:

b.business pax will be able to enjoy VIP parking space at the airport, access to all Brussels Airlines lounges and selected other lounges abroad, preboarding, a full hot meal with champagne and Belgian chocolates, free newspapers, alcoholic drinks and a bigger baggage allowance.

Question: is the upgradable with miles? From b.light or b.flex to b.business?

[tolipanebas]

Very good decision in my view...
Now, if only the website would already be modified to make booking in C class easier...

My feeling is that in few months time, SN might also announce they will 'further improve' and 'simplify' the onboard service to all of their economy pax by upgrading all of them to b.flex and simultaneously rebrand b.flex into b.economy while doing so.

Although the airline will not say it with so many words, the days the Virgin Express yuppies ran SN as a leisure airline are gone for good; SN is all about corporate travel once more and is thus in the process of making a fairly wide U-turn back to where they've come from. People with a bad eye would even dare to say the merger with VEX was just a waste of time and money...

Oh, I still remember a pretty communicative member on this forum who went out of his way to call me a liar and to swear it was completely untrue that the sacking of the then VP commercial (who had come up with the b.flex/b/light concept) was a clear hint to all of this...

Call me old school, but it seems LH is pretty old school too then... and making shiploads of money while being so! If you want a good laugh, go and read the upbeaten press releases about a 'new generation of airline' from 2006/2007.

Go figure: less than 2 years after the integration with VEX, SN will have a regular business and economy class once again, is about to join an alliance, quietly discontinuing the much hailed no-frills concept but for their promotional tickets and is about to partly phase out the 737 fleet as it is totally unsuited for their kind of premium operations. Yep, sounds like a pretty strong backtrack to the days of 'SN Brussels Airlines' to me.

[Air Key West]

Does anyone know when Business class will be introduced ? As from March 30 ? The summer season ? And will it be on the LH model ? Not only the middle seat will remain unoccupied, but the seat next to you will remain empty ? That's for the Avrojets with the 2 - 3 seat configuration.
And off topic : I overheard a conversation between a flight attendant and a pax ; the f/a said b.air was going to introduce five new destinations in Africa "from next season". I assume she meant from next winter season. Has anyone got any info about this, too ?

[airbuske]

I saw today a presentation from B.Business
B.Business will be introduced as from 29th of March.
Upgrade will be possible for 5000 miless If I'm not wrong.

[Shuttie]

Short article in English...

http://www.deredactie.be/cm/de.redactie ... 3_business

"Last year Brussels Airlines was taken over by Lufthansa of Germany and thus forms part of the Star Alliance..."

[euroflyer]

Probably the right move ... and absolutely necessary to be a real *alliance member and to be able to succesfully code share with LH, SAS, etcetera

However, given the current economic climate and the drastic savings introduced on corporate travel budgets right now I doubt there will be too many b.business pax in the short term. Most of them will be connecting pax flying to / from other *alliance hubs like FRA, MUC, ZRH in order to connect to long-haul business flights. It will be hard to convince corporate travel managers they should pay more for short-haul flights now just to have their staff be seated in b.business. Especially as they got somewhat used to b.flex.

And I would certainly prefer for b.flex / b.light to be continued. b.flex really is a nice economy class, much better then most normal eco services which you can get on short-haul flights.

[Stij]

People with a bad eye would even dare to say the merger with VEX was just a waste of time and money...

Oh well, maybe the price was to high, that could be, but a competitor less is a competitor less.
I know, competitors are like dragons, you kill a competitor of and 9 new ones appear... but in the mean time, they didn't and don't have a Brussels-based competitor.

Cheers,

Stij

[Coppelia]

Sabena pilot, I really doubt that SN management accepted the b-flex/b-light concept from an ex-VEX employee because they were forced to and because they had a Damocles-sword above their heads.

I am quite amazed to read that something has been accepted from ex-VEX, as nothing has been kept from the red company. Even most of the ex-VEX office employees have left BruAir.

Concerning the B737, it is true that I am wondering as well how we will manage a 3-type service on board, as it is already a mess with 2 classes and high b-flex pax figures.

But just wait and see, with the current crisis I guess B-business pax won't be numerous (I hope so because otherwise it's gonna be a real cabin attendant circus-show on board) .

Also, it is about time some nostalgics stop bashing VEX, the "merger" has taken place for 2 years now, most of the people from one side as well as from the other didn't want that merger to occur, we are soooo different, but well, we had no choice so let's try to get on well together

[euroflyer]

Concerning the B737, it is true that I am wondering as well how we will manage a 3-type service on board, as it is already a mess with 2 classes and high b-flex pax figures.

Have a look at what the colleagues do at SAS, it seems to work quite ok (from a pax point of view at least)

[Ducatibiker]

Good news ! I hope that we will have the same quality of product and level of services as to be found on LH.

I flew back from DXB yesterday and the menu in F includes Caviar, Lobster, Beef Medaillon, Hamour Filet, Bolivia Chocolate Mousse. And yes, there was Vodka with the Caviar and Cuvée Rare - Piper Heidsieck on the wine list. And yes, you get a 6 pages, large format wine list...

Well done Lufthansa and please, may C class on SN be a real business class with attention to details ! Transfers in FRA and MUC are in limo and their lounges have chefs preparing the food you want from a menu....all this before you C class flight to BRU on LH...so I will expect the same on SN in the future.

So you can imagine the deception when you enter the SN lounges...where there is no food and some SN manager deleted the red candies which could be found at the welcoming desk...

[Coppelia]

Euroflyer, how many cabin attendant are there on board SAS a/c ? Strict minimum or additional ones for commercial reasons ? I have heard that there would be no additional CA at SN with the introduction of the b.business, I hope these are just rumors, mostly on Avro.

[Ducatibiker]

Absence of service will not be acceptable in C class - no matter which aircraft.

[BrightCedars]

People with a bad eye would even dare to say the merger with VEX was just a waste of time and money...

Oh well, maybe the price was to high, that could be, but a competitor less is a competitor less.
I know, competitors are like dragons, you kill a competitor of and 9 new ones appear... but in the mean time, they didn't and don't have a Brussels-based competitor.

Cheers,

Stij

In a way they have removed one of the most dangerous competitors as the 2nd biggest threat has a clearly differentiated product and operates from an airport 50km south of the capital, but due to its strength and presence prevents other no-frills from operating at BRU, save for the as strong easyJet which now seems to be the only competitor at the lower end of the food chain, but may as well provide SN with an easy excuse to not dump it's own fares for sake of better all-round service.

[SmilingBoy]

How can I book b.business? When I check for flights in summer, it still only shows b.flex and b.light.

In an e-mail I got for Brussels Airlines, it states that there would be more details on the website. But the link simply redirects to the homepage.

My guess is that once the merger with LH is complete, b.light will be dropped and b.flex renamed b.economy, with a reduced food offering. Why? After the LH/LX merger, they also immediatedly removed buy on board.

[HighInTheSky]

b.Business is now bookable on the website of Brussels Airlines. I didn't check all the destinations, but prices seem to be between 415€ and 499€ one way in b.Business to European destinations.
Seems to me a pretty fair price for a business class.

[SmilingBoy]

Doesn't work for me! I tried FRA, LGW, MAD, only shows b.light early savers, b.light budget friendly, b.flex and b.flex unlimited flexibility.

[SmilingBoy]

Now I see a bit of it. This is how it looks for me:
(click on thumbnail for full picture)

You can see a small piece of b.business on the right, but it is mostly hidden. This is on the latest Firefox for Windows, by the way.

[tolipanebas]

Seems to be working perfectly fine here on Internet Explorer, but they forgot to use to correct colour for the b.business labels, which should be gray (just as light is always red and flex is always blue).

[sn26567]

The devil is in the details. I still have a few unanswered questions:

1) Seat arrangement in the Avros: will it be 1-2 or 2-2?
2) Cabin crew: the service provided for b.business should normally require one additional flight attendant (3 instead of 2 in the Avro, 4 instead of 3 in the A319 and 5 instead of 4 in the 737). Will it really be the case?
3) A three-class service is likely to be complicated, thus costly. SAS has such a system and is deeply in the red. Are there plans to evolve into a more normal C/Y configuation (I mean a genuine Y class with snacks or meals and drinks)?