Finding your flights to the United States from Belgium

After accommodation, the flight is the biggest item in a trip to the United States. For our Christmas road trip between New York and Florida, we paid 1,832 euros for two, right in the holiday season.

It’s also the first choice to make, because the dates and airports on the ticket fix the start and end of the itinerary.

Where to leave from?

Brussels (BRU) has direct flights to several cities on the East Coast and in the Midwest, with New York and Washington at the top of the list. The list changes with the seasons and the airlines: check the airport’s website. For the West Coast (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Seattle), you almost always need a stopover.

Neighbouring airports widen the choice a great deal, often for less:

• Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle and Amsterdam-Schiphol, linked to Brussels by train. Air France and KLM sell combined train + plane tickets from Brussels-Midi: if the train is late, the connection is guaranteed.
• Frankfurt and Düsseldorf, convenient from the east of the country.
• London, for direct flights to almost every major American city.
• Luxembourg and Lille as departure points with a stopover.

Direct flight or stopover?

	Direct flight	With a stopover
Brussels – New York	About 8 hrs 30	11 to 14 hrs
To the West Coast	Rare from Brussels	14 to 18 hrs
Price	More expensive	Often €100 to €300 less
Risk	Low	Missed connection, delayed baggage

If you take a stopover, two rules:

• A stopover in Europe is better than a stopover in the United States. In the second case, you go through immigration and collect your bags at the first American airport, before dropping them off again. Allow at least three hours for the connection.
• A single ticket for the whole journey. With two separate tickets, the airline owes you nothing if the first flight is late.

The multi-city ticket

For an itinerary in a line, look for a “multi-city” (open jaw) ticket: out to one city, back from another. That’s what we did, arriving in New York and returning from Orlando. The price is often close to an ordinary return, and far below two one-way tickets.

When to book?

• For summer and Christmas: four to six months ahead, or even more.
• For spring and autumn: two to four months ahead is generally enough.
• The cheapest days are often Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday.

Use a comparison site (Google Flights, Skyscanner, Kayak) with the calendar view to spot the quiet dates, then book on the airline’s website: if there’s a change or a cancellation, you’ll only have one party to deal with.

What the price doesn’t tell you

“Light” or “Basic” fares. The headline price often includes no hold baggage, no seat selection and no changes. For a long stay, add the bag when you buy: it costs more at the airport.

Baggage. The standard is one 23 kg suitcase in the hold in economy class. For a road trip, one suitcase per person is plenty, and we tell you what to put in it.

The seat. On a flight of nine to eleven hours, choosing your seat is sometimes worth the 30 or 40 euros asked.

The arrival time. A flight that lands in the early afternoon leaves time to get through immigration, pick up the car and reach the hotel in daylight. Don’t plan a long drive on the first evening or the next day.

Before boarding

• The ESTA must be approved before departure: the airline checks it at check-in. The procedure is here.
• The address of the first night will be asked for at check-in.
• The MPC app saves time on arrival, but only if you have already entered the United States with the same ESTA (see immigration and customs).
• Arrive three hours before take-off: flights to the United States have additional checks.

In the event of a delay or cancellation

The European regulation applies to all flights departing from the European Union, and to return flights operated by a European airline. Beyond three hours’ delay on arrival, you may be entitled to compensation of up to 600 euros per person on a transatlantic flight, except in extraordinary circumstances (weather, air traffic control strike).

The claim is made free of charge with the airline. If it doesn’t respond, companies such as AirHelp will handle it in return for a commission on the compensation obtained. We haven’t used them ourselves.

Our flights

For the West, we fly British Airways, which we love for its premium economy class, not too expensive: about 2,700 dollars for two on our first road trip, and the same again on the third, with a stopover in London. For New York and Florida, we flew Delta (1,832 euros for two), with the outbound leg in premium and the return in standard economy, via Amsterdam.

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