Austrian B777 business class, New York to Vienna
Flight: OS88
Departure time in New York (JFK): 18:00
Arrival time in Vienna (VIE): 8:40 (+1day)
Aircraft: Boeing 777-200
Seat: 4D
Duration: 8h 40m
Date of flight: November 9, 2013
*This is an award ticket,
Business Class flight #39
Introduction
Having flown Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa business class in the past, I was really excited to take this flight with Austrian. I've seen pictures of their new business class seats on their website (which are actually on the JFK-VIE route) and it would really be interesting to compare it with other airlines.
JFK Airport Terminal 1
We arrived at JFK Terminal 1 about two and a half hours before the flight, giving us enough time to go through security and enjoy the Lufthansa Business Lounge.
Check-in, Desks G5, G6, G7
Unfortunately, the controller at the fast track section wouldn't honor our US Airways boarding card so we had to go back to the check in desks to get our Austrian boarding passes. Luckily, it didn't take that long.
Lufthansa Business Lounge
For the review of the Lufthansa Business Lounge, please click
here.
Aircraft, Boeing 777-200
The beautiful Boeing 777-200 bound for Vienna.
Boarding, Gate 4
Boarding started on time (5pm) at Gate 4, with a separate lane for business class passengers.
Business Class Cabin
The business class cabin is divided into two: a bigger cabin in the front with 32 seats, and a smaller cabin at the rear with 16 seats, with a total of 48 business class seats. All seats were occupied that day. I'm not really sure with the gray and red color combination of the seats but gray is not really that appealing to me, although Qatar Airways Dreamliner business class which has the same colors seem to be very nice 😉
Austrian logo in front of the cabin
Seat
Two seats in the middle of the cabin.
Personal screen
There is also a bottle holder, as well as a literature holder where the headset and safety card were actually placed.
Headphones and entertainment controls.
From the movie selection, I ended up watching Turbo which I thought was a very nice movie 😉
Spacious legroom.
I thought the seat control was cool, although I still prefer Lufthansa's design.
The reading lamp located above the power outlet and USB/AC and headphone sockets.
Below the lamp and power sockets was a storage for the amenity kit.
Amenity Kit
The amenity kit consisted of a nice pair of socks, a shoehorn, eye shades, earplugs, toothbrush, mint and a Bogner moisturizing face lotion.
Pre-departure Beverage
For my pre-departure beverage, I settled for a glass of water.
Just like Turkish Airlines, Austrian also has their onboard chef. After receiving our drinks, the chef started distributing the menu cards and took the orders for dinner and breakfast afterwards.
A few minutes later, the flight attendants started distributing magazines and newspapers and I ended up reading the Time magazine.
Pushback & Safety Video
At 6:05pm, we started pushback and the safety video was shown on the personal screen.
Dining
The menu card and wine list
Dinner
As soon as the seat belt sign was turned off, the cabin attendants started distributing bottles of mineral water. The lovely table set up immediately followed starting with a glass of red wine, lime water, a piece of bread and a small plate of warm nuts.
Caesar salad/prawns
The other choices for the appetizers were "Buffalo mozzarella with tomato, avocado and carpaccio" and "Gingered butternut squash soup with croutons".
Main Course
Fillet of beef with sesame soya sauce, potato terrine/green asparagus/red pepper coulis
The other choices were "Grilled Chilean sea bass with lime chervil butter, balsamic beluga lentils/celeriac mash" and "Chicken tikka brochette, basmati rice/paneer vegetable curry".
Afterwards, a flight attendant came with the coffee card and I decided to skip although I was jealous of the one my neighbor got.
Assorted cheese, marinated berries/vanilla creme fraiche
The other choices for dessert were chocolate praline souffle with chocolate sauce or dulce de leche parfait.
Lavatory
Inside the lavatory, there was a small basket containing a shaver and cream, wet towels, comb and earplugs.
Turndown Service
My pillow and blanket for the night.
The bed controls included mood light, massage and a softer or firmer cushion among others.
Turndown service by myself 😉
Breakfast
About one and a half hours before landing, breakfast was served starting with a fruit smoothie which I pre-ordered. I thought they could have used a smaller glass instead. One can have a glass of fresh orange juice instead of the smoothie.
Afterwards, my breakfast tray came which consisted of fresh fruits, assorted ham and cheese, a piece of bread and apricot jam.
Really nice coffee cup 👍
My eggs sunny side up with crispy bacon 😋
The other choice was cottage cheese omelette, potato roesti/grilled tomato.
Arrival In Vienna
We landed at Vienna International Airport around 8:30am and since our connecting flight to Stockholm (our final destination) was scheduled for 8:30pm, we decided to take the subway to the city and enjoy our own sightseeing plus a visit to some relatives.
CONCLUSION
Finally, I was able to test the new business class seats of Austrian. So how does it compare with the other two European carriers (Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines) I've flown with? I have to say that the seats of Lufthansa on the 747-8i were much better than the other two specially the length. Austrian also is nice but unfortunately, some of the seats were uncomfortable specially when in bed mode since they have very small space for your feet. One example is seat 5E so make sure you avoid this. Regarding the food, having their own chef on board who diligently did their job, I have to give it to Turkish Airlines and Austrian. Just after breakfast, one of the flight attendants took time to chat with me and it was something I never experienced from the cabin staff of Turkish Airlines nor Lufthansa. Overall, a very nice flight and definitely my top choice when flying from JFK to Europe in business class. Danke schön, Austrian 😍
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