Review: Jet Airways Lounge, Brussels

Like I mentioned in the earlier post of this trip-report, I was intending to rush it in the morning to beat the long queues that tend to form up at the Brussels airport counters of Jet Airways. Even as an elite, you can be waiting for a while because all the counters would be full.

Having made it early, I walked up to a bank of empty Jet Airways counters, which was the first time in years I’d seen it like this. I walked over to the Business Class check-in counters, however, the counters were busy so I walked up to an empty Economy counter, where they looked up my ticket and requested the upgrade vouchers for this leg of travel. After providing them with 3 upgrade vouchers, which are needed for BRU-BOM, out came my new boarding pass, which was my seat in Premiere. I was excited because this was my first trip on the new A333s inducted in the fleet by Jet Airways in December 2012.

I walked up to the passport control counters, and looking at them being pretty empty, I walked to the nearby airport shop for not more than 3 minutes. However, when back, I was one amongst the many in the queue. Never take passport control for granted, lesson learnt!

After having gone through passport control, I hopped into the security check queue. Brussels does have a separate express security check queue for premium passengers, which is only accessible by scanning your boarding pass. A few moments there and I was over to the other side.

Now that everything was done, my tummy was growling for some breakfast, and I decided to hop over to the Jet Airways Lounge to check out my options. The ulterior motive was also to fire some emails away before the flight, and if I had time, I could get out again for the quick round of waffles I wanted to have.

Jet Airways used to operate two lounges at Brussels, right across each other. One used to be a very small one, I presume for the first class passengers, and the other one a bigger lounge for all entitled passengers. I used to go into both interchangeably, but this time I found the smaller lounge shut. So, I hopped into the big Jet Airways lounge which tends to get crowded because they host passengers transiting from 4 flights at this time, apart from passengers originating in Brussels. The crowd had the better of me and was already there!

Lounge entrance

I walked around to try and get an empty seat, usually by the windows so I can see plane movement at the tarmac, but that was not to be. The lounge is big enough to accommodate heavy traffic, however, I saw heads bobbing around all over. The good part about this lounge is the separate section for kids, which I am sure parents would appreciate.

The Videowall section

Magazines & newsprint

The kids section of the lounge

The main section of the lounge

Tarmac view

One-time use wifi codes at the airport were available at the lounge, and I went about my business which needed to be finished before I was up in the air. Internet was patchy at best, leading to all my attempts to make a couple of big file uploads fail a couple of times over. I did manage it eventually. After that, I had time to make rounds of the buffet on offer, which is usually a mix of Indian and Continental offerings for breakfast.

Coldcuts, Sandwiches and Eggs

Cheese & fruits

Breads & Bakery products

Beverages & adult beverages

Juices, Smoothies, Coffee, Cakes & Cereal

I realise I did not get to snap a picture of the Idlis & Sambar, but it did look the same to me like my other previous visits. Somehow, the European kitchen of Jet does not get the Sambar right, ever. However, the sandwiches were not the usual stretchy rubbery sandwiches I’d usually encounter at lounges and were made with fresh bread.

After that quick pit stop, my flight was called and I was on my way to the gates for boarding.

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