This trip was booked 3 months in advance. Originally, I only bought an economy light fare for 160 euros but later added additional baggage for 65 euros more for all 4 flights. Travelling this way to Brussels was significantly cheaper than flying directly with Air Serbia a day later.
BEG- MUC- BRU 29/8/2024
I arrived at the airport three hours before departure, hoping to do some plane spotting from the terminal and enjoy overpriced pastries at the newly reopened Hleb i Kifle. Thanks to my early arrival, the check-in area was empty, and I waited less than a minute. Security and passport control were also swift, so I quickly found myself browsing the new duty-free store. As many of you know, BEG doesn’t announce gate details until 60 minutes before departure, leaving me plenty of time to explore the airport.
Around the time my aircraft was scheduled to depart from Munich, I checked Flightradar24 and realized my flight would be delayed. The aircraft left Munich over an hour late, but that wasn’t my biggest concern. On the day of my trip, French President Emmanuel Macron was scheduled to arrive, so I worried that air traffic would be restricted around that time.
Boarding began at 17:45, and the whole plane was boarded by 18:00. At around 18:05, the captain announced that we would face at least a 45-minute delay. During the wait, I spotted the French government’s plane, and the crew distributed water to all passengers.
At 19:00, we finally started our pushback and taxied to the runway, taking off at 19:08. The flight itself was uneventful. The crew passed through the cabin, offering Lufthansa’s famous chocolates and offered "Onbord Delights". I wanted to buy a pretzel, but it wasn’t available. However, Wi-Fi was accessible.
We landed in Munich with a delay of about one hour and 40 minutes. I rushed through passport control and headed straight to my gate for Brussels, as my layover was only about two hours. When I arrived, boarding had just started. I boarded the plane, and we took off with a slight delay, arriving exactly at 22:10.
Onboard, I bought a salmon wrap and an apple juice for only 6.30 euros, as there was a discount since it was the last flight of the day. Normally, this would have cost around 10 euros. Finally, I waited less than 10 minutes for my baggage to arrive.
BEG-MUC LH1737 A320 D-AIZP 11 years old, full flight
MUC-BRU SN-2648 A319 OO-SSQ 15 years old, around 80% full
BRU-MUC-BEG 26/9/2024
I arrived at Brussels Airport about two hours before my flight. Since I already had a boarding pass, I only needed to drop off my baggage at the self-service desk. As usual, the Zaventem security check was quick, giving me some free time. After stocking up on perfumes and beer (you can’t leave Belgium without chocolate and beer!), I headed to Starbucks for a coffee.
Boarding started right on time, and we took off about 15 minutes behind schedule, landing 10 minutes early. However, we taxied to the furthest stand at Munich Airport , where two buses waited to take us to Terminal 2. Brussels Airlines doesn’t offer any complimentary service for economy passengers, so there’s nothing noteworthy in that regard.
I headed straight to passport control, which took around 10 minutes. Munich Airport is ideal for connections, as Schengen flights only require passport control without additional security checks. With a great selection of stores and restaurants, layovers don’t feel endless here.
My flight to Belgrade was also on time. Though there was a gate change, it was announced an hour before boarding, so it wasn’t an issue. Lufthansa provided their usual complimentary water and chocolates on this European flight. The crew also offered items from their menu, and I bought a coffee for 3.5 euros. Wi-Fi was available on board.
Upon landing at BEG, it took less than 20 minutes to exit the airport. I cleared passport control in about five minutes, received my baggage in two, and spent the rest of the time walking from Gate A9.
BRU-MUC SN2641 A319 OO-SSJ 22 years old, around 80 % full
MUC-BEG LH1734 A321 D-AIRX 26 years old, around 90 % full
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Lufthansa seems to have a very good year in BEG
ReplyDeleteYes, their A321s were regular this summer. So it's not a surprise that JU is sending E190 to FRA. Nice report
DeleteJU needs to fight harder for the German market.
DeleteAnd launch MUC!
Fight harder? They have 9 destinations in Germany!
DeleteI tried wise Chat GPT :)
DeleteMunich (MUC) is a major hub for Lufthansa, making it a challenging market for new entries, especially with such intense competition. Establishing flights there without a robust frequency could be futile, as two flights a day is typically the minimum to attract a consistent customer base. Competing against Lufthansa's established network and loyalty programs could make it hard to capture high-yield passengers, leading to low profitability. In cases like this, where a stronghold already exists, it may indeed be more strategic to focus resources on routes with less competition or to develop an alternative niche that could bypass these challenges.
I believe Chat GPT refers to those other 9 destinations in Germany :)
What is true for Munich is even more true than FRA.
DeleteAnd despite LH strength in MUC well over 70 other non LH group airlines serve it.
Most of them without having at least double daily flights.
JU needs better sales and marketing overall. NUE is the worst performing route in the network. They need the E75 for such routes.
Delete@13:09
Delete+1
Nice report!
ReplyDeleteI agree, I find BEG airport really expensive when it comes to Coffee, or food. It is cheaper to purchase things during the flight
Thank you for the lovely trip report. I am grateful for the different details included.
ReplyDeleteBy any cnance, does anyone know why Vinci keeps Flight Information Displays in that peculiar brown with 3D font. In Lisbon they are black and 2D and it is much more elegant. Similar to most other Vinci operated airports. Not an important issue as long as there is cyrillic letters present... just wondering.
Nice report.
ReplyDelete"Munich Airport is ideal for connections, as Schengen flights only require passport control without additional security checks."
This has nothing to do with Munich airport, but with departing airport. Brussels was your starting point and it belongs to so called "safe airports" (same as BEG) so no additional security check for transfer flights.
If you were flying for example SKP-MUC-BRU there would be additional security check in MUC as SKP does not belong to the group of "safe airports".
Comparing prices and time spent on the connection, was it worth of a hassle?
ReplyDeletePersonally, if the direct flights is 25-30% more expensive, I go for the direct flight. Here I am talking about intra-european flight duration up to 3h. Longer than that I haven't flew anyway in Europe.
Asking this as it looks too long for me to spend 7 hours instead of 2 flying from Belgrade to Bruxelles (3h before the flight + 1h first flight + 2h connection time in Munich + 1h 2nd flight =7h).
DeleteWell it's not 7 vs. 2, it's 7 vs. 5, as you have to include the time before the flight in both cases. I'd gladly travel 2h longer to save 50-100€, especially since JU is often delayed and the time difference may even be smaller.
DeleteDespite the hassle with connections at airports, I would still travel this way because the price of these flights can be up to 50% lower, and I can travel on any day, not just Monday and Friday.
DeleteKod BRU je upravo ovo poslednje što Aleksandar navodi i najveći problem.
DeleteJU tamo leti dva leta nedeljno, tako da osim ako nekome ne igraju baš ta 2 dana za odlazak i povratak, svi su prinuđeni da lete preko nekog LH huba.
Good thing is that JU actually increased BRU to 3 weekly. What I don't understand is that they don't advertize it now in Belgrade. They have ads for Bologna, Guangzhou, New York and Valencia.
DeleteVLC is especially idiotic since their planes are full and their flights are over €500 this winter. Why not promote bad routes like NUE, BRU, LYS, ZAG, HAJ, HAM, ESB... that is routes which do not perform as well? Makes no sense.
Right, BRU is 3pw for a while now. Anyway, recently I fly via Warsaw, and for me lost time and hassle is wort of any money. My precious time, money I've earned... Problem with BRU is low frequency, but I prefer to fit my schedule to the AirSerbia ones. I don't even fly via Eindhoven which is difficult to reach from Bruxelles unless you go by car.
DeleteIf the purpose of trip report is to show both positive and negative experiences, so should be the comments of the trip report. While this trip report deserves praise for abundance of photos and information, it also deserves, in my opinion, criticism for being one-sided. We have learned about "pros" of the trip such as LH chocolates being famous and Munich airport being ideal for connections but there was no "cons" side to the story. Even the one hour delay on inbound flight was not a concern, for example.
ReplyDeleteFor those specific reasons this trip report felt more like a page taken from a polished world of advertising than reality of air travel. Not everyone will agree with my assessment but I would be disappointed to see dissenting trip report opinion being unwelcome.