#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
Time to head back to London from Vienna, again in business on Austrian.
I had made my way from my friends' apartment, where I had spent a few hours after checking out of my hotel (the excellent DoubleTree by Hilton Vienna Schonbrunn - discussed in the tourism bonus section of my previous review) to the nearest tram stop but unfortunately a fault meant that I ended up walking quite far to get to the nearest U-bahn stop. As usual, a trip on the S-bahn to the airport meant I made it with plenty of time, with check-in and security taking only 10 minutes.
Soon I was through into the Austrian Business Lounge (Non-Schengen) at the G-gate pier. I took advantage of the lounge being quiet to nab a table and get some hot food from the lounge. This turned out to be quite a good idea, as there was soon an announcement of a delay. The lounge was well-stocked and the bathroom facilities were clean, even if they are quite small to navigate.
At about 20:30, with the delay being either non-existent (according to the screens in the lounge) or 30 minutes (according to the Austrian app), I decided to head to the gate just in case. Unfortunately that meant I was sat on an uncomfortable worktop for 30 minutes whilst waiting for boarding to commence, which it did at the scheduled departure time of 20:50.
As far as I can remember, no reason was ever given for the delay. It looked like it may have been due to the outbound flight being late but I am not sure what the minimum turnaround times at Vienna state.
On-board I took my seat in 1F, chosen for hopefully some good views of Vienna and London.
Again, I chose this row for the good legroom and speed of exit at Heathrow. It looked like 1D would be empty until one of my lounge-mates ran down the jet-bridge. Boarding complete was called as they stepped onto the aircraft - they had not even sat down before the door was closed.
Our departure from Runway 11 meant quite a lengthy taxi but it was 21:19 before we were rolling down the runway, with the A320neo's bright navigation lights illuminating the surrounding snow for quite a distance.
Unfortunately OE-LZQ, at the time a barely 6-month old A320neo, did not seem to have USB sockets fitted between the seats, instead there was a blanking plate. Annoying if you needed to charge anything, which thankfully I had done in the lounge.
As on the outbound flight, there was no WiFi onboard. Thankfully I had no work obligations on my way home, so I took the time to listen to music and look at passing cities out of the window.
As on the outbound flight, a full in-flight service commenced, which was even harder to photograph in the dark cabin. This time I didn't take any photos of my meal.
The crew came round both before and after the meal service to offer drinks.
Unfortunately a thick layer of low cloud on both departure and arrival meant my plan to get a good view of Vienna and London was foiled!
A late landing meant that it was 22:20 before we were off the plane and I took advantage of having long legs to make a beeline for the UK Border - and eventually my bed.
By 22:40 I had received my bags and was on my way out of the terminal to my lift home - remarkably efficient for Heathrow.
Whilst this flight was delayed and no reason was ever given, the Austrian hospitality on-board and the quality of the lounge made this a pleasant flight home. The lack of WiFi did not affect me on this occasion but the lack of USB power may have been problematic in slightly different circumstances.
Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 5 avis concernant 2 compagnies sur la ligne Vienna (VIE) → London (LHR).
La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est British Airways avec 7.3/10.
La durée moyenne des vols est de 2 heures et 16 minutes.
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5 Comments
Hah, I guess it's better in the other terminals. I only ever fly in to T5 (and occasionally T5) on BA and other oneworld carriers and it is always painfully slow waiting for baggage to come out.
Thanks for sharing!
Interesting, I wonder what the reason for this is? I can't imagine there is much saving versus having Airbus do it, but I guess it does give the flexibility to install whatever you want!
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