Review: Austrian Business Class A320 (VIE-FCO)

I can't understand why in the US there is a real business class with seats that justify the price and in Europe there is this joke of a blocked seat and that's it. With all due respect to the food and the services and the lounge, in the end the most important thing in business class is the seat itself and in Europe it is simply a normal economy seat. In my personal opinion the price simply does not justify this strange thing called intra-European business class I accept that in the end it is a matter of personal taste but this is my opinion anyway.

LH group short haul planes generelly have more legspace in the first rows. That's why it's always better to get a seat in the first rows, even when "business class" (always sounds like a joke using that name for the intra-europe product) can reach quite far to the back. Can't tell how many rows got that extra space though. I would expect at least 3-4.

I don't understand how it gets 4 stars? It's your blog of course, but I'd assess against all business classes. Clearly, unless I'm missing that they were serving Krug, laid on massages, had showers on board etc., you didn't do that.

By way of comparison, the seat/pitch are inferior to US domestic first (aka business class) and, certainly, are way inferior to most intercontinental business classes. It may be 4 stars for an intra-European business class, but that seems a narrow set to be assessing against.

Any insight you can share on what 4 stars actually means and what the peer group is that gets Austrian to 4 stars.

That’s not entirely true. On certain US domestic routes where they operate wide bodied jets eg NYC LAX. On shorter routes there’s nothing special whatsoever. First class Atlanta to Orlando is not worthy of the name.

Also remember European carriers generally do not schedule wide bodied jets on European flights.

They are also competing with Ryanair and EasyJet.

Then again Air France Paris to reunion, Guadeloupe or Martinique is domestic with full intercontinental service.

To add, there’s generally no free lounge access in the US. You fly a premium cabin and can’t automatically access a lounge. Pathetic.

@Avi Economics dictate the practice. Same route, same plane may on occasion carry 3 business class passengers, but on some other day, when the EU people/affiliated personnel is flying to/from their home, there might be 40 business class passengers.

Because nobody expects Krug and massage on a shorthaul business class flight?
If you ordered an UberX would you give them a 1 star review because they were not driving a Rolls Royce?
If you stayed in a cheap room in a hotel, would you give them a 1 star review because you didn't stay in a suite?
I mean, reviews like that would be useless...

You seem surprised at the extra legroom, but it is pretty common for a lot of carriers that the first few rows have extra legroom, as they are most likely to be business class.

Everybody loves to bitch about Eurobiz, but I hardly think it is the worst, as I would argue US domestic first is considerably worse. Most flights in Europe are 1-3 hours. The seat with an empty middle is quite sufficient for that. Additionally, unlike the US, European airlines don't fill up the cabins, so you have a decent chance to get a row of 3 to yourself. And to me, a row of 3 is far more comfortable than the US domestic first seats. Additionally the empty middle gives a space to put the laptop or drinks so you have more room if you are working while eating. And it does give the airlines more flexibility with their fleets. I have been on flights where the business class cabin has gone back past the exit rows on an A320. Have also been on flights where only row 1 was business class. And the same plane can do both.

But while you can argue about the seats, the other aspects of business class are clearly in favour of the European carriers. First, the lounge access, which the US carriers don't provide. And second, the meals, which the US carriers will provide only if you take a flight that goes a certain distance departing between certain hours, etc. Otherwise, if the cabin crew is feeling generous enough to walk down the aisle, you will be presented with the delightful choice between a bag of crisps or an apple.

So everybody can go on and on about how awful European short haul business class is, and while I would agree that there are definitely airlines that do it better, (primarily in Asia) but to me, it surely beats US domestic first class any day...

I generally find euro business to be disappointing especially after the 22+ hour flights in international business from Australia to Europe but I know what to expect and it is just the way it is and while the actual seat is a let down I have usually found the lounges and service to be pretty good.

Luckily these days thanks mainly to Emirates the number of cities that you can fly directly into from Dubai means that a lot more cities can now be reached without an intra-European flight.

I have been flying for a long time and remember back in the 1980's Qantas economy seats on their 747 were a typical row of three seats not unlike the ones you get today, but the middle seat was a little different in that about 3/4 of the seatback below the headrest could be folded forward to form sort of a centre console and the armrests between the outer and middle seats could be folded up so they were flush so if the middle seat was free you got a couple of extra inches of width and a nice dividing area and on a couple of transpacific flights made them a pleasure.

These seats would seem like a nicer form of euro business that would still allow them to be used as economy depending on demand, and a couple of extra inches of legroom wouldn't go astray.

“I would argue US domestic first is considerably worse.”

That’s just straight up nonsense.

“Most flights in Europe are 1-3 hours”

Newsflash, most US domestic flights are 1-3 hours.

So Austrian gets rated for Wifi, but then the plane does not have Wifi?
This is like Skytrax worthy reviewing, handing out stars for features that are not onboard.

OS' A320s have 32" space in the first 7 rows, as 2-7 rows are the usual business class amount. So when there is less business class, it is recommended to get one of the front economy rows to have the same space. Exception are the 5 ex-Airberlin A320s (OE-LX#), which are horrible even at the front.

Intra-European business class is literally a waste of money and miles - will never understand why you bloggers insist on using it and covering it. The pragmatic and sensible advice to readers would be save your cash/miles.

Most routes between European Capitals have a flight time of 30 min to max 3 hours, there is no incentive to real business class on such short routes.
You can fly for example Keflavik to Las Palmas for 6 hours, so a flight within Europe can be comparable to the US but these routes is pure leisure.

"For whatever reason, seemingly just about everyone on the plane lined up 50 minutes ahead of departure." - Whatever reason being that you were flying to Italy. Of course the boarding process is not gonna be civilised.

Different preferences. European customers seem to value airport services more than having a larger seat on board. If airlines were to offer a dedicated business class cabin, this would raise the costs, especially since different flights need different Y/C ratio. Then they'd either need to charge even more for the product, or cut airport services which are alfa & omega of business class for most passengers.

Personally, I don't really see why I'd need a larger seat on flights up to 3-4 hours. I certainly wouldn't pay more to get it. There just isn't any benefit, I'm comfortable in most economy seats for such a short flight, despite being quite fat.

There are some long flights in Europe (e.g. Portugal, Iceland, etc), but they are too few to justify a separate product. Not to mention that those seem to be leisure-oriented with lack of business class demand.

In terms of EU/US business class, both have their strengths.

US - the seat
EU - lounge access and meals

Obviously on longer and premium US routes, you do get some decent meals, and occasionally you might score a wide-body plane within the EU when they are training employees. But lets be honest, at the end of the day, the best short and medium haul business class product is to be found within Asia and the Middle East, since on those flights you get the seat, lounge access, and a decent meal.

It's FREE as part of an award itinerary which includes long-haul business class flight(s), that's why it's posted here.

Not necessarily - it depends how the trip has been planned. But even so I have no idea why this is not made clear, that fine if you have it part of your itinerary as standard but that its not worth it if you are paying or getting a reward flight just for that sector.

Italians are usually scared that the airline will sell their seat to someone else / won't find space for their hand baggage / the airplane will leave without them if they don't line up at the gate at least 1 hour before the flight.

I find the price premium in the US between Economy and First Class to be usually larger than the price premium in Europe between Economy and Eurobiz. I know what I am getting. I am not too pressed about the seat on an hour flight.

This past summer when European airports were melting down, paying a little more for Eurobiz saved me hours in lines to check bags, and hours in lines for security, and hours in line for customer service when I inevitably misconnected. The seat was secondary. I find it totally worth it based upon the small premium charged.

It really depends. Just yesterday I bought an intra-EU business class flight (two segments) that priced out at 50€ more than the Economy one. For 50€ it's worth it just for the extra miles and the free adjacent seat.

"On the one hand, I was kind of impressed by how many planes were already painted in the ITA Airways livery. On the other hand I was amazed by how many were still flying around as Alitalia (...)"

So, basically, you were surprised by the size of ITA/Alitalia's fleet?

This is an unfair comment, because of the price tag. In my experience Austrian airlines business class is between 20%-45% more expensive, while 30% being the average. In many flights, it means around 50 - 70 EUR more. For that amount, you get priority check-in, priority security lane (!), lounge access (!), priority boarding, and pretty decent hot meals with good selection of drinks (For Austrian Airlines). Plus you also get the legroom, seat reservation, extra luggage, more privacy. If you consider the price tag, it is quite reasonable. In Asia, e.g. from Taipei to HK, short-haul, the seats are better, but that's it. However, the price is generally 65% more than economy class, if you are lucky.