One year ago, we were busy preparing to leave the US for our nine month stay in Austria. One of the major areas of preparation was thinking through the flight; I hadn't flown in a number of years, and a ten hour transatlantic flight doesn't really compare to crossing the country.
For our flights, we chose Austrian Airlines as our carrier from Washington D.C.-Dulles to Vienna - Flughafen Wien-Schwechat. And overall, we were very happy with our choice.
My review is based on a few key aspects: price, food, baggage allowance, and comfort.
Price
Price-wise, our tickets with Austrian Airlines couldn't be beat. To keep costs down, we chose to leave and return on Mondays in September and May, respectively. Also, we booked about four months in advance, and our travel agent got us some sort of student discount since we booked before the end of the academic year.
Food
The food was our first taste of Austrian cuisine (literally-I'm so funny), and I pretty much liked everything. Part of the appeal, granted, was knowing that I was trying new flavors, but even considering that, the food was good! On the ten hour flight, we had two meals, a couple snacks, and several opportunities for drinks. Here are some amateur shots of what we had.
For dinner, we chose between pasta and chicken entrees. The pasta was surprisingly well-seasoned, and everything tasted fresh. Each meal had some sort of dessert, and coffee and tea came afterward.
An assortment of salads with rolls and yogurt made up our breakfast. Warm rolls were offered several times throughout the flights. I understand that the photos aren't very flattering, but hey, they were served and consumed tens of thousands of feet above the ocean, and that is AMAZING.
Baggage Allowance
My review of baggage is a bit skewed because we obviously needed to take more for our nine-month stay compared to a regular traveler on vacation.
Our luggage waiting at the Salzburg Hauptbahnhof on our return journey. That was fun to maneuver.
I'm not going to get technical with measurements, but we were allowed to bring one large suitcase (the largest in a three-suitcase set) with a maximum weight of 23 kg (~50 lbs), one carry-on (the smallest in a set), and one personal item (a small backpack, purse, or hand bag). These limits were sufficient for our way there, but on the way home, we added an additional checked bag, a 70-liter rucksack. It ended up costing us an additional 75 Euros (100 USD).
I found that the airline workers at our originating airport in the U.S. were much more lackadaisical than their Austrian counterparts when it came to baggage. Being the Type A person that I am, I carefully measured and weighed my bags before going to the airport. Not to be penalized, I made sure my bags didn't protrude and exceed the limit. Exciting, I know, but I didn't want to start our trip off with unwanted fees slapped in our faces. When I got to the airport, I swear one girl looked like she was smuggling three tennis rackets in her personal item. At the weigh-in, I was asked if my checked bag weighed more than fifty pounds. "No, I weighed it at home." My bag then went onto a conveyer belt, and I didn't see it again until Vienna. Really nonchalant. On the way home, however, my bag was weighed, and we had to distribute an extra ten pounds from my bag into our others. The Austrian Airlines worker was very nice about it though, we did it immediately, and we went on with our day. So, moral of the story: don't worry (too much) about your baggage.
Comfort
A few things are lumped together for consideration in my comfort category. The ride home was more comfortable than the ride there, primarily because the plane was much newer. The entertainment system was much improved; we were able to select, pause, and change the movie or TV episode we were watching instead of having the videos play on loops during the flight. Also, the selection of movies/TV episodes improved. I also recall some sort of "I Spy" game on the newer system we liked. Having quality entertainment on a nice screen helped me feel relaxed and not think so much about the flight.
Austrian Airlines should have limited the number of times it played this advertisement to passengers in Economy when we switched movies. The first time: cool. After: annoying.
Ben was apparently entertained by Gangster Squad. He brought along ear buds, which was a wise decision. The ones provided by the airline were flimsy.
What can I say? If you want to sleep well on a plane, go Business Class. Our seats were fine; they did what they needed to do. It's amazing what sort of positions you can contort your body into when you really just need to nap for an hour.
There was room under our seats for our (modestly-sized) personal items. Mine had my laptop, camera, purse, wallet, passport, external hard drive, etc. stuffed into it.
The flight attendants all spoke German and English, so I had no problem communicating with them and felt comfortable enough to try a little bit of German with them.
Overall, I was as comfortable as I could reasonably expect to be, and Austrian did their part to ensure that. If going to Austria again (or elsewhere on the continent), I would absolutely considering flying with Austrian Airlines.
And we got home safely!
