Austrian Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | London to Bangkok via Vienna. I was very keen to try out the new premium economy product. Heathrow Terminal 2 (of which star alliance carriers use) is quite a pain to use, but there is high efficiency. I boarded the flight to Vienna, and sat in my pre-paid exit row seat, which cost a reasonable £20. However the person next to me was spreading his legs so I didn’t have the most comfortable flight. The flight attendants were courteous on this flight but service was slightly slow. I had preordered a schnitzel which tasted amazing, almost as if it came out of a fine dining restaurant. It felt very fine dining-There was even a tablecloth and it came with silverware and a cloth napkin! A good way to spend £12. As Austrian had cancelled my previous flight, I was rebooked onto an earlier one which made my connection in Vienna 7 hours, and I paid lounge access for the Austrian Lounge, which was a great place to spend a couple of hours. Turns out there was no time limit, when they asked me where I was flying to, they responded “oh, well you’ll have plenty of time to enjoy the lounge!” Shower facilities lacking, the shower felt like an ibis hotel bathroom without any amenities (you could ask for razors or toothbrushes at reception) i was given priority boarding, and the cabin was less than half full. In fact, all of the solo travellers had seats next to them empty. I was sat in 10A, which I found out I didn’t like, as initially I thought getting the front row with a leg rest would be good, however the row behind me with only a footrest turned out to be much more comfortable. Recline was reasonable, and I think these seats are equivalent to regional business class seats. There was a physical partition between premium economy and economy but there weren’t any curtains drawn. The plane was 18 years old, and the cabin senior said that its refurbished every 2 years. I couldn’t find any way to fault the cabin crew, but rather, the airline. This aircraft was terribly understaffed. For the standard 14 crew it needed, only 9 were present. When I had finished my meal, the crew had only made it 3/4 of the way to feed the cabin. The meals were of good quality, pretty much business class quality but quantity lacking as I fell asleep still hungry. Breakfast was quite filling and tasted good, to supplement the small dinner. There were three options for each meal. Entertainment was fine, but the remote control is a very funny and confusing design, but the touch screen worked well, rendering it useless. As I took my own personal pillows on the flight however, The position underneath the armrest made me accidentally hit it a couple of times. The cabin senior was one of the best cabin crew I’ve met in a while. I cannot fault the crew at all. I cannot fault Austrian’s premium economy product and I’d agree that the extra price is worth paying for. However, if the airline could make improvements administratively, they would do very very well.

✅ Trip Verified | London to Dubrovnik via Vienna. Flight delayed in London and with short layover in Vienna making the connection was at risk. When asked onboard, flight attendants had no idea about connections. Shortly before landing advised gate number for connecting flight and simply said Run. Ended up making the connecting flight, however, my luggage missed connecting flight in Vienna as Austrian Airlines failed to tag it advising of connection, let alone this having a short connection time. Obviously airline knew where bag was when filing claim in Dubrovnik. Initial information was for luggage to arrive that night via Zagreb. Later had to find out bag was sent to Munich for a day before onward journey to Dubrovnik. As a result bag won't arrive at destination until more than 36 hours late, whereas sending it on the same flight a day later would've been faster and the sensible thing to do. What's worse is there's no-one to talk to, everything is just done via forms on their website, including any compensation claims. Terrible service and an airline to avoid at all cost!

✅ Trip Verified | I have never encountered such terrible service, with very little desire to help. I am booked to fly New York to Vienna Vienna economy premium. For some reason, I was unable to do web check-in and reserve my seat in advance. Contacted their customer support and was answered that this is an optional service that I don’t have to take advantage of. When I tried messaging online, I was answered that no window seat is available because everything was already taken. When I asked to use my miles and upgrade to business, I was told that I should contact Miles and More. Deeply disappointed even before going on the flight.

✅ Trip Verified | Travelling in a group of three with three different reservations, we pre-selected our seats, paying 17 Euros each in order to be able to seat together. Upon checking we realised that they had allocated two of the seats to other passengers and had moved us to different seats (of the same category). Their call centre they advised that they are only able to guarantee the seat category (i.e. aisle, middle or window) and not the seat number. Both the cabin crew and the ground staff seem uninterested. The Senator Lounge in Vienna was a major disappointment.

✅ Trip Verified | Very good Business Class Product with great food. The late night flight from Vienna to Bangkok was very nice with a lot of Austrian Culture and "Specialities" on Board. Austrian Airlines has a chef on board in business class: the food - especially the Austrian Dishes - was very good and very different from the usual airline food. The "Tafelspitz" from veal was one of the best dishes I have ever enjoyed on a flight. And all the special Coffee Dishes on offer: one felt like being in a Coffee House in Vienna. The staff were very Austrian, very efficient and very friendly with all the charm and friendliness of Austrian hospitality. The entertainment system had a limited offering: Especially the classical music section was very disappointing: No opera, no operette, no symphony from Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss? The Seat was fine, but not very comfortable in the bed position. All in all as outstanding and unforgettable Experience of Austrian hospitality up in the Air!

✅ Trip Verified | Los Angeles to Vienna. Even though flight were on time the service seemed unprofessional and unorganised. One of the hostess was so rude. Me and my friend were asking for food she neither spoke with us nor say anything. She just brought us food after that she even say nothing. Her attitude was wired. After our lunch we had to wait 20-30 minute so that some one will come and pick up our empty tray.

✅ Trip Verified | Vienna to Toronto. As a Star Alliance Gold member I expect to be treated better but instead worse than anybody else. Not only was I seated at row 30 and on an aisle seat which the airline claimed it was the best they could do but also they did not wait for my connection which was late not helped in any way to make things at least inconvenient as possible. Also they should be more precise with their information about how many luggage are allowed without charge for Star Alliance Gold members and not charge them when they claim 2 are allowed when in reality none are allowed. This is called false advertising.

✅ Trip Verified | Tel Aviv to London via Vienna. I'd heard good things about Austrian Airlines, so was keen to try them out - I was however thoroughly disappointed. Selling themselves as being a full service airline, with fares to match - I would have expected the onboard experience to be much better. In terms of food/drink on the 4 hour flight from Tel Aviv we were served a small plate of pasta, along with warm beer and drinks poured into cups from cans - no spirits at all. The seating on the board is incredibly hard and uncomfortable, they offer no inflight entertainment on 3hr 40 mins flight. Connection in Vienna was unnecessarily chaotic and we arrived into Heathrow about 40 minutes late. I won't be flying with Austrian Airlines again, incredibly disappointing and average airline.

✅ Trip Verified | Vienna to Geneva. I appreciate Austrian in many ways. However one small thing could be definitely improved which is the lengthy verification procedure when accessing the senator launch. In all other places boarding pass with the status printed on the boarding pass is fine. Austrian requires status passengers to show their status card in addition. This is not only not logical it also is inconvenient. Perhaps somebody from Austrian may want to pay attention to this.

✅ Trip Verified | Overpriced airline with no extra service. Paid €350 for a flight from Innsbruck to Split via Vienna not including hand luggage. I had 2kg overweight (10kg instead of 8kg) and the only option they gave me is pay 40€ more for one direction (so €80 in total). Very disappointing service.