Airlines made all kinds of service cuts during the pandemic. In many situations they started as a temporary measure, but became permanent. It’s nice to see that Austrian Airlines plans to bring back one of the best parts of its inflight service — the inflight chefs.
Continue reading: Austrian Airlines Bringing Back Flying Chefs
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Flew Austrian once. I thought the Chief on board was a nice touch and it made the food service seem more exclusive. Basically a FA with a white jacket and chief hat - but the food was served at the perfect temperature and more detail.
Anyone have any idea which routes these will need used on? I know "Long Haul", but let's say from the US to Austria. Which city pairs? On another note: I wish OneWorld had more Central and Eastern European partners...
Worth noting that the degree to which a meal is reheated properly actually makes a difference. Most FAs I've flown with - with the notable exception of LH first and a couple other intl F - will just pop your main in the oven until it's tough as a boot. Fish, steak, you name it. I'm hopeful someone with actual culinary experience will take a much more nuanced approach.
@Bencanteur 31k is a respectable wage in Europe. Also that is usually after tax already, as customary there.
Austrian is bringing back the chefs or Do&Co is bringing back the chefs? I thought Do&Co paid their wages or at least a part of the wages? All I know is Austrian needs to get their catering and service back up to pre-pandemic levels. On a recent flight from VIE-JFK they had no snacks available in Business Class between the meal service and service in general was lackluster.
I just had the pleasure of taking Austrian airlines flight from VIE to EWR today. We arrived couple of hours ago.
Crew was very charming, friendly and attentive. You can not say enough about the quality of food, menu choices, presentation and the portions. The ladies kept rolling in the carts and my family and i were stuffed. Who needs a snack in between meals when the 2 main meals are so good. Btw, one can always approach any crew member and ask and i am sure they will find something for the passenger.
Flew United Polaris to Frankfurt couple of weeks ago from IAD and food was a big disappointment.
They are probably a flight attendant in a different uniform and some chef related experience....
Just to add, this figure will be before tax. In Europe the advertised salary is always pre tax 🙂
As a frequent Austrian passenger I can say the experience is not the same without chef, and conversations with flight crew confirm that from their perspective chef added touches to improve the food. So this is excellent news. Danke Austrian!
They will be forever let down by their antiquated hardware, and until they get some contemporary jets for long-haul (A350, 787 etc), it's going to be as much endurance as pleasure. Flying in J BKK-VIE on their 777, great food, great service, but we vibrated and roared our way across the skies - even my then 85 year old mother, who's hard of hearing, noticed. It ends up being oddly an exhausting experience.
While I only fly short haul around Europe with them in Business class, I think they’re the best in Europe. The food is first class and the crew are exceptional
I haven’t noticed any downside to the hardware once we’re flying, but family, friends and I have encountered several delayed or canceled trips in the last year because of maintenance issues discovered while on the ground. Just three weeks ago my VIE-JFK flight on a 767 was delayed for two hours because of two maintenance issues, the later of which was apparently a faulty ABS on a brake.
The chefs are an upgrade option on catering packages with Do & Co. So since Austrian will be paying for that option again, technically they are bringing them back. But I believe you’re right, that their paycheck is from Do & Co.
Hallo Ich bin ab 1.6.2023 verfügbar als Private Chef oder Flying Chef. Gerne kann Ich senden mein CV mit Zeugnissen.
Wenn jemand Interesse hat dann bitte kontaktieren Sie mich auf +421919081821 oder per E-Mail: [email protected]
Definetly pre-tax, but the yearly salary is 14 monthly salaries, because in Austria you get an extra full month's salary in December and June as a Christmas and summer bonus
In Europe as pointed by others rather pre-tax. But with medical insurance, paid leave, paid holidays, pension etc included.
I flew Austrian in C a couple years ago on IAD-VIE and you could get made to order eggs for breakfast! It was almost in the fine print in the menu so I may have been the only one who noticed, but fresh sunny side up eggs beats a reheated omelette.
I am mostly interested when Austrian will start flying to Miami again. I understand LH and LX are here but I really enjoyed flying Austrian couple years back...
Has anyone any idea if Austrian is considering coming back to MIA?
Any idea why Swiss and Lufthansa don’t also use Do & Co for catering? Obviously their menus are different but presumably there could be some savings with economies of scale, no?
Nope. Chefs are employed by the catering company (Do&Co), they definitely aren't FAs. Their sole focus is on the food (possibly drinks).
I experienced chefs on both TK and OS before the pandemic. Initially, i.e. when first introduced, they really prepared some (not all) food on board. E.g. the breakfast eggs were prepared on board and so was pasta. But later on, this was eliminated and basically reduced to "differentiated reheating and plating", i.e. each part of the meal would be reheated only as long as required and then put onto the plate. This is still marginally better than the standard model, but only if the chef does care about differentiated reheating.
Not sure if they bring back the full version?
I say, "Yay". It seems that so much gets cut in biz and first class it's nice to see this restored.
As one of those passengers who has to fly in the Y cabin, both OS and LH offered just one meal choice for me during flights last year: vegetable lasagna
Sorry, unless they give me at least 2 to choose from, I'm flying DL or AA or UA. Heck, I recently flew LA in Economy class and they had 3 meals to choose from!
Finde es toll das AUA wieder Köche an Board hat.Zeigt die Qualität der Fluglinie.