Review: Austrian Business Class 777 (ORD-VIE)

I had the best coffee I've ever had on a Austrian flight from VIE-BUD. I was just talking about it yesterday with my mom. We used to have a Julius Meinl Right down the street from us here in Chicago. It closed last year and I'm still not over it.

Parallels my recent experience. On the eastbound overnight flights, I don’t mind not having Wi-Fi. And I also found the amenity pouch a little odd, but I have so many amenity bags from other flights, it is not that big of a deal. All on all, I’d much rather fly Austrian than United. (At IAD, those flying Austrian can also use the Polaris lounge, so best of both worlds.)

@Ben How much were the Air Transportation Charges?

Thanks for the in-depth review and info. This is a route I am considering this coming year

Wow, serving a Lindeman's red wine that retails for $5.

All I can say is that I recently flew Lufthansa, and Austrian back to back across the pond, and Austrian was light-years better. What really made all the difference was the attitude of the crew, while on Austrian, the flight attendants were truly caring and friendly, on Lufthansa, they had this constant level of arrogance towards the passengers.

Who needs sleep when you’re wired as hell after a ton of dessert coffee

Ben, how far out do you book award flights? I have a ton of AA miles but can't seem to find much business class availability to anywhere! Yes I know about Cathay Pacific availability via BA search and ditto w Qatar, but they don't always get me where I want to go. Any suggestions as AA show basically no business class award availability to anywhere.

Geoff, to give you an idea of how far out, I booked Japan Airlines First class flight using AA miles for next month back in early May of last year.

In which way do you consider Austrian’s business better than United, except for the food? I’ve flown TATL business class with both Austrian and United a ton of times, and I rank United much higher. Austrian has those god awful ”airbag seats” (like Jetblue, SAS, Swiss, LH, …) that completely deflates on like 1/4 of all flights, which is reason enough to avoid them in my book 🙂

Yeah, real cheap! What were they thinking?
I wouldn't even offer that at a backyard BBQ.

Agree on LH. I avoid them like a plague.

I think the seat may have seemed a little more comfortable for sleep if you hadn't downed two double espressos before bed.

Ticket prices are cheaper. Ambiance is better too.

I get the appeal of the throne seats on daytime flights, but don’t quite understand why so many people prefer them (and some airlines charge extra) for overnight flights? It’s not like one would make much use of the extra counter space while sleeping and not working…and the small footwell is just not that comfortable. Restricting feet, and further I find even more bothersome to be the way its geometry makes me impact my shins on the “entry” to it. Will take one of the aisle seats for a more comfortable sleep over them any day!

Yeah, I never understand how bloggers (and passengers in general) have coffee on over night flights right before going to sleep, and then wondering why they can't sleep...

Omg Lukas... I agree with you that this crappy air bag padding seats are seriously the most uncomfortable thing ever. Even AC has them on their reverse herringbone seat. I just don't get why an airline executive think that's a good idea.

Like you, I tend to avoid them unless I have absolutely no other choice.

Also, these throne seats are the most overrated seats out there. Yeah, if you want "privacy", they're good, but if you want actual comfort, especially when sleeping and lounging (that's we pay for J, no?), they're the worst!

I’ve always wondered about the excuse of airlines not serving PDBs because of taxes. How much are we talking? Even United used to do full bar PDBs even on international flights. I haven’t flown Polaris since before Covid so I don’t know if they still do, but they do in domestic F.

Glad to see Austrian doesn't charge for seat selection the way the World's Favourite (yeah, right) Airline does. Gotta keep the shareholders happy!

Agree that Lufthansa's crew members can be hit or miss, with most of them valuing efficiency over actual service. I am also trying to figure out a way to avoid them when flying to the German-speaking world, but their near monopoly makes that hard to accomplish. Austrian Airlines has much nicer staff (in my experience).