OS203 VIE-FRA

May 28th, 2024

Posts in this series:

Introduction - A Random Jaunt to Europe

Review - Virgin Atlantic Premium Class A330-300 Miami to London Heathrow

Review - JW Marriott Grosvenor House London

Review - Imperial Riding School, Autograph Collection, Vienna

Review - Grand Hotel Kempinski High Tatras

Review - Austrian Airlines Business Class A321 Vienna to Frankfurt

Review - Lufthansa Business Class B747-8 Frankfurt to Miami

Check-in:

To get back to Miami, we flew Austrian from Vienna to Frankfurt first. Austrian is a cute little airline. I flew with them many years ago from Vienna to DC and had a great experience. Particularly memorable were the Mozart upon boarding and an extensive coffee menu. On this short hop though, I wasn’t expecting too much, given business class products within Europe were generally underwhelming.

We arrived at Vienna International Airport (VIE) a tad shy of 7am for our 8am departure. Check-in was efficient, as we already did so online and just needed to drop off our luggage. Austrian had a dedicated aisle for frequent fliers and business class passengers.

Security was a breeze, so we even had a brief moment to check out the lounge.

Lounge:

Since our first flight was within the Schengen Zone, we visited the Schengen lounge. Interestingly, most of the lounge had already cleared out from the morning rush by the time we arrived.

Austrian is a member airline of the Lufthansa Group, and Lufthansa Group has this quirk that they divide their lounges into Business Lounges for business class passengers, and Senator Lounges for elite members. Technically, the Senator Lounges were aimed to be more premium than Business Lounges. Although anecdotally, I found both to be largely mediocre🤪. We used the business lounge on account of our business class ticket.

The business lounge consisted of several seating areas, with a central dining room, some chairs along the windows facing the apron, and a back room with TVs and a quiet area.

Breakfast was served in the lounge during our visit. We didn’t have any, as we were still full from our dinner the night before at Steiereck. It looked good though, and there was a staff member there to plate the dishes for travelers. Austrian was the first airline that I know of to use Do & Co as its catering company, so you should expect the food to be better than average.

Boarding:

We finished our coffee at the lounge and headed to the boarding gate, only to find out our flight was delayed by 30mins. The gate agent informed us that the aircraft wasn’t towed from the hangar in time. Oh well, at least boarding was quick once we got started.

As many of you know, business class in Europe is just economy with a blocked middle seat. With that in mind, the cabin on Austrian was well maintained and clean.

We selected the bulkhead row for extra legroom.

Inflight:

Cabin door was soon closed. Business class ended up being almost half full, and 9 passengers (including us) were spread out across 5 rows.

Our flight time today was barely an hour, so I was expecting a continental breakfast. Granted I haven’t flown within Europe much in the past few years. Service quickly started with a packaged towelette.

To my surprise, a hot breakfast was served on this short flight. The only option available was the omelette, which was served with a croissant and a yogurt.

While I wouldn’t say I was blown away by the quality here, the omelette seriously slapped. The eggs had such an eggy and pure flavor, and it was not greasy at all. I think 99% of airplane omelettes always swim in oil.

Beverages were plentiful onboard. I just had some tea, but I saw our neighbors ordering sparkling wine, and the flight attendant tied a cute little napkin ribbon on it. Before we descended, the FA went around the cabin to offer the signature Austrian chocolates, which were served even in economy.

Our approach into Frankfurt was scenic. We flew over downtown Frankfurt and the Main River and even spotted a Lufthansa plane midair.

On Arrival:

We passed many Lufthansa jumbo jets and eventually parked next a United Dreamliner.

We had a pleasant little flight on Austrian. Austrian is much more charming when compared to some other airlines in Europe, like Iberia or SAS. Our FA/purser was personable and charismatic, and she sounded like she went to an English boarding school. I’m excited to try Austrian’s new Dreamliners, although I do wish they had installed a bespoke product, rather than inheriting the same seats from Bamboo Airways.