After arriving in Brussels, I made my way over to Brussels Airlines’ lounge known as THE LOFT to wait for my flight to Budapest.

Over at Pier A, the massive lounge features a large buffet, bar, showers, and best of all…nap pods!

THE LOFT

After heading up the stairs, I made my way inside the lounge where a friendly agent checked my boarding pass.

After a quick check-in, I took a look around the lounge and made my way towards the nap room. As only one pod was unoccupied, I decided this would be an opportune time to catch a couple hours of shuteye.

Outside the door, there was a list of numbers corresponding to the pods inside the room, with a light under each, indicating weather a pod was occupied or not. Once inside, I made my way to the far end of the room where I found my pod with a green light outside (it’s red in this picture, since I’d set my bag inside before snapping the photo).

Each pod was equipped with a vinyl mattress and a blanket. No pillow though, which was odd. Nonetheless, I grabbed a couple hours of sleep to hold me over until the evening.

After emerging from my slumber, I made my way to one of the showers to freshen up.

Although not on the level of sheer fanciness of the one at the Polaris lounge, the shower suite was spacious and certainly adequate for its intended purpose. It even had music that you could select to fit your mood.

One issue I did find though. The shower didn’t drain properly! After a few short minutes, the water creeped out of the stall and onto the floor of the room. It looks like they didn’t slope the floor properly from what I can tell.

After finishing up in Waterworld, I checked out the buffet and grabbed myself a drink.

The buffet featured multiple salad items, pizza, and small bites. Nothing too extravagant, but enough to make a quick meal.

I grabbed one of the seats by the window and waited out the remainder of my time until it was time to board my next flight.

Overall, I feel like the lounge had a slight edge over most basic US airline lounges, but as an international product, it definitely fell a little behind in my opinion.

Off to Budapest

Brussels Airlines Flight 2825
BRU [Brussels] to BUD [Budapest]
October 18, 2017
Depart: 2:55 PM
Arrive: 4:45 PM
Duration: 1hr50min
Aircraft: A319
Seat: 1A

Boarding commenced on time and I headed on board to grab my seat. Unlike back in the US, the premium cabins on European short-haul flights are typically made up of economy seating with the middle seat left empty. By using regular economy seats, the airline can simply move the curtain forward or back to adjust the size of the cabin.

That being said, most flights you take within Europe are rather short and the catering usually makes up for the shortcomings of the seat. Just make sure you book the bulkhead seat if you’re tall like me.

Once everyone got situated, the crew came by with bottles of water before takeoff.

Shortly after takeoff, the crew came by to take drink orders and distribute meals. As our actual flight time was only a little over an hour, I found the offering to be quite substantial.

The quality of the food was excellent and I found it to be surprisingly filling. Although I’m unsure of exactly what scotch they were serving, I found it to be very good as well.

Once everyone was finished, it was almost time to descend. The crew came around to offer another drink service along with Belgian chocolates.

After a smooth descent and landing, I was finally in Budapest!

I made my way to baggage claim and was happy to find out that my bowling pin successfully made its way to Budapest as well.

Now it was just time to head into the city and start exploring.