Hello, and welcome to my very first Trip Report here on Flight-Report! I’ve been following the site for a very long time, so I’m quite happy to start sharing my own experiences with you guys. This first series will cover my recent trip back to my hometown, New York, over the winter holidays of 2018. Here’s what the itinerary was initially planned to be:
Austrian 283 | Dash 8-Q400 | INN-FRA | December 24th, 2018 | Economy
Singapore 26 | A380-800 | FRA-JFK | December 25th, 2018 | Economy
United 1697 | A319 | LGA-ORD | January 5th, 2019 | Economy Plus
LOT 32 | 787-8 Dreamliner | ORD-BUD | January 6th, 2019 | Economy
Austrian 714 | Dash 8-Q400 | BUD-VIE | January 7th, 2019 | Economy
However, due to some last minute schedule changes, it ended up looking like this:
Austrian 285 | Dash 8-Q400 | INN-FRA | December 23rd, 2018 | Economy: You are here
SWISS 1073 | A220-100 | FRA-ZRH | December 23rd, 2018 | Economy: Next up
SWISS 18 | A330-300 | ZRH-EWR | December 23rd, 2018 | Economy: After that
United 1697 | A319 | LGA-ORD | January 5th, 2019 | Economy Plus: Later
Lufthansa 435 | A350-900 | ORD-MUC | January 5th, 2019 | Economy: Eventually
I booked this itinerary using United MileagePlus miles as 3 separate itineraries:
- INN-EWR booked for 30k miles
- LGA-ORD booked for 12.5k miles
- ORD-MUC booked for 30k miles
Without further ado, on the the flight.
I took the F bus from near my apartment to the airport. The bus was kind of crowded (by Innsbruck standards), but that wasn't surprising, given that a lot of tourists were flying back home after their ski vacations.
About 10 minutes later, I arrived at Innsbruck's Kranebitten Airport.
Luckily, most people don't fly Austrian out of Innsbruck, so the check-in line was the shortest of all. Plus I have Star Alliance Gold, so I can always use the Premier Access lane.
Quite a few flights today.
Security was slow because of a mix of first-time travelers and overwhelmed staff, so it took me a good 15 minutes to clear. Once airside, there are some chairs and a duty-free shop on the ground level.
Upstairs, however, there is the relatively new Tyrol Lounge, which is where I went.
The lounge was very nice and still has that new smell to it. The are also some chairs with a great view of the tarmac. The only problem was that because it is on the small side, it can be very hard to find a seat when it is crowded, like when I visited it. To add to the problem, the British Airways flight to Heathrow was delayed because its inbound flight diverted to Munich because of the weather in Innsbruck, so there were a ton of passengers in the lounge. I'll let the pictures of the lounge do most of the talking.
The food spread was also quite good, with a selection of bread, jams, drinks, and cold cuts. There were a number of people at the buffet, so I didn't feel very comfortable taking pictures.
I got myself some cold cuts as a snack.
The lounge is also a great place for planespotting. Unfortunately, there was only one aircraft on the ground at the time, this Transavia 737-800 (PH-HXJ) heading to Amsterdam.
After a while, I started to get worried that my aircraft hadn't shown up yet, and that multiple aircraft had already diverted to Munich. Luckily, a few minutes later, this guy showed up.
The aircraft that would fly me to Frankfurt was OE-LGL, an 8.8-year old Dash 8-Q400, named Altenrhein. The aircraft was delivered to Austrian Arrows in May 2010, and transferred to Austrian in July 2012.
After a very pleasant half hour, I decided to bid adieu to the lounge and head to the gate for boarding.
A few minutes later, boarding commenced. My favorite thing about small airports like Innsbruck? You get to walk on the tarmac to reach the aircraft.
Servus, Altenrhein!
I was greeted by a friendly middle-aged purser at the door, and proceeded to find my seat, 6A.
Passed through a mini 'Business Class' cabin.
At my seat.
The seat itself is very uncomfortable and the back rest is very thin. In addition, the cabin is very small. But for this 1 hour flight, it's ok.
In the seatback pocket are the safety card.
Austrian's Skylines magazine.
And the Inflight Shopping magazine, which is useless on such a short flight.
A nice view of the prop from my seat.
Shortly after I boarded, the purser made her welcome announcement and announced our flight time of 1 hour and 5 minutes.
We fired up the engines and started taxiing to Runway 08 for a takeoff to the east.
After an EasyJet A320 landed, it was our turn to takeoff.
V1, Rotate.
Into the clouds almost immediately after takeoff.
View of the Nordkette.
Mountains, mountains, and more mountains.
A look at the cabin.
A few minutes later, Captain Mario added his welcome over the PA and advised us that we were Northeast of Augsburg with around 40 minutes of flying time remaining. Around this time, a small snack was served.
It consisted of a drink (water for me), and some Italian crackers.
Even though we cruised at 20,000 feet, we never quite broke through the cloud cover
Typical Dash 8 PSU.
A look at an empty Business Class cabin. There was only one Business Class passenger, IIRC.
The view from a very scratched window of 1A.
I doubt that Do & Co provides the catering from this flight, but maybe for Business Class they do.
There was no running water in the bathroom, so the crew left some wet towels for everyone to use.
Shortly after I returned from the bathroom, we commenced our decent into Frankfurt.
Lufthansa A321.
First sight of German soil.
Großkrotzenburg Power Station.
Landing Gear coming down.
On Approach to Runway 25C.
Over taxiways Tango and Uniform.
And a very smooth landing!
Taxiing off the runway.
Condor 767-300ER off to somewhere warm (probably).
Pulling into our remote stand next to a Lufthansa Regional CRJ900 (D-ACNU 'Uetersen') which will soon fly to Münster/Osnabrück.
Lufthansa A330-300 taking off.
One final look at the cabin.
Cockpit.
Deplaning.
One last look at OE-LGL.
The routing of my flight.
Thanks for tuning into this trip report, and be sure to catch the second part, on a SWISS A220-100 to Zürich. Don't hesitate to leave a comment below if you have any questions, comments, or anything else! :)
Welcome to Flight report even though you have been with us for a period like you said.
Did you miss your flight due to an late arrival? I often notice when looking at itineraries of Lufthansa's group from Amsterdam too that connections are very tight and prone to be missed (45 min to 70 min), but at least you got to experience an A220. I personally enjoy LX more than LH.
Thank you! Actually what happened was a.) I felt like spending some more time in New York, so arriving earlier was a nice option and b.) I would have had to book a hotel for the night in Frankfurt and I didn't feel like losing a day just to get from Innsbruck to Frankfurt. It is true, though, LH Group does sell very tight connections that are prone to be missed. I mis-connected in Frankfurt just 2 days ago. But that's an FR for another time :) Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. Stay tuned for the next part. Spoiler alert: I love the A220.
Welcome and thanks for your first FR.
I love Innsbruck airport, the approach and the landscape around the terminal.
Too bad the weather was bad as this flight would have been pretty scenic.
Looking forward to your upcoming reviews.
Thanks so much! Yes, Innsbruck does have some awesome views on takeoff and landing, and I will have an upcoming report on a much more beautiful day. Thanks for visiting! ?
Hi NewYorker, very nice first FR! I assume you got my replies, since it looks like you were able to post.
Both the pre-schedule and post sched change itineraries have plenty of good stuff for AvGeeks...Swapped the SQ A388 and LO B788 for an LX A220 and LH A359 :-)
The lounge looks pretty nice for a secondary European city, despite the crowds. And there's great views for planespotting!
Agreed, there's nothing quite like the smell of Jet A and the wind in your hair. You're right about it being more fun at smaller airports because tarmac boarding at larger hub airports, despite the AvGeeky fun of it all, is usually super inconvenient and means additional time for boarding or deplaning.
Doh! I don't think I've ever been in a Dash 8 that didn't have super scratched up windows. Not sure if it's because the landing gear is right there and kicks up rocks, etc, but it's a pretty consistent thing to have scratched windows IME
Looking forward to the CSeries...umm, I mean A220 report ?
Thanks again for sharing your first report here and welcome to Flight-Report!
Thanks for the kind words, Kevin! I love reading your FRs, so it really means a lot to me. Also, thanks for your very speedy replies. Yeah, I was slightly bummed when I cancelled the SQ part of the itinerary, but the A220 and A350 were well worth it. The lounge quite nice indeed, even I’m impressed! I’m Sofia, a capital city, all the lounges are dreadful. Kudos to the airport management. I think the best places for outdoor boarding are small airports with heavy jets. Easter Island and Papeete come to mind. The Dash does have very scratched up windows, but I’ve never seen it that bad! Do stay tuned for part 2 in the next few days/weeks. Again, thanks for the kind words ?
As I am a prop pilot myself, I could tell you that those scratches are mainly caused by the propellers of the plane when flying through moisture. As propellers usually fly at an altitude of 15.000 to 28.000 ft, it often means that you are flying in icing or cloudy conditions which of course contain rain or ice. This could freeze on the propellers and be thrown towards the windows with high speeds. That's the reason you usually find lots of scratch marks near the windows in close proximity to the propeller....
Thanks Thomas! That is really interesting to know as I've always wondered. Thanks for sharing your expertise ?
Lovely report, NewYorker!
I wonder why they need an electric fan at the lounge. It looks like it's the cold season of the year.
Have you tried the flightradar24 app? It's very useful in those cases!
Looks beautiful!
Yeah!!!
Breathtaking views!
I only have congrats! This is the kind of reports I like the most - detailed from beginning to end, and with great aerials!
Thanks a lot for sharing! :)
Thanks for reading, nechus! I think that the electric fans are there mostly for design, but it also begs the question why weren’t there electric heaters, too. I love using FlightRadar24, but the Dash 8 loses coverage partially because of the mountains, so you can’t see it on the map around Innsbruck unless it’s over ~7,000 feet. Nothing beats tarmac boardings! And the views are even better on a sunny day. Thanks for kind words. I’m glad you enjoyed my first FR. Stay tuned for part two!