Review of Austrian Airlines flight Paris → Vienna in Economy

an austrian adventure

Hey guys and welcome to the 2nd of 8 FRs covering my recent trip to Canada! This is a trip that I've wanted to do for a long, long time now and it will include my first long-haul flight since the pandemic and will also be my first time in North America.

But first, I will be travelling between London and Montreal via Birmingham, Paris (ORY & CDG) and Vienna in a journey that will take me 36 hours and 3 flights. 

This will be my second time flying with Austrian, my first being between Vienna and Manchester back in 2018. That was one of my best European medium-haul flights where the crew went around 3 times, handing out 2 drinks and a snack. I'm very curious as to what the airline is like now post-pandemic.  

I paid a total of around €400 in total for a round trip between Paris and Montreal. While this itiniary involved multiple carriers, it was booked on Lufthansa. As far as I'm aware, all economy basic passengers have to pay for seat selection and a checked bag (which costs €65 one way). This means that I paid €165 extra on top of the ~€240 base fare.

Finally, before we get into this FR, I have to mention that Lufthansa has one of the worst websites of any major carrier. I must've spent ages trying to figure out how to add a checked bag and my frequent flyer number only to find out that the option doesn't even exist? In the end I did it on Austrian's website in under 10 minutes.

From 2023, I aim to offset all of my CO2 emission from flights. All emissions are calculated using the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator and I will be funding projects approved by The Gold Standard. The CO2 output for this flight is:

CDG-VIE: 110kg.
Total for 2023 (so far): 457kg.

paris charles-de-gaulle airport (cdg)

If you read my last report you would've known that there was no RER trains running to CDG because of strikes. This meant that I had to get an Uber to the airport. With this being my first time landside at the airport (my only time at CDG previously was to transfer), I naively entered 'Charles-de-Gaulle' as my destination without specifying the terminal. This led to me being dropped off at Terminal 2E, on the other side of the airport to Terminal 1, which is where my flight departs from.

Luckily the airport runs a free terminal shuttle train, which takes around 10 minutes to run from T2 to T1.

I've heard that CDG's Terminal 1 recently underwent a renovation. I've never travelled in this terminal before so can't comment on the differences unfortunately. 

T1 is where the majority of Star Alliance airlines depart from. Our flight (OS420) is the 3rd departure of the day.

T1 is probably one of the most unique airport terminals I've been in. The check-in area is circular in shape, so you can walk around endlessly in loops.

Check-in hall 1.

The check-in desk for Lufthansa Group airlines. I arrived extremely early so there wasn't a queue at all.

Another unique feature of the terminal: the really cool tunnels you walk through to get to security.

The reason the terminal is so interesting is because of its shape. The building is shaped like an octopus, with the central 'head' being the check-in areas and branches leading out to the gates. The gates are also like islands, connecting to the main building with an underground passage.

Passing under a taxiway.

Pretty soon we are through security and into the gates. With the layout of the terminal, each 'branch' would have its own security checkpoint, this means that you are confined to a tiny area once airside.

These 2 photos (above and below) is literally the entire airside area. The photos were taken early so there weren't many people but after a while it can get pretty packed, especially when you've got 3/4 flights departing at once.

The duty-free shops in the area, these open at around 6am.

the flight

Flight time for today is exactly 2 hours, and here is the route:

Once again, the gates were terrible for planespotting so I couldn't get a photo of our plane at all.

Boarding started on time and here is my view for the next two hours.

Some information about our plane:

Type: Airbus A320
Registration: OE-LZF
First flight: October 2012
Age: ~10.5 years

First delivered to Avianca Brasil in October 2012, she flew for the airline until April 2019 before joining Austrian later the same year.

The seats on this A320.

The seat-back pocket and tray table.

The legroom - fairly average but on the better side.

A pair of USB ports behind the seat in front, making it very easy to access.

Pushback 10 minutes late with a Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER (9V-SWH) that's just arrived from Singapore (SIN).

Taxiing to runway 27L.

Takeoff, bye bye Paris!

Climbing above the (very thin) cloud layer.

Over Northern France.

No Wi-Fi on this flight at all it seems.

Pretty soon after takeoff the crew started going around with drinks and only water is free. This is a huge downgrade from the service I had back in 2018 unfortunately.

The airline does offer a fairly extensive BOB menu though.

Inside the seat-back pocket, along with the BOB menu, is:

- 2 safety cards
- an air-sickness bag

And a duty-free catalogue that's only available for non-EU flights, which doesn't apply for us.

Clouds are getting heavier as we approach Austria.

Starting our descent into Vienna.

View of the Danube river.

Lovely views of Vienna on final approach for runway 11.

Oil/plastic refinery right next to the airport.

Welcome to Vienna! Despite our small delay, we landed 20 minutes early.

Parked next to an EVA Boeing 787-10 (B-17802) heading to Bangkok (BKK) and eventually Taipei (TPE).

vienna airport (vie)

With only 90 minutes before my connecton to Montreal, I don't have a lot of time to explore.

The F gates, which are for Schengen destinations.

I'll continue my trip in my next FR, which will cover the long-haul flight to North America. See you there! ;)