Tag Archives: brussels airlines

Credit Cards for Belgian Travellers: In-Depth Review

Posted on February 4, 2013 | 11 Comments

This is a guest post by travel enthusiast Stefan Van der Straeten (@stefanvds) He wrote an in-depth review on credit cards available to Belgian travellers.  Full disclosure: This is an independent review, Stefan has no financial benefit from recommending any of the listed card issuers or banks.

Pic: Caution – Hidden Fees Ahead
When you travel abroad, you need a credit card. A Belgian Maestro debit card won’t be very useful in most non-EU countries.  So what do people look for when picking a credit card? I reckon the most important thing they’ll look for is the annual fee and the credit limit. Some might not even compare prices and just take the card from the bank with their debit account. After all, a credit card is a credit card, right? You’d think the difference between them is little to non-existent, but you’d be wrong. The difference between two Visa cards can be huge. Pick the wrong one as frequent traveller and you might end up paying €300-€400 more in hidden costs and fees.

The problem?

Using a credit card in shops is always free*. So in that respect all cards are indeed the same. So what’s the problem? Money withdrawals from ATMs and payments in foreign currencies often have (hidden) fees.
*Unless you use a prepaid card like Mobile Vikings where you pay 3% just to top it up

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Weekend in Hamburg (Germany)

Posted on July 11, 2012 | 4 Comments


Pic: Giant spider at Hamburger Kunsthalle und Galerie Der Gegenwart

Pic: Bratwurst at Rathausmarkt Hamburg (Jun 2012)
Hamburg, my 7th Brussels Airlines Flyday destination this year. You might wonder why I take so many trips using this €99 promo. It’s simply the cheapest way to earn status miles with Miles and More. Each Flyday trip earns me 3126 status miles (including 25% executive bonus). This is by far the best offer available for Miles and More members to earn the maximum number of status miles per € spent. Earning these status miles is important to achieve (or maintain) elite status. Miles and More has three elite statuses: Frequent Traveller (35K status miles) Senator (100K status miles) and HON Circle Member (600K status miles in 2 years) All three statuses come with a number of privileges. My current Miles and More status is Senator and is valid until Feb 2014. To extend my status with two years, I need to earn again 100K status miles in one year (in 2012 or 2013). Right now I’m at 59K status miles of which 22K were earned with SN Flyday trips, 30K with a LH business class flight to Seoul (ICN) and 6K with a SN New York (JFK) trip in economy class. I want to re-qualify for Senator status this year, as Lufthansa (owner of Miles and More) made it much more challenging to earn status miles with cheap business class tickets as of April 1, 2012. The Seoul flight which I took in February of this year was only €1111 and earned me 30K status miles (200% of flown miles). With the new Lufthansa ‘enhancements‘ cheap business class flights now only earn 150% status miles (Z booking class) or 100% status miles for promo business class flights (P booking class). That same BRU-ICN return trip would now only earn me 15K status miles. With 41K status miles still to earn this year, I’ll need to take another 13 weekend trips if I want to re-qualify solely on Flyday trips! :)

Pic: InterContinental Hamburg exterior (Jun 2012)

Pic: King Bed Executive room 301 at Intercontinental Hamburg (Jun 2012)

Pic: Intercontinental Hamburg – Ambassador Welcome Amenity (Jun 2012)
Contrary to my hotel successes on previous weekend trips, InterContinental Hamburg was a miss. Originally, I had booked one night at Radisson Blu Hamburg on Club Carlson points and one paid night at InterContinental Hamburg using the 35% off rate at Greenroom.co.uk After I had learned my PriorityClub status level was upgraded to InterContinental Royal Ambassador again (thanks to a generous blog reader and twitter follower), I had cancelled my Radisson Blu Hamburg reservation and added a second night using the 35% off rate. With €194 for 2 nights I had significantly exceeded my €100 hotel budget for weekend trips, but expected extra value as renewed InterContinental Royal Ambassador (my previous RA status expired in January). Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. My 2-level upgrade (a RA benefit) was a non-bookable King Executive room with dated furniture and tiny bathroom. It really angers me when hotels try to circumvent loyalty program privileges, in this case by creating fictional room categories to avoid the need for upgrading Royal Ambassadors to Junior Suites. The only real RA benefits provided were complimentary internet and minibar. Again, also with the minibar the hotel cheated by removing any hard liquor and only provided cheap soft drinks and beer. The hotel was also lacking a Club lounge and charged €26 for breakfast, a ridiculous charge which made me eat all cereal bars from the complimentary minibar instead. One would start to think his Hilton HHonors Gold status has more value than the InterContinental Royal Ambassador status. (HHonors Gold status comes with complimentary breakfast for 2, room upgrade, free internet and at some properties even with Executive Floor Lounge Access)

Pic:IC Hamburg – Complimentary Minibar for Royal Ambassadors (Jun 2012)

Pic: Rowing at Aubenalster lake near InterConinental Hamburg (Jun 2012)

Pic: Elbe Philharmonic Hall at Hafencity Hamburg (Jun 2012)

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Earning miles with Credit Cards in Belgium

Posted on June 23, 2012 | 29 Comments


Brussels Airlines American Express has a limited time offer: double sign-up bonus for friend referrals.  To receive a personalized sign-up link for this offer, please complete the form below.

  • Classic American Express card (€60 per year)
    Sign-up bonus: 3000 miles (normally 1500)
  • Premium American Express card (€120 per year)
    Sign-up bonus: 6000 miles (normally 3000)
  • Pay your cellphone bill with American Express
    Extra bonus: 2000 miles (one time)

Earning airline miles is not limited to flying, you can earn miles with almost anything these days.  One of the easiest ways to earn extra miles is signing up for a credit card.  You will receive a number of miles just for signing up for the card and you will get 1 or 1,5 miles per euro spent.  American Express also provides a bonus when you spend a certain amount in one year.  Unfortunately, the number of credit cards earning airline miles is very limited in Belgium.  Still,  they can offer you a great opportunity to travel the world in luxury on a budget.  For Belgian citizens, the credit card offers are limited to one program, Miles and More of the Lufthansa group.  Miles of this program can be used to book (and upgrade) flights on any Star Alliance carrier.



Brussels Airlines offers four Miles and More credit cards: the Classic MasterCard, Premium MasterCard, Classic American Express and Premium American Express.  I signed-up for the Brussels Airlines Classic American Express Card in 2008 and switched to the Premium Amex card last year earning me a total of more than 100,000 miles!  The key to earning the maximum amount of miles is to pay as much as possible with your credit card.  Pay all your bills and purchases (both online and offline) with your credit card, every euro counts!  Shopping (including groceries), dining, gas, electronics, hotels, airline tickets, … almost everything!  Some payments might even result in an extra bonus.  Example:  Paying your cellphone bill with your Brussels Airlines American Express card gets you 2000 bonus miles!
The yearly fee also contains a number of insurances:
Classic American Express (€60 per year):
Travel accident insurance
Baggage insurance
Wallet or purse theft insurance
Purchase Protection
Premium American Express (€120 per year):
Travel accident and inconvenience insurance
Trip cancellation insurance
Extended Baggage insurance
Wallet or purse theft insurance
Purchase Protection

So how much are those miles worth?
It all depends on what you spend them.  In my opinion, only long-haul Business Class and First Class flights are worth spending miles on.  These allow you to maximize the value of your miles as Business Class flights easily cost +€2000 and First Class flights +€8000.  Of course airline loyalty programs will do everything to make you spend your miles on less valuable options e.g. use miles to buy goodies in their online shop, book hotel nights or rent a car.  You really don’t want to do that!  Miles and More is currently selling miles with a 20% bonus, which is still way too expensive, but it gives you an idea how they value the miles.

As you notice, 6000 miles are sold for €135.  That’s more than the yearly fee of the Brussels Airlines Premium American Express card which comes with 6000 sign-up miles!  Same for the sign-up bonus of the Brussels Airlines Classic American Express card, those 3000 miles are sold for €85 (+600 miles bonus).

How do I maximize the number of miles earned?
I would recommend to sign-up for the Brussels Airlines Premium American Express card now to get the 6000 miles.  Complete the form to pay your cellphone bill with the card and earn an additional 2000 miles.  Next year, you cancel the Premium card and switch to the Classic card.  You will earn the sign-up bonus again (this time for the Classic card, which is at least 1500 miles if there’s no promotion) and you’ll earn another 2000 miles when you register to have your cellphone bills paid with the Classic card.  That’s at least 11,500 miles in one year, just by signing up for these cards!

I’m not yet a Miles and More member, where do I sign-up?
You can enroll at the Miles and More website.

To receive a sign-up link with a double welcome bonus, please complete the form below.


Full disclosure: By signing up for a Brussels Airlines American Express card using a personalized link, I will receive bonus miles (friend referral program).  Thank you for supporting my travel blog and enjoy your sign-up bonus!

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Weekend in Birmingham (UK)

Posted on June 11, 2012 | 2 Comments


Pic: The Bull at Bullring Shopping Mall Birmingham (Jun 2012)
Birmingham, my sixth Brussels Airlines Flyday destination.  Once again, thanks to the IHG 2-for-1 discount rate, I managed to stay two nights abroad for less than €100.  In fact, this time I paid £59 (€75 on amex) for two nights at  Holiday Inn Birmingham City Centre.  Not the most fancy hotel in town, the exterior looks a bit dated, but with recently refurbished rooms and located conveniently around the corner of Birmingham New Street station.  If your budget allows, I would recommend the new Hotel Indigo Birmingham located at the fantastic Cube building next to the upscale shopping mall The Mailbox.

Pic: Double Bed room at Holiday Inn Birmingham City Centre (Jun 2012)
Being the the most populous British city outside the capital London, I was surprised to find Birmingham City Centre quite compact with many streets pedestrianized.  Most things to see and do can be reached on foot from the major hotels in town.  If found Birmingham less exciting than Bristol, but fans of shopping and nightlife will love it for sure.  Several new shopping malls are frequented by thousands every weekend.  The most impressive one being the Bullring featuring the iconic Selfridges department store.  Nightlife enthusiast, whom can cope with typical English partiers and their behaviour, should check Bond Street, home of many clubs including the famous Gatecrasher.
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Brussels Airlines new Business Class JFK-BRU

Posted on June 9, 2012 | 9 Comments


Pic: Brussels Airlines entrance at New York JFK Terminal 1 (Jun 2012)

Pic: Lufthansa Senator Lounge at New York JFK Airport (Jun 2012)
On Friday June 1, I joined inaugural flight SN501 from Brussels to New York JFK.  I flew economy class and was seated on the first row (14D) in Y.  As frequent Brussels Airlines flyer (almost weekly now thanks to their Flyday promo) and Miles and More Senator, I was upgraded* to business class on the return flight from JFK to BRU.  Both the hard and soft product were outstanding.  I think my pictures speak for themselves regarding the quality of the hard product.  The only two negative experiences I had during the BRU-JFK-BRU journey were out of Brussels Airlines control:  A queue of almost three hours (!) at JFK Terminal 1 Immigration to enter the USA and a 1,5 hour queue on the JFK runway before take-off back to BRU.  Not sure what’s wrong with JFK airport, but I hope they fix these issues soon!

Pic: Brussels Airlines A330-300ER OO-SFM at JFK Airport (Jun 3, 2012)

Pic: My Brussels Airlines Business Class seat 4K on flight SN502 JFK – BRU

Pic: Brussels Airlines new business class – Seat controls (Jun 2012)

Pic: Brussels Airlines new business class seat in lounge mode (Jun 2012)
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Brussels Airlines Inaugural flight SN501 BRU – JFK

Posted on June 2, 2012 | 5 Comments


Flew Brussels Airlines inaugural flight SN501 from Brussels to New York today.  I was seated on the first row in economy class (14D).  Quite exhausted now, not from the flight, but from queuing at JFK immigration (2,5 hours)!  My flight back (SN502 JFK-BRU) is on Sunday.  Will post full review early next week.

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