No mention of this airline when I searched the forum, and all the travel review sites have horror stories about them (just like every other airline, I hasten to add...people like to rant when something goes wrong but are less likely to write of their great experiences).

Looking to take the whole family across the Atlantic on Brussels Airlines out of Geneva. It is significantly cheaper than any other option, but would definitely not be worth saving the bucks if it will be 11 hours of sheer torture.

Anyone travelled with them before?

Only geneva /brussels never transatlantic. For flights to brussels they were fine

They're the phoenix that arose from the wreckage of the bankrupt SABENA.


I'm not sure they actually fly to the USA, so it's quite probably a codeshare with one of the other Star Alliance members, might even be with Swiss

Yeah, I read that about Sabena. They're owned by Lufthansa now apparently. Looking to fly to Toronto with them. So unfortunately, no codeshare airline.

As an alternative, Air Canada are direct Geneva /Toronto

I've tried every combination/airline to get us there (I'm actually trying to fly to Buffalo for a wedding in the summer) but can't get anything near the price of Brussels Airlines. They're 2.5k cheaper than any other airline I can find.

You might want to be a bit careful with that flight to Toronto -its a code share as they use 4digit flight codes and I just looked up one from Brussels to Toronto and its actually with Jet Airways, an Indian company

Thanks for that. Never heard of Jet Airways. Off to do some more research.

Having lived in Brussels for 13 years we have had loads of chances to test their services including the aftemath of the bankruptcy debacle which the Belgians blamed Swiss for.
We have always been pretty happy with them.
Transatlantic depends a great deal on the airline they codeshare with but we haven't generally had any problems with them. The biggest issue we've found is if there's been a connecting flight within the US. If the flight is overbooked for any reason (common in US) you will be at the bottom of the pile when it comes to getting a seat as all the US booked passengers have priority (even if you are booked in business class).
We have no experience of Jet airways codeshare. When we went to Toronto I think it was with American airlines.

No sure about the that as I think you are saying Geneva to Toronto without any stops.

As far as I know, Air Canada only goes via Frankfurt or Zurich.

If fact, there are no companies doing Geneva to Toronto with out any stops.

If you would like some specific suggestions from people, why don't you give the dates and the current prices you have found. It doesn't really help to just say 2.5k cheaper (one person? six people? when etc.)

If it is in the summer, there may be some charter flights from Buffalo into Europe. You might be able to work that angle with an Easyjet flight to the European airport.

There are also some Canadian charter companies that are quite good that fly from Toronto into Europe.

Actually, the Air Canada flights I saw all stopped in Montreal first, where you had to deplane, get your luggage, go thru immigration, then get back on the plane. Not much fun even without a bunch of kids in tow.

Don't go via YUL. You are much better to do your changeover in Europe. Try the connection via FRA then direct to YYZ.

if it's 2.5k cheaper to fly with them, just take it. think about it -- how worse can brussels airlines be than any other airline when it comes to factors that they can directly control? just make sure the jet is relatively modern so you have some sort of in-flight entertainment. weather delays, crying babies, etc you'll encounter regardless of who you fly with.

do you really need the stewardesses to be extremely polite and helpful? it's nice, sure, but maybe not worth the extra money for you.

Thanks Verbier. As lovely as it would be to have EF as my personal travel agency, I think I'll take the info you are all kindly offering and try and figure it out. I'll look into the charter flight options. Sounds promising.

Dude, when you're travelling long haul with toddlers and little kids (yeah, it's gonna be me with the crying babies ), stuff like how good the airline is and how helpful the cabin crew are, really matters.

There is a threshhold of extra cash I'm willing to part with to have that better experience though, and 2.5k is a wee bit above it. ( I can put that kind of cash towards my therapy bills).

When in doubt, SKYTRAX is your friend


Having read some of those reviews, however

I have flown before on Jet Airways on the Brussels to NYC route. They have daily flights from Brussels to both JFK and EWR airports.
Overall it was a pleasant experience, new planes, excellent in-seat AVOD (in flight entertainment), and great service.


On airliners.net there are some trip reports with pictures:

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-fo...earch_active=1

Have you also considered taking a nice punctual Swiss train to Zurich airport, and then a direct flight (flight code AC787) to Toronto with Air Canada?

NB it's also a codeshare with Swiss, so booking via AirC rather than with Swiss is cheaper by a couple of hundred franks per ticket, for exactly the same journey on the same a/craft!

Good suggestion. Yep looked at that, super expensive though....what is it with Air Canada? I am also looking at the Delta Zurich-Buffalo option with stop in JFK. Timing is good so we may go with that option.