#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
Hey guys and welcome to FR number 3 of 8 covering my recent trip to Canada.
I've been looking forward to this flight for quite a while now as it would be my first long-haul since the pandemic. I'm also super excited to see what Austrian's long-haul product is like as there aren't as many reviews on it, especially compared to its Lufthansa Group counterparts Lufthansa and Swiss. I'm quite sure we've all heard (or seen) Lufthansa's cost cutting measures on their long-haul product so I'm really hoping Austrian haven't gone down the same path. Although judging by my last flight with them, I'm not too sure.
This flight will also be on the 767. It's quite a rare type for European carriers although I do know US carriers like United and Delta still have a lot of them flying around. All of this combined makes this quite a special transatlantic flight, so you can see why I'm so excited to try this out.
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 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: 372kg.
Total for 2023 (so far): 829kg.
I'll pick this FR up exactly where I left off on the last one - in the Schengen F gates having gotten off my flight from Paris Charles de Gaulle.
Departures for this morning - our flight (OS73) can be found right at the bottom of the first screen.
Transferring between the F gates and the D gates (where our flight leaves from) takes around 20 minutes including a short bus ride, the bus is fairly frequent so it didn't take too much waiting.
On the way to passport control.
The D gates in Vienna is probably the worst part of the airport overall as it is the oldest. This is my 2nd time transferring in Vienna (the first between Asia and the UK in 2018) and both times I have had the unfortunate luck of being stuck here.
One of the (many) reasons why I hate this area so much is because of this:
This infuriates me as it's a perfect window for planespotting yet they decided to cover it up with a metal structure.
Not only can I not planespot, this area is also tiny so there's not much exploration that can be done either. With the area mainy for wide-bodies, there will obviously be a lot of passengers which means that everything is really crowded too.
However, having transferred here before, I remembered a semi-hidden area behind a small walkway right after passport control. It's on the right and the entrance is just marked with a toilets symbol. This area is usually much, much quieter than the rest of the airport and is where I spent my 4 hours back in 2018.
Still, the whole place is kinda ruined by the horrible metal structure covering an amazing view of the apron and runway. But that's not an issue if you don't care about planespotting (which is basically the opposite of me).
Once again, no photo of the plane thanks to the horrible design of the airport.
Flight time will be over 8 hours and here is our route for today:
Some info about our plane:
Type: Boeing 767-300ER
Registration: OE-LAE
First flight: October 2000
Age: 22.5 years
First delivered to Lauda Air in November 2000 without winglets, the aircraft then moved to Austrian in January 2005 and had winglets installed 4 years later in 2009.
Picture of the IFE (which we'll look into later) and the tray table.
Legroom - very average.
On the seat is also a blanket…
… And a pillow.
First views out of the wing - my favourite seat on any plane is the window seat right behind the wing.
One thing to note about the 767 is that it has a 2-3-2 configuration, which means only 7 seats in a row. This is lower than the 8 or 9 abreast seating on the A330 or 787, leading to wider seats (at least from my experience).
Pushback 10 minutes late.
Taxiing out to runway 29.
View of the airport while on takeoff roll.
Bye bye Europe. ;)
Climbing out of Vienna.
And through the clouds we go!
Right after takeoff the crew came around with snacks (rosemary crackers) and drinks.
Over Germany as lunch is served.
For lunch there are the 2 classic options: chicken or pasta. I went with the chicken. The main was chicken tikka with egg (I think). The egg was rather bland and tasteless, other than that the chicken was good. Along with the chicken was a salad, chocolate cake (very nice) and a bread roll, which was so hard it was almost inedible. Overall, the meal was fine.
Something that really annoyed me about the tray table was the lack of a cup indentation. It sounds like such a small thing but it was so annoying, especially with a long haul flight. I simply can't think of a reason why Austrian didn't include one.
Over the English Channel - it's so weird to be cruising above my home at 35,000ft and not landing there for once.
This flight, like my last medium-haul one, does not have any Wi-Fi. But anyway, time to have a look at the IFE:
The menu.
On the right is a USB port for charging and a headphone jack.
With 100+ movies and 182 TV shows, Austrian does offer a nice selection on paper. However, in practice I found the selection to be rather uninteresting. This is probably most of the movies are newer and lesser known titles (at least for someone who doesn't watch a lot of films like me) and very few older, popular classics. On top of that, I found the kids selection to by very lacking.
Other than that, the airline also offers a wide selection of music and games.
Finally, there is the flight map - I do miss having the interactive map available on the newer IFEs though.
All in all, I found the IFE to be disappointing. The screen itself was really nice and responsive, but the selection of movies and TV shows really let the whole thing down.
Finally, it's important to note that Austrian do supply headphones - however it was located deep inside the seatback pocket and I basically missed it completely until an hour before landing when I was searching for my phone.
After this, I slept for an hour or two and watched a movie on the IFE. Before long, it was already almost time to land (this is quite a bit shorter than the 10+ hour flights I'm used to taking between Europe and Asia).
Photo of the toilet - it was still very clean after 6 hours in the air.
Over Newfoundland as the crew started handing out a before-landing snack.
It was a ham and cheese sandwich with a chocolate dessert, both were delicious.
Clouds are finally beginning to break up as we enter Quebec.
Descending into Montreal.
Flying over the St Lawrence River.
On final for runway 24L.
A slightly bumpy approach later, we landed on time in Montreal.
Parked at the gate.
Heading to customs.
The airport was very efficient with basically no queues. After around 10 minutes at customs, I am through into baggage reclaim.
It took me around 30 minutes in total to go from the gate to the arrivals area.
That's the end of my 36 hour journey between London and Montreal. My next few reports will be on domestic flights in Canada. Thanks for reading and I'll see you there!
A nice flight with Austrian. Meals were alright, although it definitely could be better. The seats are really nice, especially with the 2-3-2 configuration on the Boeing 767. However, the IFE is the biggest let-down for me. The screens are nice and responsive, but the selection of movies and shows really aren't good, especially if you're travelling with kids. In conclusion, Austrian offers a decent product overall compared to their Lufthansa Group counterparts but it's honestly nothing special.
Vienna Airport (VIE) - The D gates is by far the worst part of the airport and I've ended up transferring there twice in a row now. It is a shame as the rest of the airport is really amazing and modern. All in all a really nice and efficient airport as long as you avoid the D gates.
Montreal Trudeau Airport (YUL) - Super modern and efficient, a nice selection of shops landside and a frequent bus service to downtown. Nothing to complain about really.
7 Comments
Im flying on the same route at the other way later this year (YUL-VIE) can’t wait to see how it’ll be !
Thanks for this review and see you soon !
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy your flight!
Yikes, yeah that's one of the most important things to me since I mostly travel with my kid and having a good selection can make the difference between a peaceful flights or not, haha.
Thanks for sharing!
And maybe I'm just a big kid but the kid's section is always my go-to whenever there's nothing interesting on the IFE, so you can imagine my disappointment when there wasn't much on there either.
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