Review of Air Berlin flight Düsseldorf → Venice in Economy

Welcome to this Fight Report Series!

BACKGROUND

This summer I was travelling with my family to Iceland and Venice for a few weeks. Iceland is somewhere I always wanted to go to, and I am very exited to finally be seeing that country. My Mom really wanted to go to the architecture biennale in Venice and I found a really cheap flight VCE-JFK via IST on TK for $377 per person. After Venice I will be joining my family on my Dad's side for a week long beach holiday at Bethany Beach, Delaware. After that I will be returning to SFO (or OAK, actually) on WN from BWI. To clear out any confusing IATA codes HFN is Höfn, a town in southern Iceland, and FEI is a small Icelandic domestic carrier called Eagle Air (it doesn't have an ICAO code). RKV is Reykjavik's smaller domestic airport. Here is a map of my routing from gcmap.com (excluding my one domestic flight from RVK-HFN):


Here is my routing:
SFO-BOS VX352 Y http://flight-report.com/en/report/16114/Virgin-America-VX352-San-Francisco-SFO-Boston-BOS
BOS-KEF FI632 Y http://flight-report.com/en/report/17405/Icelandair-FI-632-Boston-BOS-Reykjav-k-KEF#c362114

RVK-HFN FEI742 Y http://flight-report.com/en/report/17150/Eagle-Air-Iceland-FEI-742-Reykjavik-RKV-Hornafjordur-HFN%3Fv=68

KEF-DUS AB3929 Y http://flight-report.com/en/report/17402/Air-Berlin-AB3929-Reykjav-k-KEF-D-sseldorf-DUS
DUS-VCE AB8762 Y HERE

VCE-IST TK1870 Y Coming Soon
IST-JFK TK003 Y Coming Soon

BWI-OAK WN565 Y


My routing from gcmap.com:




My domestic flight:





This is my third leg where I will travel from KEF to VCE on AB. These flights were very expensive, but I couldn't find anything cheaper so I reluctently booked this flight connecting in DUS. Unfortunately I don't have so many pictures of this flight so please pardon the lack of detail.


FLIGHT REPORT

We left off at the arrival gate of my flight from KEF (Flight Report here). After struggling to find my gate through DUS's many unmarked passageways and multiple levels, I have finnally made it in time for the final call at gate B42 A.

Here is the info for my flight from DUS-KEF.


Routing: DUS-VCE
Flight: AB 8762
Departure: 8:15 am
Arrival: 10:05 am
Flight Time: 1 hour 50 mins
Plane: Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 (D-ABQN)


Gate B42 A at DUS





We will be having a tour of DUS by PaxBus:




EY 787-9 bound for AUH





We arrive at our Q400, registered D-ABQN




Pic before entering plane:




Boarding:





Legroom (sorry about being upside-down):





Seatback pocket contents:





An AB A330:





Taxiing to the runway:




Upon our ontime takeoff, we get a nice view of the DUS apron:




Both the takeoff and approach to DUS offer nice views of the city:





After takeoff, we are offered drinks, I ask for a tea with extra milk and a cup of water:



I'd like to point out that the milk I got was neither extra, neither was it milk. I reicived only one tiny creamer packet.

The drinks were served with a raisin bread roll like on the KEF-DUS flight. However, on this flight the bread wasn't warm like on the KEF-DUS flight. This made the bread rather unappitizing :(


The cup's branding is cool:



It translates to "Milk? Sugar? Miles?"


Does anyone know what airport this is? Maybe Salzburg??



Thanks in advance!


Italian countryside near Venice:





The approach to VCE is interesting.


Industrial area:




The bridge to Venice:




Gear Down:




On the ground at VCE




We were offered a heart shaped chocolate while deplaning into the warm Italian sun. I found that to be a nice gesture (I found this on google images)





The baggage claim was very crowded, but we were somehow able to retreive our luggage.


CONCLUSION

Airberlin meets all my expectations for a regional carrier but isn't anything to write home about.

The cabin could definitley be more spacious, but was clean enough.

The crew were efficient, but not as kind as the crew on the KEF-DUS flight. They did their job, but nothing more.

There was no entertainment whatsoever, but this flight was short.

The catering are the same as what you'd expect on a US carrier for this flight time.

Overall, AB is a good enough airline if you dont pay too mutch for it. They are comparable to the US carriers exept you get one free checked bag in coach, which is a nice.