#78 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
353 reviews
I went to Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan for a short holiday. There are not too many options from Europe. Most people fly with Austrian or Turkish. It’s also possible to connect through the Middle-East with Egyptair, Emirates, MEA, Pegasus, Qatar or Royal Jordanian but all these mean longer flight times and higher prices. There are also three airlines from Iraq that fly directly from Europe to Erbil. The most notable is FlyErbil (operated by UR Airlines) with flights from Amsterdam, Berlin, Cologne, Copenhagen, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hannover, Istanbul and Munich. FlyBaghdad and Iraqi Airways also fly between Istanbul and Erbil. These airlines are not very well known outside of Iraq and can be difficult to book. There’s also a twice-weekly Eurowings flight from Düsseldorf.
I originally booked the following flights:
Amsterdam to Vienna, Austrian, economy
Vienna to Erbil, Austrian, economy
Erbil to Istanbul, FlyBaghdad, economy
Istanbul to Amsterdam, Turkish Airlines, business
But I had the following flights:
Amsterdam to Vienna, Austrian, business
Vienna to Erbil, Austrian, business
Erbil to Istanbul, Turkish Airlines, business
Istanbul to Amsterdam, Turkish Airlines, business
I booked a one-way flight in economy class from Amsterdam to Vienna to Erbil for an extremely low price of 233 €. Business class would have been 1046€ and the price difference did not seem to be reasonable for an intra-European business class product. But I was first offered an upgrade for the flight from Amsterdam to Vienna for 130€ and later from Vienna to Erbil for 175€ so I paid a total of 538€ to fly in business class instead of 1046€. This is much better value.
I stayed at the CitizenM hotel at Amsterdam Airport, within walking distance from the terminal building. It's a very modern hotel with small, well-designed smart room where you have to use an IPad or download an app even to turn the TV off.
The airport was not fully waken up at 05.30. Most shops were still closed.
There are 28 departures between 05.50 and 06.55 and another 39 between 07.00 and 07.55.
I had already checked in on-line and I always travel with a hand luggage only so I didn’t need to go to the check-in desks.
There was no waiting time at the fast track security.
I could go directly to the Star Alliance lounge.
The lounge is large and was not crowded.
Many seats are in poor condition.
There's a small choice of food for breakfast:
Drinks are also available:
It takes at least 10 minutes to walk from the lounge to the gate. Boarding started a minute after I got to the gate.
Our plane as seen from the terminal: OE-LBL built in 2003.
Austrian has a typical intra-European business class with 3+3 standard economy seats with the middle seats blocked. The divider between business and economy classes is movable depending on the demand. There were only two rows of business class this morning with a load of 3/8.
Legroom was quite good.
I didn't have a neighbour.
A refreshing towel was offered.
Boarding was completed on time but there was a lot of delay due to some loading paper issues. People in yellow Aviapartner Operations and orange Sabena Engineering work suits came to the cockpit several times.
Water was offered in business class.
Doors were finally closed at 07.37. An expected flight time of 1 hour and 25 minutes was announced. Push-back was at 07.39 for a scheduled departure time of 07.00. We took off at 07.48.
The views below and above the clouds.
A hot breakfast was served about 20 minutes after take-off. The sausage and tomato omelette was better than average and so was the bread.
I had some tea and orange juice.
Service was super friendly.
A chocolate was offered towards to end of the flight.
The cabin crew knew I was flying to Erbil and proactively told me that there should be no problem to get to my connecting flight as we only had a delay of 20 minutes at arrival.
The town of Groß-Enzersdorf near Vienna Schwechat Airport.
The Danube.
The A4 motorway goes from Vienna to the airport and further on to the border with Hungary.
We landed at Vienna Airport at 09.08 and were at the gate at 09.14 for a scheduled arrival time of 08.50.
Wizzair now flies to 36 different airports from Vienna.
But Austrian remains the king of the airport with 127 destinations.
This was a very good intra-European business class flight, except the delay at departure. Amsterdam Airport was not busy and was easy to use. The Star Alliance lounge was not crowded. There was only a small choice of food and drinks and some of the furniture needed to be replaced. There were only two rows of business class on this flight. Legroom was good. A good hot breakfast was offered. Service was exceptionally friendly. The flight was as good as it gets on an intra-European business class product.
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