Austrian Business Class
Chicago (ORD) – Vienna (VIE)
16:20 (17:39A) – 08:25 (09:13A) [8:34 Hours]
Sunday 16 June 2019
Boeing B777-200ER (OE-LPF)
Seat: 2K
Cost: 125,000 Royal Orchid Plus Miles + THB 18,290
This is part of a trip USA2019.
Checking In
It was a rainy/foggy day at Chicago. With departure time of 16:20, we decided to leave our hotel in Magnificent Mile at 13:00, knowing that the traffic to the airport was really bad. We arrived around 14:20, spending over an hour in the traffic. We proceeded directly to the Swiss/Austrian Business Class Check-in counter.
I needed the check-in agent to at least tag my bag all the way to Bangkok, as like the outbound, we were flying Chicago – Vienna – Bangkok. While my partner has a single ticket (award ticket), mine was separated: Chicago to Vienna and Vienna to Bangkok. The check-in agent originally had trouble checking me in, and she kept asking for a Schengen Visa, which I did have but I was not planning to leave the transit area.
After some discussion and asking her superior, she was able to print out the luggage tag and also the boarding passes for both flights.
Lounging Around
Being part of the Lufthansa Group, Austrian uses the SWISS lounge. The lounge was quite small but did have a basic selection of snacks and beverages. Since we had a big lunch in town, we didn’t really eat much in the lounge. The lounge also had some limited views outside and I enjoyed watching planes taking off.
Boarding & Taking Off
Boarding was slightly delayed because the cabin crew were “stuck in traffic jam”. Coming to the airport from town myself, I can understand why. Boarding was finally called at 15:55 but it was not until 16:57 that we were able to push back.
In the meanwhile, here is my pre-departure orange juice that I managed to spill all over the floor. The cabin crew promptly came to help with some extra tissues. Due to the increment weather, the queue for take off was very long. Therefore, I also spend alot of time taking pictures at O’Hare.
This is our take-off queue. We were finally able to take off at 17:39, almost 2 hours after boarding.
The Seat
Austrian’s Boeing 777 has staggered Thompson Vantage seat in an alternating 2-2-2 and 1-2-1 configuration. The interesting thing about this layout is there is a wide disparity of spaces in each seat. There is the “throne” seat which has two large table on each side of the seat. Right behind the throne seats are the duo seats by the window, which is much tighter (it utilizes the same amount of space as the throne for two). Austrian also charges extra to reserve the throne seats.
We have chosen the duo seat (with the limited space) because we wanted to sit together, by the window. We found this seat to be very narrow and has a much less usable space than the 767 seats on the outbound. It was also one of the reason I knocked my orange juice over (the other is being clumsy).
The Dinner
I also looked forward to the food on this flight. Austrian partners with DO&CO – a Gourmet Company for its catering and has a good reputation for its on-board catering and food quality.
The menus were distributed before boarding. A breakfast card was also handed out and collected after we filled out what our choices for breakfast was.
The table set up:
My post departure beverage which was Coke Zero:
The appetizer (Prawns Andaluz) which was good, and the soup (Truffled Celeriac Cream Soup) which was amazing!
The main course was Tandoori Chicken Breast, which was very nice as well.
Here is the fruit and dessert trolley:
I got the Profiteroles and Dulce di Leche Parfait, which were both very good, despite the lack of presentation:
Overall, it was a very good dinner on board this Austrian flight catered by DO&CO. During dinner I was watching Captain Marvel, and after the movie finished I dosed off to bed.
The Sleep
Due to the early nature of the flight and the flight timing (adjusting to Thailand time), I took melatonin on both my Austrian and THAI flight. Despite the narrow nature of the seat, I slept fine, waking up just before breakfast was being served.
The Breakfast
Here is the breakfast card that I filled out before take off:
Table set up with fruits, cold cuts, orange juice and hot chocolate (they forgot my egg):
After a few minutes wait, my Egg “Sunny Side Up” with Fried Ham arrived. The egg was overcooked, which was probably the only food item on this flight that was so-so.
Here is the view over Germany after our breakfast service has completed:
Landing
It was a sunny day in Vienna and we arrived at Vienna Airport at 09:13, almost an hour late.
The Experience
The return flight on Austrian Airlines was overall, quite good and I was quite happy. The departure experience could have been a lot better and the seat is less than ideal (comparing to today’s standard long haul Business Class), however, the food, service and in flight entertainment made up for the downside.
Long-Haul Business Class
- Departure & Lounge: 3/5 (rude agent & poor lounge)
- Aircraft & Seat: 3.5/5 (Since we sat on the duo seat with limited space)
- Food: 5/5 (some of the very best food on a plane)
- Sleep: 4/5
- Service: 4/5 (friendly crew)
- Entertainment: 4.5/5 (very good selection)
- Arrival & Time: 4/5 (1.5 hours delay)
- Total: 28/35 (80%) B-
Life Well Traveled 