Brussels Airlines

Brussels Airlines is Belgium's flag carrier, a Lufthansa Group company and Star Alliance member flying from Brussels across Europe, with a long-haul network that leans heavily on West and Central Africa, routes it has flown in one corporate form or another for decades. That Africa flying shapes the fleet: A320-family narrowbodies for the short hops, A330-300s for the long sectors south.

The two halves are different products in kind. On the narrowbodies, business class is the European convertible zone, ordinary economy seats behind a movable curtain with the middle kept free. On the A330s the airline carries its real hardware: lie-flat business seats and a proper premium economy cabin in a two-by-three-by-two layout.

The published narrowbodies are the A319, A320 and A320neo, all single-class three-by-three with the front zone sold as business by demand. The A319 is the shortest, and its last rows sit where the fuselage tapers, so the seats there give up width as well as position.

The A330-300 flies in three fits. The main one carries a staggered lie-flat business cabin in which a share of seats are solo thrones with direct aisle access, ahead of a compact premium economy and a two-by-four-by-two economy. One registration mirrors that business cabin left to right, the same seats on the opposite side of the aircraft. A third fit carries a two-by-two-by-two business cabin and a larger premium economy in exchange for fewer economy rows.

Within Europe, expect tidy single-aisle economy and a business product whose value is the empty middle seat, the catering and the position near the door rather than the chair itself. Exit rows carry what legroom there is, and the rearmost rows on the older jets pair the galley with narrower seats.

The long-haul cabins change register. Business on the A330 folds fully flat, with the staggered fit trading a little openness for privacy and the two-by-two-by-two fit offering long beds where window sleepers step over a neighbour. Premium economy is the quiet achiever for the long Africa sectors: a wider seat and deeper pitch in a cabin of a few rows, well short of a flat bed but well clear of economy.

In A330 business the solo thrones are the seats to chase, single positions with nobody beside them and the aisle a step away; they are a minority of the cabin and go first. Be careful transferring seat numbers between aircraft, though: on the mirrored registration the thrones sit on the opposite side, so pick by the seat characteristics shown for your flight rather than a letter remembered from last time.

In premium economy the front row adds legroom and pays with bulkhead storage rules and, on one fit, lavatories working nearby. In long-haul economy the bulkhead rows carry the marked legroom, the second section starts beside the doors where one position takes a protruding frame at foot level, and the deepest rows spend the flight beside the rear galley. On the narrowbodies, sit forward of the last few rows if you can; the tail is where both seat width and the disembarking order work against you.