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Disclaimer: This flight was at the very end of December 2019 as part of my, and my “BRU boys”, Delta elite mileage run to keep my Diamond status with Delta for 2020.
With that, on to the review:
There has been any number of reasons I have been holding off on this post.
First off, like I am sure most of you who are — in a normal year — flying all the time, I am frankly a bit depressed over being stuck at home for what looks like over a year before this COVID mess is all said and done.
Next, reflecting on this and other “fun runs” makes me yearn to book another one and it would not be the same right now (or safe either).
But to catch you up a bit on this adventure, a bunch of us travel nuts flew to LAS to take a SkyTeam elite mileage run to keep our status for 2020. We started the run, after a lounge visit in Vegas, with a quick hop to Atlanta and then on our way on a KLM 777 to Amsterdam. While we did not have time to visit the new AMS #52 Crown lounge you can see my review of it here. Then one of the shortest KLM business class flights I have ever taken from AMS to BRU.
We stayed at the Crowne Plaza near the BRU airport as it was one of the few hotels that had a free airport shuttle. Finding the shuttle was a little confusing. But once we sorted it out, was just a few stops on the bus to get to the hotel.
Having landed midday, some of our group took a short nap after the overnight flight before heading out for dinner. We looked at any number of fun choices in town but decided to pass and just go to one within walking distance of the hotel.
Since we did fly all the way to Brussels just for dinner (not really – clearly the points are all that mattered), we were looking forward to something nice. We found it. The food and the service were great and we all had an enjoyable evening — even meeting up with another flyer on the run who took different flights to get to BRU.
After an Uber van ride back to the hotel (it was rather cold by this time of the night) I was asleep in no time before our early start to fly back to Las Vegas. Again our route home was BRU-JFK-LAX-LAS! Ya gotta love mileage runs.
I did not shoot any hotel room photos (bad blogger – bad) but due to my friend’s top elite status with IHG, we had access to an impressive breakfast buffet. A great way to start the long day home.
After another quick shuttle back to the airport, we made our way to the lounge SkyTeam uses. I was surprised it was not, in fact, a SkyTeam lounge at all. But more on that in another post, as well as a review of the now very old and dated 767 Delta One seat we flew both to JFK and from JFK to LAX (preview below)!
I have to say – gosh I miss travel just for fun and points. Heck, I miss travel for work and for fun. I just miss travel! – René
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It was fun. I too miss the opportunity to travel, but I’m afraid it will be awhile before I’m comfortable doing so again.
Had fun on this run, and I too cannot wait until we can be “Back in the air”.
@JST2 – Cant wait to fly with you again! One day.
Brussels is such a great place to visit; definitely missing my mileage runs! Speaking of, it seems as if mileage runs are on hold until (best guess) third quarter of 2021. Any sense of what Delta’s plans are for Medallion status next year? Have you given any thought to your strategy for 2021? Or taking a wait and see approach?
@Jim – My personal plan, since I doubt I will fly much at all in 2021 (or at least until late in the year anyway) is to spend 25k+ on my DL Amex then hammer a bunch of runs in JAN2022 and have Diamond for 2 years.
Delta is rolling over this year’s Medallion status and MQM to 2021.
NIce overview wish I could have done the run!!