Austrian Airlines

This was our first trip with Austrian and except for the seats in Business class which we felt hard to get really comfortable in the total recline position the flight food and service was excellent. The 5 course meal which you select from the menu and served by the onboard chef in his chef's hat and crew was as good as some of the better restaurants we have eaten in. Crew was very friendly and gave us excellent service. Definitely would fly with them again.

Flew MUC-VIE-WAW several times in C-Class during the last months. Austrian Airlines (OS and VO) by far have the best Intra-European inflight product within the LH group. DO&CO catering is outstanding and flight crews show a high level of hospitality. The new Austrian Star Alliance terminal in VIE is a huge improvement and extremely comfortable for quick and easy connections. New HON lounge is a very nice treat away from the masses of fellow SEN and FTL passengers. Together with ZRH and MUC it has become a great and very comfortable hub in LH group. I hope OS/VO will keep their service level as a benchmark for other LH group members in the future!

CDG-VIE-KLU KLU-VIE-CDG. We missed both connections because of delays during first flight. They offered us a 75€ voucher for compensation despite EU recommendations and 6 hrs delay to KLU and a forced overnight stay in VIE on our way back. We even had to ask 3 times to have a bus ticket to go to the train station.

VIE-CDG-VIE. When I arrived at the airport they told me at the boarding gate that my ticket was cancelled a day before from a service agent. Interesting as I checked in a day before using web check-in and they issued a boarding pass for business class which I hadn't booked. As a Frequent traveller I thought they just gave me an upgrade. Food service - a dry bread with the thinnest slice of cheese and ham which they promote as the best catering by DO&CO. Poorest quality and no recommencing for DO&CO. Ground and Inflight-staff unfriendly. New seats (black and red) look poor and old after a few month in use. I would recommend to close down Austrian and Swiss should start a new hub in Vienna. Sorry. Never again with Austrian.

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.