American vs Brussels Airlines

Best product each one flies

Scored on what can be verified. Service, food and ground recovery are absent deliberately: they need someone in the seat, and they live in the reviews rather than here.

One caveat on the Value line, stated rather than buried: Value is computed from business fares, and a carrier with too few of them does not get a Value score at all. Where you see a dash, we have fewer than three priced business routes for that airline and did not want to invent a figure from one or two — so its product score is the mean of three dimensions rather than four, and it is not directly comparable to a score built on hundreds of fares. The airlines with the most fares behind them are named on the business-class ranking.

Dimension by dimension

• Seat: American

  10/10 on the 787-9P (Flagship Suite) against 5/10 on the A330-300.

• IFE: level

  Screens, connectivity and power: 8/10 against 8/10.

• Lounge & bags: level

  What the fare includes before you board: 10/10 against 10/10.

• Value: Brussels Airlines

  Median premium over the cheapest carrier on the same route: 2/10 against 6/10.

What happens if the aircraft swaps

Both carriers are paying-the-same-fare-either-way propositions on some frames. The worst product each one flies:

American: Reverse herringbone, direct aisle access from every seat, no privacy door.

Brussels Airlines: Thompson Vantage in a staggered 2-2-1 / 1-2-1 pattern. 24 of the 30 seats reach an aisle directly, so the field is false — it means every seat. This carrier was left unverified on the first pass because sources disagreed; a later source resolved it with the 24-of-30 figure.

Common questions

Is American or Brussels Airlines better to Europe?

American scores 7.5/10 against Brussels Airlines at 7.3/10 on seat, screens, lounge and fare. On the four dimensions we can verify, American wins 1 and Brussels Airlines wins 1. Service and food are not scored here because they cannot be read off a spec sheet.

Does the aircraft change the answer?

Yes. American scores 10/10 on the 787-9P (Flagship Suite) and 8/10 on the 777-300ER / 787 (Flagship Business). Check the equipment on your date before deciding.

Has Jon flown either of these?

Neither, so this page is product facts and fares only. Any review we publish of either will be labeled Researched until that changes.