The choice of airlines from Manchester into Brussels is not good. You have either BA (Bloody Awful) or SABENA (Such A Bad Experience Never Again). When you consider the importance of Manchester as the second most important city and airport and Brussels you would expect this to be a competitive ... Read review
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Advantages: I fly to Brussels, they fly to Brussels Disadvantages: Awful food, often late, sometimes cancel flights
...either BA (Bloody Awful) or SABENA (Such A Bad Experience Never Again). When you consider the importance of Manchester as the second most important city and airport and Brussels you would expect this to be a competitive route with airlines competing over the route. No such luck, you have old take it or leave it BA or could not care less SABENA.
As a first consequence of the lack of competition t costs more to fly from Manchester to ... ...at customer service at all. SABENA seem to train their cabin crew at the Sod You School Of Customer Care. The food is inedible and is served in a way which suggests they know it is.
There never seems to be any English newspapers available which even Lufthansa usually manage. The SABENA lounge at Brussels Airport always seems to have 3 times as many people in it as it was designed to have and the shared one at Manchester is little better. ... more
The choice of airlines from Manchester into Brussels is not good. You have either BA (Bloody Awful) or SABENA (Such A Bad Experience Never Again). When you consider the importance of Manchester as the second most important city and airport and Brussels you would expect this to be a competitive route with airlines competing over the route. No such luck, you have old take it or leave it BA or could not care less SABENA.
As a first consequence of the lack of competition t costs more to fly from Manchester to Brussels than it does from London to Boston or Chicago. Fares to parts of Australia are not much more expensive. There is little difference between Club and Economy costs either, both are extortion disguised as a fare. The second consequence is that both the airlines just make no effort at customer service at all. SABENA seem to train their cabin crew at the Sod You School Of Customer Care. The food is inedible and is served in a way which suggests they know it is.
There never seems to be any English newspapers available which even Lufthansa usually manage. The SABENA lounge at Brussels Airport always seems to have 3 times as many people in it as it was designed to have and the shared one at Manchester is little better. The food and drink available in the SABENA lounges is as bad as that on the flights. If ever you are delayed at Brussels just hope you have the change available for a Mars Bar from a dispenser somewhere. The food halls are just as bad.
It is not even as if punctuality is so good you can forgive them everything else. A delay of half an hour in boarding is the norm and further delays are commonplace. Brussels does not allow flights after 2200hrs so you have to be aware that a long delay can leave you overnight. The many of us who have used the service regularly also know that the cancellation of one of the evening flights is not uncommon.
Frankly if a proper choice were available you would not fly with SABENA but there is not a true choice. To switch to BA hardly improves things in terms of cost or quality of service. It is time the European transport directorate enforced competition in European air travel. The airlines will not do it voluntarily.
Advantages: Price.Modern planes. Disadvantages: Im sick of belgium chocolates
...travelers whom book travel with Sabena airlines, but whom actually travel with Virgin Express on a codeshare basis.(Codesharing is when two or more airlines actually sell seats on a flight).
If you travel from Heathrow to Brussels, and book via a travel agent or direct with Sabena the fares can be very high, for example a day return on the above routing-cheapest sabena fare is £245 plus airport taxes and passenger charges.Try booking on Virgins ... ...side of the airport.
Sabena airlines can be a very cheap way of travelling from A to B.Like all airlines they dont get it right all the time.You can pay upto three times as much and travel with British Airways, but from past travel, they still lose your baggage and you get rude and unhelpful staff in for the extra price....thats one thing Ive never found with Sabena ...
bazza1603 07.12.2000 (12.12.2000)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Sabena - SAB
I fly SABENA every week, and some time more than twice a week, not because I wanted to, but is company policy to use the more convinient flight for the business on hand, and often enouf the timing of their flight it is optimal for the requirements. I would not reccomand anybody else to fly with them, but the only consolation is that there are other airline companies wost then Sabina.
In four weeks I lost three time my badgage, as consequence I spent ...
Nino_Castellano 08.08.2000
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Review of Sabena - SAB
Advantages: I can not think of any Disadvantages: Too many to list
...I booked the flight with Sabena and my Ticket was a Sabena Ticket, the flight was actually operated by Virgin Express, a code share partner with Sabena.
Whilst I accept that weather is outside the control of airlines, I do not accept that this seems to be frequently used as a "cheap" excuse by the airlines.
To elaborate:-
I was unfortunate enough to have booked a flight on Sabena from Brussels (BRU) to London Heathrow (LHR), using the following ... ...to leave at 19:30. And Sabena wondered that they had missing passengers?
I think that the final straw for all of us was that, when we arrived finally at BRU, we had to wait another 10 minutes on the plane, while they tried to find a bus to ferry us to the terminal. Once this bus had arrived and we had been crowded onto this bus like cattle, the bus started to take us to the terminal building. Now call me naïve, but I would have thought that a bus ...
AlfWilbert 29.11.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Sabena - SAB
Advantages: You'll get there in one piece Disadvantages: Don't ask them anything taxing like reuniting you with your luggage.
Sabena reeks of all imcompetence Belgian. Having managed to lose my friend's baggage it took three months to claim money back from them for the taxi they sent them in, as they'd accidentally missed the last courier service. They were ratty, disinterested, although I did derive great satisfaction from reducing three of them to tears at Zaventem Airport, argueing their stupidity into the ground first in English and then in French. Another time they ... ...that I would have to wait three days for the luggage, whereupon I promptly asked them to stake their week's pay on this. Waving a diplomatic pass (fake) they suddenly started cooing around and bags materialised in twenty minutes, and I then had the satisfaction of lambasting them all individually about their shoddy security.
The service was septic, and is best avoided. In fact as a tip, if going to Brussels from London take Eurostar, as your baggage ...
Morgenhund 26.07.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Sabena - SAB
Advantages: low cost Disadvantages: uncomfortable seats, bad food, bad (or no) movies, not enough blankets
...took two transatlantic flights with SABENA (Brussels- Boston and back) and allright, maybe it wasn’t QUITE as bad as the title suggests, but only because the flights were quite inexpensive. If I’d spent any more money on this I’d really have been frustrated.
One problem were the seats which were so uncomfortable I spent most of the flight walking up and down the aisles, but the really horrible thing was the food. I made the mistake to take tortellini ... ...of large, rubber-like things with a bit of dry red powder. It gave me an aversion against noodles for weeks to come. The movie wasn’t worth much, either (yup, there was only one movie on the 8-hour flight to Boston and none on the flight back), at least in economy class. Something about a girl and her horse which wasn’t interesting for anyone over 14.
On the second flight which went overnight, they didn’t even turn the lights down, so you only had ...
Boodil 26.06.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Sabena - SAB
