Austrian Airlines European Coach London to Vienna to Copenhagen

Our Austrian Airlines flight from London to Vienna was originally scheduled at 7:25pm, but was delayed about an hour. Fortunately, the lounge display system kept us informed, and we left from the United Club to gate A18 45 minutes before boarding. It sounds like a lot of time, but the walk from the lounge to our gate was 25 minutes. Once we arrived at gate A18 we waited another 30 minutes or so before we boarded. Terminal 2 (The Queens terminal) at Heathrow is very nice with high ceilings and wide open areas. We enjoyed walking through and hanging out in the space before we boarded.

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Ultra-modern Terminal 2 at Heathrow

Gate area A18 when we first arrived

Swiss “Miss” being towed out

Star Alliance livery

About 20 minutes after we arrived at A18 the gate agent started calling boarding. We were in the 3rd group and the boarding process was civilized and orderly. It was quite the walk through the jetway and onto the plane – and such is a LHR boarding process. Even so the long walk doesn’t bother me and I find it interesting how different locations do things.

Austrian Airlines 456
London (LHR) – Vienna (VIE)
Monday June 6th, 2016
Departure Time: 7:25pm
Arrival Time: 10:45pm
Flight Time: 2hr20min
Aircraft: Airbus A321
Seat 11C, Medium Haul European Coach

 

Our flight today

Preparing for boarding

Initially there is a deep escalator down to the main jetway

And then through door B

Another door for the jet bridge

Jet bridge onto the plane

We boarded through the first door of this Airbus321 and were greeted by the cabin crew on the way to our mid-cabin coach seats.  Being my first Austrian Air flight the first thing that struck me was the color scheme of the seats in the cabin. The base was dark grey leather accented by bright red stitching, seatbelts and head rests. Set this against the cabin crew looking like northern European models in bright red uniforms – and visually the cabin looks striking. As we boarded everyone was pretty civil and behaved – which felt like a cultural thing for Austria. We made our way to the double digits and took our seats.

A321 OS 456 Austrian Airlines cabin

Right hand side

Coach seats

Left side

Sitting reverse angle

Looking forward

The seat on the A321 plane is a slimline coach design. It’s 17.5″ wide with a 30″ pitch – a little tight for this corn fed American, but comfortable enough for a 2 and 1/2-hour flight. The seat back is hard plastic with an upper slot for literature. I’ve seen this design on Alaska B737s before – and I’ve always liked it. Unlike on the Alaska plane, there is no in seat power. Door close and push back came an hour late after schedule, which was 20 minutes after boarding the plane. It took another 25 minutes to taxi to the runway and receive clearance for takeoff. Ascent was smooth and we floated on up and out of the London area.

Close up of Austrian Airlines slimline coach seat

Angled side view (yeah, this was the best pic I could get) 🙂

Tight knee room at 30″ pitch

Plastic shell back of seat

The flight was an evening flight and I was sitting aisle side coach, so I don’t have a lot to report for takeoff or landing or inflight window pictures. I will say as far as a 2-hour coach flight goes, this one was smooth, relaxed and easy. Beer and wine beverages are included in coach (I love Europe) so I could enjoy a glass of white wine on the house. It was a straight forward tasty white, and I couldn’t figure out the type of grape.

I love the snack service on Austrian Airlines; the flight attendant would come down the aisle and asked, “Salty or Sweet?” Sweet was a small cookie pack with light cream wafers. The salty included a similarly sized packet of salty biscuits. It felt very cute and Austrian. After another 60 minutes, we descended into Vienna. Landing was uneventful, and we made the incoming gate in Vienna an hour late at 11:43pm local time.

 

Table design

Sweet, not salty

After midnight VIE airport

Austrian Airlines 305
Vienna (VIE) – Copenhagen (CPH)
Friday June 10th, 2016
Departure Time: 5:35pm
Arrival Time: 7:20pm
Flight Time: 1hr45min
Aircraft: Airbus A320
Seat 18B, Short Haul European Coach

Our flight today

After a wonderful 4 days in Vienna we took a cab to the airport for our 2nd Austrian Airline’s coach fight, to Copenhagen. We had an evening flight scheduled for 5:35pm and gave ourselves a little over 2 hours to transport, check-in, and walking to the gate. At the airport in Vienna check in with Austrian Air was easy, as was security. Finding our way to the gate, F17, was straight forward. Once we were close to our departing gate we had about 30 minutes left.

We were flying coach and I suggested we visit the Priority Pass in that area of the airport (Sky Lounge Schengen). The girls (Susan and our 2 daughters) rejected this idea. We found seats by our gate and waited for boarding to commence. Half an hour later the gate agent called for boarding (exactly on time). The walk to the jetway at the airport in Vienna had open windows on the left-hand side which included great views of the ground operations.

Gate F17 for boarding

Saw this gem on the way to boarding

Our ride this afternoon

 Lots of daylight on our walk to the jetway

On entering the plane the Austrian Airlines cabin crew politely greeted us. The style, while not warm and friendly was smiling and professional. The crew always looked put together and ready for business. We made our way down the high teens row and took our seats for the flight. The feel of the seats, crew, and style were very similar to our first Austrian Airlines flight London to Vienna.

I was able to get this one side view pic

Knee room was about the same

Looking forward

I was able to take advantage of these nifty coat hooks

View from Susan’s window seat

Door close and push back was on time. Ten minutes later we were on the runway taking off. Climbing up was smooth and Susan loved having her window seat (even with the wing obstruction) to see the European country side. I drifted off into a middle seat nap, awaking up for the sweet treat from our cabin crew. Overall the flight was uneventful and precisely done. After 1hr40mns we landed and made our gate at Copenhagen 5 minutes early.

 

Priorities

Snapped this one pic on the way in to our CPH gate

In Summary:

Austrian Airlines was the easiest and most straightforward way for our family to get from LHR to VIE and then VIE to CPH. At $274 per person I felt the flight was a fair value for our open jaw itinerary. Both flights were straightforward and comfortable, and included assigned seating. These are important items when traveling as a family in coach. We also enjoyed the onboard service, cabin setup and sensibilities of the cabin crew we interacted with. Couple all of this with Austrian Airlines no fuss ground operations and I would use this airline again for my legs into and out of Vienna.