Sabena - Such A Bad Experience Never (Sabena Belgian Airlines)

Member Name: goclimbing

Product:	Sabena Belgian Airlines
Date:	03/08/01 (77 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap and cheerful

Disadvantages: hassle, lost baggage

Flying Sabena can give you a serious headache.

I recently flew from Glasgow to Geneva via Brussels. Here are a
few tips from my experience for anyone flying with them.

1) Don't expect your baggage to arrive on the same flight as you
do. Sabena are notorious for delayed or lost baggage. Pack
anything valuable and necessities as hand luggage.

2) Don't expect Sabena to notify you if your luggage arrives on a
later flight. They are so snowed under with loads of bags they
haven't the staff etc to phone. I spent all day phoning the
number given by the airport and it was constantly on voicemail. I
ended up phoning Sabena head office who told me that my bags
had arrived in Glasgow.

3) Don't expect Them to deliver your bags in a reasonable
timeframe. I waited for 48 hours after I knew my bags had
arrived at the airport for Sabena to phone and deliver them. This
did not happen. I returned to the airport, and politely asked for
my bags which i knew were there ... but I was told they had not
arrived. After losing my temper and lots of swearing I was finally
brought my bags!

4) If you need to change your flights, Sabena will charge you at
least £80 per person, in my case they couldn't agree what to
charge so they charged the maximum fare.

5) Generally their staff will be unhelpful, rude and
uncaring.

Believe me even if they have the cheapest fares for a flight its
not worth the hassle...

And finally I bought my tickets on the web where the airline was
advertised as Swissair, only when the tickets arrived did we find
out the truth.... aaaargh.

Summary: