Austrian Airlines

Vienna-Washington-Vienna. Seat allocation for all transatlantic and onward US flights was possible several weeks in advance. Check-in at Vienna airport could be faster. The new all-flat seats are very comfortable. Excellent food nice wine and drinks selection. Very attentive service even though the flight was operated by not so experienced Tyrolean Airways crew. Online entertainment system is very much ok although the selection of movies and games could be wider. Flights were on time or ahead of time new plane meticulously clean. Good selection of food and drinks in the lounges at Vienna and Washington Dulles.

14 Feb 2014 flight from Vienna to Sofia was not only delayed for nearly 3 hours but the aircraft was not in the best condition to fly. 28 Feb 2014 flight Pristina - Vienna despite of timely departure at 15.00 hrs instead of landing 16.45 hrs as planned landed 16.58 hrs. I had a connecting flight to London at 17.15 and was expecting that ground service would take care of passengers. Instead everyone to whom I addressed my request for assistance to speed up the transfer as I did not have checked in luggage were being extremely unhelpful. Unfortunately Austrian airlines and Vienna airport have kind of monopoly over the connections and destination in this part of Europe so one has to live with their way of talking to customers.

IST-VIE-ZRH in Business Class. Ticket was issued by Swiss. Couldn't online check in the day before. So at Check In at Istanbul Airport I learnt there was a problem with my ticket. Therefore after cancelling my ticket and issuing a new one at the check in counter which took almost 2 hours they just downgraded me to Economy Class by mistake. Not enough time to re-issue the ticket as boarding had already started and I had to rush to the gate. They promised me they would have it fixed. Arriving at the gate the agent didn't know anything about it and could not fix it. They told me they would fix it in Vienna for my connecting flight into Zurich. So I had to fly Economy Class but had paid the business class fare. Arriving in Vienna I learned that business class for my connection flight was booked out so I had to continue in Economy. Shows clearly Austrian is seriously not caring about business class customers. Never again with this unorganized airline!

OS456/25 LHR-VIE-BKK and OS 26/451 BKK-VIE-LHR. New Business class seats allow a decent sleep IFE selection is not great. BKK-VIE the headsets were collected in after the arrival video was shown about an hour prior to landing then the video restarted so I missed the end of the film I was watching. Second meal service (breakfast) has small portion sizes flew this airline and class recently on the NRT route and vastly better service and more professional crew. Short connection times at VIE make this a fast route. Worst experience is the seating on OS25. Premium Miles & More customers are usually reserved seats in rows 1 and 3. This works fine except when the airline uses row 2 for families with small children or upgrades. Sleep was made difficult on OS25 by shouting at their children to control them and shouting at each other audible across 2 aisles. No re-seating available as this flight always seems to be full or over-sold. Washrooms could do with a refit on all Austrian aircraft.

VIE-AMS one way bought just few days before departure so quite expensive. Long bus ride from terminal 3 to somewhere in the middle of Vienna airport to board an old Fokker 100. I don't mind flying unusual types of aircraft's but given the engine configuration of Fokker (rear mounted engine) and the fact that I was seated in the 3rd from the back means it was extremely noisy thorough the entire flight. What bothered me the most was that the seats do not have any moveable headrests. Seat pitch poor but unfortunately that is typical to all intra-Europe economy today. Inedible snack and one round of drinks offered during the flight.

Flew LHR-VIE-BKK return on a full fare business class ticket that cost over 3000 euro. Was astonished to discover that Austrian do not provide fast track immigration pass at BKK where queues at the general passport control can often be very long. They provide on the flight back to VIE but not on arrival at BKK. Spoke to the purser who actually denied knowledge of a fast track system? There is inconsistency within the LH group in this regard. I have generally received a pass when arriving into BKK on Swiss but not recently on LH. Shoddy service to premium passengers and I suspect yet another example of cost cutting. The flights themselves were ok and more or less on schedule. I found the dinner service on the long haul sectors to be disorganised and too time consuming at a time when most passengers need to avail of the flat but claustrophobic flat beds.

LHR-VIE-DXB. Flight from London left 55 minutes late so very little time to connect. Was hot and a bit tired when boarding the Vienna to Dubai flight for a Business Class sector. Asked on entrance if I could have some water. Not one of the four members of staff offered to help and one crew member said you'll have to go to the front galley to get one. In Business Class I was stunned. Asked at my seat and was told there are bottles at every seat. None at any seat because they had forgotten to put them out. They served a drink snack packet but they did not have a drinks service. Then came the food with a drinks service. Very strange for Business Class. The crew were miserable false cold smiles and they were clearly Tyrolean Charter Crew and not used to dealing with scheduled passengers on a route like Vienna to Dubai in Business Class. The Business Class seat was lie flat but the whole surround was very plastic and cheap. The table needed Einstein's brain to open and close it back into the seat. Finally our baggage did not arrive at Dubai so clearly the 09.05 ex London flight connection will always miss baggage transfer to the Dubai service. We arrived 24th December and our baggage arrived Christmas Day at 16.00 hours. In Business Class on the return flight the breakfast served was quite disgraceful and I couldn't eat any of it except for the fresh fruit. The worst meal I have had in Business Class on any flight in 46 years of travelling. Do not travel with this airline.

VIE-HAM-VIE. Outbound flight on Dec 31st return on Jan 2nd. Flight to Hamburg was delayed due to technical reasons for more than two hours. No information about the delay were given at the check-in. Passengers were informed about the delay 10 minutes before the scheduled departure. They refused to book us on an earlier flight and very unprofessional staff at the lounge. C-Class lounge was clean and calm but in the morning a very limited choice of food and beverages. We were bussed to the plane very old F 100 outgoing to Hamburg. Breakfast in C- Class was ridiculous panini was served with a cold! egg omelette. Cabin attendants did their job but no smile at all. Our luggage in Hamburg was the last on the belt even it was marked with the priority label. Evening flight back to Vienna left 10 minutes late; they served a very tasteless pasta with salad. Arrived in Vienna ontime but again no priority handling for the luggage. I cannot share the good reviews of other travellers of OS C-class in Europe. I will not choose them again for European flights in Business. Disappointing!

I came off my early morning (arriving) flight from Dubai at Heathrow and had to check out and in again as I purchased two separate tickets. I had anticipated a nightmare doing this but it was so simple despite terminal change etc. and the online check in queue had no one even though both Lufthansa and Austrian share the check-in zone. Friendly check in staff. Flight OS452 (anniversary livery A320) was much quieter than I expected and there was one of many spare seats next to me. Reading material was brilliant. The snack was nice as were the drinks which included a range of Austrian drinks such as Almdudler and Julius Meinl coffee. The crew were very friendly and the welcome on board was warm. I always enjoy my trips with Austrian and even though soon I'll be leaving my home in Vienna I hope to use Austrian as my airline for connecting flights in the future.

LHR-VIE-BKK in Business. Short haul flights were comfortable and smooth light meal served and seating is the typical 3 in a row with the middle one kept clear. The long haul VIE-BKK flight was on the new lie flat business seats. They were comfortable and the screen for entertainment very good clear sharp but a limited selection of films. The Sky Chef is a really nice touch and food was good - a really tender steak. Crew are generally reserved - but as a Star Alliance gold member I was personally greeted which is a nice touch. My reservations are basically two. The first is seating reservations. On both legs I pre booked a single seat but got put in both cases onto a pair - with the second seat empty. I thought Gold would have given me priority but it seems the Senator Gold was higher- fair enough but worth noting in future. The second was the space in the seats. On the return leg I had 8A (777-200 config) which was fine but outboard I had 10K - right up against economy and with a tight space to 10H - a real squeeze to get in and out. Avoid this seat if possible.