File this under “something I’ll probably never use, but had no clue about and find kinda interesting.”
In this post:
Brussels Airlines’ chauffeur service
I’m not sure if this is currently being offered or not (due to the pandemic), but it appears that Brussels Airlines offers a chauffeur service when arriving at and departing from Brussels Airport. Am I the only one who had no clue about this?
The eligibility requirements are interesting. Rather than being tied to booking full fare business class, it’s based on how much your ticket costs. You’re eligible if:
- You’re a single passenger with a minimum fare of €2,500 excluding taxes
- You’re two or more passengers traveling to or from the same European address, with combined fares of €2,500 excluding taxes
- Flights must be marketed and operated by Brussels Airlines, and you must have booked your ticket through the airline
- You must be traveling long haul, to & from Africa or the United States
Brussels Airlines’ new A330 business class
With this service, you can both be picked up at Brussels Airport upon your arrival there, and can also be driven to Brussels Airport upon your departure.
According to Brussels Airlines, the chauffeur service can take you to any of the following places:
- Aalsmeer, Amsterdam, Breda, The Hague, Dordrecht, Eindhoven, Haarlem, Hilversum, Maastricht, Rotterdam, Tilburg, Terneuzen, Utrecht, Zaanstad, Zoetermeer, and all other Dutch cities between Brussels and these cities.
- Lille, Arras, Cambrai, Abbeville, Amiens, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Douai, Dunkerque, Maubeuge, Calais, Saint-Quentin, and all other French cities between Brussels and these cities
- Luxembourg and all other Luxembourgish cities
- Bonn, Cologne, Leverkusen, Solingen, Krefeld, Düsseldorf, Mönchengladbach, Duisburg, Essen, Wuppertal, Dortmund, Bochum, and all other German cities between Brussels and these cities
In some cases those are some shockingly long distances. For example, Brussels to Dortmund is about 270km, and that drive takes about three hours.
To book this service you have to contact Brussels Airlines’ service center.
It’s not entirely clear what kind of a car you’ll be driven in, but it is called a chauffeur service, so I’d assume they’re not putting you on a bus or train. If that’s the case, this is quite a generous offer. For example, looking at Blacklane, the cheapest chauffeur service from Brussels to Dortmund would be over €500 one-way.
This is kind of surprising…
Back in the day we saw quite a few airlines offer a chauffeur service. However, over times this is a perk that many airlines have eliminated, and those that still offer it have largely added a lot of restrictions.
This service being offered surprises me on quite a few levels:
- In Europe train travel is largely pretty efficient and civilized, so there’s less need for a car service to & from Brussels than in many parts of the United States, the United Arab Emirates, etc.
- Brussels Airlines has historically been considered the least premium of the Lufthansa Group long haul airlines (with the others being Austrian, Lufthansa, and SWISS), so it’s interesting that it’s also the only airline to offer this service in Europe
- Most airlines tie chauffeur service eligibility to booking a specific fare type, while Brussels Airlines bases it on how much you spend on your ticket, which is an interesting metric, especially since you can combine fares of multiple passengers
Brussels Airlines A330
Bottom line
Brussels Airlines offers a chauffeur service for those who are flying long haul and spend at least €2,500 combined on tickets. The chauffeur service is valid for drives of up to a few hours in some cases, which sure is generous.
At this point Brussels Airlines is one of the only airlines in Europe still offering this service, which you wouldn’t expect, given that it’s not a particularly premium airline.
Has anyone ever used Brussels Airlines’ chauffeur service?
The taxi services you mentioning is the most expensive a rip-off taxi! they pay their drivers 25% of the amount which is paid by the customer, they take a huge commission. Do not recommend booking this taxi, better to choose local ones at a normal price! A normal price from Brussels airport to Brussels city centre is around 40 euros for a business car, where is blackline charges 70 euros
I worked at SN for 10+ years and I think it more or less always existed, as least for as far as I can remember. It's not widely communicated but will mostly be used for some corporate contracts, mostly to Africa as a way to differentiate from AF/KL who might have better connections. Not sure how successful it is, though.
So, buying the tickets using points won't be valid for this promotion then?
My family and I used this service a few years back. We were living just south of Bonn, it made the flights from Brussels cheaper than flying from Frankfurt and having to park the car there. If I remember correctly the car wasn't especially fancy though (we were a party of four, for what that info is worth).
I called the HON Circle hotline in Switzerland and initially the agent had no idea, but double checked and said you can indeed request the limousine service if you booked your flights exclusively through SN
What do they count as ‘taxes’ though?
They’re isn’t a definition on the webpage and a fare breakdown on a dummy booking lists some pretty heavy carrier surcharges but not so much any actual real government taxes.
A BRU-JFK return lists €32 for US transportation taxes but €412 surcharges (plus some odds and sods other fees APHIS etc) for a total of just under €500.
And the Brussels air website says to and from the airport, so I’d guess the 2,500 euro requirement is for a return ticket, not each way.
I booked biz business class on China eastern for my family from syd to ord on the American website. Unfortunately this meant I wasn’t eligible for the chauffeur service?!? Bizarre airline.
Dortmund is a stretch from BRX but to have free door to door service to many of these cities is a great perk,
Tom maybe you should watch some other newsletter if you're bored. Brussels has better food and service than any American carrier where every one wants beef or chicken in all classes. Maybe you should try it when they have their new seating Ben. Note that LH and SR have inferior biz seating.
@echino & EC2, the wording on the link Ben gave says "two or more passengers travelling to or from the same European address, whose combined fares meet the minimum fare level of €2,500 excluding taxes."
Has no mention of having to be business class so 5 passengers booked together for 500 each may qualify!
Your content is a little limited and redundant these days. I think if you talked about your daily life in Germany/Florida, you content would be a lot more interesting.
@echino....no. Has to be in business class.
So a family of 5 passengers booked together in economy class for €500 each, will be eligible?
I recall being caught off guard when I learned that China Eastern offers business class chauffeur service. Not sure if they still do. If I recall correctly, they didn’t advertise it while booking and their website wasn’t the most clear, but I managed to figure it out. Saved $150 to get to JFK.
Interesting that the requirement is "booking thru the Brussels Airlines" website an don't the Lufthansa Group site.
In unrelated news...I see they have updated the seating in business from 1-2-2, 2-2-1 to 1-2-1!
This is great. The seating arrangements look a lot like Swiss 777 seats in the middle with that weird center block thing I hate when traveling with a partner. Does anyone know if the seat itself is the same as the...
Interesting that the requirement is "booking thru the Brussels Airlines" website an don't the Lufthansa Group site.
In unrelated news...I see they have updated the seating in business from 1-2-2, 2-2-1 to 1-2-1!
This is great. The seating arrangements look a lot like Swiss 777 seats in the middle with that weird center block thing I hate when traveling with a partner. Does anyone know if the seat itself is the same as the hard SWISS seats ? or more like the new LH seats ? I love the SN USA-BRU routes.
I remember Iberia advertising something similar, based on fare restrictions.
https://www.iberia.com/us/limousines-service/
Working at SN myself and never heard of this. Any source where you got this information? Thanks!
@ Groene -- Hah, directly from Brussels Airlines' website:
https://www.brusselsairlines.com/en-be/practical-information/travel-info/after-the-flight/airport-transport-service/
Oh you know you're going to find a way to use this! ;)