Would you anticipate any problems taking an early morning train, probably around 7:30 or 8:00, from Antwerp to the Brussels airport for a noon flight? It would be a Saturday in September. I know it's a short trip, but we can move to an airport hotel for the last night if trains have a tendency to run late.

Hi dreamer,

No-one can know if there will be problems on that trip. I would do an airport hotel anyway just to be on the cautious side, but normally that trip is not a long one and takes about 50 minutes on a normal day, half that on a good day. Trains in Belgium are normally reliable but I would not care to take the risk. Sorry I can't recommend a hotel, I have never stayed in an airport hotel in Brussels, but someone here is bound to chip in with a recommendation.
Good luck!

Lavandula

I did exactly this connection in 2013: direct train from Antwerp to Brussels Airport station. It worked fine. I see no need at all to stay close to the Brussels airport even if it wasn't a noon flight. It's barely a 30 minute trip. (about half of the time to travel from central Paris to CDG by RER.) Looks like there are still direct trains twice an hour. Belgium has a low-key, easy-to-use, reliable train system.

Actually, if I had any regret, it's that I didn't spend the night before my flight from BRU in Leuven instead of Antwerp, which I really didn't care for that much. I spent two nights in Antwerp; I day tripped to Leuven and really loved it. Only a 15 minute direct train from Leuven to the airport. (Though the train station is a bit of a walk from the center of town.) There's much more to see and do in Antwerp, but Leuven had more charm I thought.

Take the train from Antwerp in the morning. It's very quick and easy.
A train at 7:30 gets you to the airport at 8: even with delays, you'll have a lot of time before your noon flight.

And in the unlikely event of a train strike, there's a bus every hour (Airport Express) that takes 45 minutes.
A taxi on Saturday morning would take 40 minutes.

In addition to what Tulips wrote:

Which airline are you flying with? Do you know when check-in will open?
I know that bag drop for Brussels plus Star Alliance airlines is "always open".
But when you fly with one airline that operates just that noon flight, you may be looking at a closed check-in counter for 2 hours when you arrive at 8 for a noon flight.

Take the morning train as Tulips says.
If there would be a strike, it is announced in advance and you can still move to an airport hotel the evening before your flight day.
All airport hotels have free shuttles to/from the airport.
We usually stay at Van der Valk Brussels Airport when we have a very early flight.

Thanks for the input. I figured it would be okay, but tend to want to consider all the "what-ifs." We're the sort of people who don't mind getting to the airport early, We're on United, so there shouldn't be a problem there.