Austrian Airlines

Flew LHR-VIE-DXB return business. Check in fast in LHR no wait at security although no fast track lane. Star Alliance Lounge breakfast as normal busy with adequate refreshments. Flight boarded on time. Nice breakfast on board. Fast change in VIE in new Terminal up one floor through security and onto plane to DXB. Planes are old yes but clean and for 5 hrs flight all you need. Lots of staff very friendly. On-board food excellent better than many restaurants. Seats are hard but they are okay for the day flight. IFE very poor one screen black and white only. Otherwise very good. All Austrian planes park on tarmac at DXB. separate bus for business passengers. Coming back night flight 0150. Lounge at DXB small but good food and drink. On soon as on board food offered or as I did sleep! Bed is okay hard but put blanket under me was better. Front seats have more leg room but for night flight take other seats they have foot well to stop you sliding down! Used pillow as leg rest. Had good sleep. Nice breakfast. Used new lounge at VIE great showers and refresh then onto LHR. Flight good excellent food again.

Flight: In last month. Flew Munich-Vienna-Bologna-Florence. The Fokker 100 plane was rather old hence the seats were old. My preferred seat is the A seat in the last row. So naturally I choose this one when checking in. So it was my fault that I was sitting right next to the engine. The noise was incredible. I plugged my headphones in to die down the noise a little. Service was mediocre. Nothing special - regional airline standard I guess. The connection in Vienna was strange since we had to pass security again though we had been cleaned in Munich. The waiting area for regional flights in Vienna is old and shabby. Not much to do. At least they had free internet - but it disconnected every 10 minutes or so. Wasn't too fond of that experience but bet that the medium and long haul product is a lot better.

After recently having flown 5 star Qatar from Doha to Johannesburg in business class Austrian was a wonderful surprise! I took an old B777 from Vienna to Narita Tokyo and experienced one of my best long haul trips. Boarding was smooth and swift departure was on time. Cabin is colorful and not very trendy but the retro feeling inside is loveable. It was clean and neat. Unparalleled service started right after taking off. Do&Co Vienna restaurateurs' on board chef convert the cabin into an ultra-class restaurant above the clouds. Best cuisine I have ever had on an airplane. Cabin attendants did their best to make passengers feel great throughout the flight. Those criticized angled flat sleeper seats are not that bad not worse that of Lufthansa. Using the control buttons they can be adjusted to nearly horizontal. Entertainment system is outdated compared to other airlines. Fabulous meals drinks and perfect service compensate everything else. 5 star experience indeed.

Very disorganized loading. Planes are so old the fittings are dated and few function well. Seats felt like wood frames with no padding left at all. Business class with supposed lay flat seats really just angle to a very awkward position. Video screens are too small to watch with really no choice of movies only those shown on a loop are available.

Flew from Istanbul to Heathrow via Vienna the legroom I thought was not too bad the flights went as planned and on time and staff were friendly enough. In Istanbul I thought the check-in desks could have opened earlier than they did less than 2 hours before departure. I would certainly fly Austrian again as the planes were relatively new clean and comfortable. The only thing that I could not do as I have done with other airlines I have flown is try and pick my seat when booking the flight it may just be because the flight came up on the Lufthansa booking site but never mind all in all I was pretty happy with it all.

Flew IAD-VIE. Aircraft sat on the tarmac for nearly 40 minutes in the baking heat. When various pax asked why they could not turn on the air conditioning the reply was the ac could only be turned on when they turned the aircraft engines on. Screaming children people fanning themselves in vain and no even a glass of water offered. Needless to say the economy class cabin smelt like a pig pen throughout the flight. Terrible IFE with dated movies. Gives another meaning to cattle class. First and last time with Austrian.

CDG-VIE-BKK-VIE-BKK. 10 flights with Star Alliance (Swiss Austrian and Lufthansa) in 2 weeks and I have to say: never again with Austrian Airlines which calls itself a full-service airline. I had a seat reservation on all flights and on 3 of 4 flights I had to move - whether at check-in or onboard! Pre-ordered special meal onboard? Not available. Inflight entertainment - didn't work properly at my seat. Friendly flight attendants - no change. I have supported OS for many years but this was the last time I flew with them. Definitely not a full-service airline anymore.

BKK-VIE return on 777-200 in Business. Service from the crew and chef was fantastic and the food was excellent especially out of BKK. However nothing can make up for the worst seat I have ever sat on. When boarding you are bombarded by 70's green carpet pale blue bulkheads and purple seats with wood grain shells and yellow pillows! That could be excused if the seat made up for it but it is impossible to get comfortable in any position as it feels like being on a hard lumpy narrow bench. I used 2 blankets to try and soften the seat / angled bed but forget sleeping. The cabin was too warm which only added to the discomfort. The 'entertainment' system is a joke - on a loop with fuzzy screen and cheap headphones. A total disappointment that the service and catering can not make up for.

DXB-VIE-BRU in business class. First leg on 767-300ER looking nice from the outside (winglets) but 20yrs back to the past when inside. The interior is very dated indeed: very narrow and worn-out seat no flat bed poor IFE odd colours. Austrian flights always bussed to the airplane at DXB. Positive are the FAs and the quality of the catering and the cheaper fees which do reflect the quality of the product. Austrian is not 4 stars long-haul. VIE airport not very welcoming either but a new terminal is to open in June for Austrian. However the VIE-BRU leg serviced by a brand new 737-800 excellent seat excellent breakfast top-notch short haul.

Travelled to Bangkok from London Heathrow via Vienna. Direct flights are always preferable but this trip was actually not too bad as the stopovers both on the way out and back were fairly short. Managed to sleep both ways but found the cabin too hot for my liking - a case of put the customers asleep and then less hassle for the crew? Food was generally good however drinks were not offered very freely. Otherwise service was efficient and professional. The business lounge in Bangkok is provided by Thai Airways and is very good with wonderful showers. By contrast the D terminal in Vienna is not great - a glorified ex-staff room with only one male toilet resulting in a queue for the facilities! I hope the new terminal at Vienna will resolve this issue and a better lounge provided? Also when boarding for the flight to London there was no pre-boarding for Business passengers which resulted in the inevitable crush. The inflight entertainment is ok - in the end if you are trying to sleep you don't need to watch more than one movie a flight. All in all I would certainly fly Austrian again.