Serwis pokladowy Austrian

[Gość: Lukasz]

W poprzenich postach dyskutowalismy o serwise LOT-u i AU.

Oto troche info (menu) w Austriaka
trasa VIE-JFK
z dnia 25 maja
rejs AU 087
samolot Aibus 330
klasa C (business) 24 miejsca

W dniu dzisiejszym bylo tylko 20 pax'ow. W kabinie C obslugiwany 4 FA: 3 FA i
1 purser.

Menu przygotowane przez Christian'a Petz'a szfa kuchni ekskluzywnej
rsstuaracji Coburg w Wiedniu

Tekst po angliesku (za kulawe tlumaczenie na Polski z gory przepraszam)

Amuse bouche:
to przekaska po starcie samolotu ... dla porownanai w LOT jest to paczka
orzeskow lub mieszkanki eksportowej)
Alpine char caviar in aspic with tomatos, served with chervil cream - bardzo
ladna prezentacja trojkatna galaretka (aspic with tomatos) na niej
lyzeczka "pomaronczowego" kawioru, na okolo polane kremem. bardzo dobre
wrazenie wizualne, nie mowiac o smaokwym ... i tu nie chodiz o to zeby sie
najesc tylko poto zeby zrobic sobie apetyt

Hors d'oeuvre: (przystawka)
Prawns with dressed rocket, fennel and aubergine - "jumbo krewetki"

Zupa:
Wolowa z grzybkami

Danie glowne:
Rack of lamb with potatos and wild garlic strudel served with vegatable suace
lub
Breast of guinea fowl on pearl barley risotto with green asparagus
lub
Fried fillet of perch on bed of beluga lentils
with mascarpone dumplings

Chhese board served from the cart:
With pear tart with Karcher Grand Cru

Dessert:
Rhubarb and cream srtudel
lub
Passion fruit mousse with rasperry coulis and almond honeycomb

Przed ladowaniem w menu jest wedzony losos, bialy i zielony szparagi,
lasagnia z szpinakiem i lody wamiliowe z truskawkami oblanymi czekolada.

Niestety poza pierwsza przekaska nie moge sie podzielic wrazeniami z tego
manu poniweaz ze wzgledow chorobowych musialem jesc "wstretny" posilem high-
fiber.... pasazerka obok mnie zachwala guinea fowl.

Oczywiscie do posilku bardzo dobrze dobrane wina, w tym wino deserowe. Dwa
gatunki szampana, dwa biale wina, piec czerwonych. (Szef pokladu bardzo
dobrze znal sie na winach do takiego szczegolu, n.p.: szmpan Duval skalda sie
z 25% chardonnay 75% pinot noir)

[norge75]

Czesc Lukasz! Dzieki za relacje. Byc moze Austrian ma swietna obsluge w klasie
biznesowej, ale w ekonomicznej jej prawie w ogole nie uswiadczysz. Zawsze
mialem z nimi zle doswiadzczenia (zgubili mi bilet, innym razem zmienili
bezpodstawnie rezerwacje i mialem przez to problemy, o braku uprzejmosci nie
wspominajac). Czy samoloty wylecialy na czas? Ostatnio Austrian Airlines sa
znane z niepunktualnosci, nawet opublikowaly specjalny list z przeprosinami do
pasazerow, ktory zreszta szybko zniknal z ich strony internetowej. Nie wiem od
czego to zalezy, ze np. poranny lot OS378 AMS-VIE jest zawsze opoznieny okolo
20 min. Wczoraj znalazlem recenzje napisana przez Austriaka, ktory podrozowal
tymi liniamii z Grazu do JFK.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=182442

Hi!
Just wanted to share some (or many) thoughts about my last trip to New York
City. Normally I travel alone but this time I had some travel companions: Mom
and Dad. Which was quite nice because I could show them all the interesting
spots I discovered on my three former stays in nyc. We booked about four weeks
in advance and the ticket price was 349 EUR + Tax, which is usually the
cheapest fare to travel to the US from my hometown. OK. That´s it for the
introduction. Now please make sure you reclined your seat to a comfortable
position and enjoy my report!

I woke up at 06:00 and at 07:15 a cab took me and my Mom to our tiny little
airport in Graz (second largest city in Austria) and Check-In was a breeze (as
always). On the way to the airport we called Dad to make sure his feeder-flight
from the small airport of Altenrhein (Switzerland) was on-time. It was. So we´d
meet him in Vienna. Later at the gate I checked the flight-status of our flight
to JFK at one of the public internet-terminals. Unfortunately OS87 was delayed
and the new estimated departure-time was 13:50 instead of 11:20!

February 7, 2004
GRZ-VIE / OS5970
Sched: 08:40-09:25
Actual: 08:50-09:30
Dash 8/Q-300
OE-LTH
Seat 5F

Boarding for our flight to Vienna started soon and we took off some minutes
later. I hate those turboprops. When you sit right next to the engines the
sound during take-off is almost unbearable. Don´t know why Dash is promoting
this plane as "quiet". Anyway! The 00:40h flight was uneventful except of a
pretty bumpy descent into Vienna due to heavy crosswinds.

Dad was waiting for us in the transit-area and I informed him about the delay.
Together we decided to ask one of the ladies at the counter if our information
about a delay of flight 87 to JFK was correct. "Yes" was the short answer. By
the way: throughout the day nobody told us why the flight was delayed and
everyone we asked was quite rude and unfriendly! Austrian´s customer-service
and customer-friendliness definitely needs major improvements. One hour later I
went to another counter to ask about snack or drink-coupons. This OS ground
staff-member was a little bit friendlier and informed us that each of us gets
one sandwich and one drink at the small "Air Quick" restaurant. There was no
public announcement about that, so I don´t think many of the other passengers
did know about the offer. So we spent the next 30 minutes eating our tasteless
snacks and staring out of the window. Which was very depressing, because we
realized that almost every other flight took off precisely on-time. At noon we
heard the first announcement about a further delay of OS87 to JFK. The
new "estimated departure time" was 14:30! ...And the program for our first
afternoon in New York vanished from my travel-itinerary...

February 7, 2004
VIE-JFK / OS87
Sched: 11:20-14:55
Actual: 14:45-17:55
Airbus A-330-200
OE-LAN
Seat 31AB

I don´t now how but we managed to survive and proceeded to our gate at about
13:30. And thanx god! A big yellow boarding-sign appeared on the displays very
soon. Security was tight as always but this time they really tried to speed up
the process. At 14:10 we finally entered our plane. It was OE-LAN. The only OS
A332 already painted in the new Austrian-colors (by the way: I don´t like
them). The seats in economy-class are OK and come with PTV´s (old system; not
on- demand) and adjustable leg- and headrests. The load on this flight wasn´t
that high (about 60% in both classes) and each of us got two seats which made
the flight very comfortable. Push-back commenced at 14:35 and we finally took-
off three hours and 25 minutes late at 14:45. Flight-time was announced with
09:20h and the captain apologized for the " major departure-delay". Again no
reason was given. Today´s routing: Vienna-Czech Republic-Kassel (Germany)-
Dusseldorf-Amsterdam-Manchester-Belfast-south of Greenland-
Labrador/Northeastern Canada-Boston-Long Island-JFK; nothing unusual;

Some minutes after we reached our final cruising-altitude of 38000 feet,
service started with "Soletti"-pretzels and drinks. The FA´s on this flight
were rude, arrogant and didn´t smile, like most Austrian-employees. I
understand that the atmosphere within the Austrian Airlines Group is difficult
nowadays but there´s absolutely no reason to blaim the passengers! Anyway! When
they activated the entertainment-system I started to watch "Runaway Jury"
(based on a novel by J.Grisham). Not bad. Forty minutes later they served the
hot-meal. Choices: Pasta (with Mozarella cheese and a creamy sauce) or Chicken
(in a pumpkin-sauce with Tagliatelle-noodles). I opted for the chicken and It
was good. Side "dishes": Tuna-salad, bread/butter and a small piece of cake;
Side note: no hot-towel service on this flight and the bread was not warm and
crispy as it should be; After I finished the meal, it took ages until they came
by to collect the empty trays.

The following six hours were quite uneventful and I did the following things: I
walked around the cabin, counted the passengers, watched Airshow, "Freaky
Friday" (stupid little movie) and various documentaries, read a book, "slept"
two hours on three empty seats,...; Business (actually Economy) as usual.

Ninety minutes prior to our arrival at JFK a snack, consisting of a fresh and
tasty Ciabatta-bread-sandwich and a blueberry muffin, was served by the FA´s.
Soon after that they announced that we already had started our descent into JFK.

The sun just disappeared at the horizon as we flew over Long Island, and our
wing reflected the majestic redness of the sky which looked awesome. At 17:55
we touched down on JFK´s runway 31L and after a short-taxi we arrived at our
gate at Terminal One. All in all the flight was pretty comfortable and smooth.
Only annoying things: the three-hour-delay and the behavior of the FA´s;

Immigration was a breeze, bags came out five minutes later and the customs-guy
just collected our declaration-form. We jumped in a cab and arrived at our
hotel one hour after touchdown at JFK.

New York City, February 7-14, 2004

In the following six days I met some friends from Austria (they travelled with
Lufthansa via Frankfurt) and did all the usual New York-stuff with Mom and Dad.
Shopping (Midtown, SoHo, Lower East Side, Nolita, Williamsburgh,...), gallery-
hopping in Chelsea, visiting some of the bigger art-museums with interesting
special-exhibitions, enjoying the atmosphere of Central Park and eating great
food at great restaurants. Also the weather was quite nice. We got plenty of
sunshine and mild temperatures in the mid 40´s Fahrenheit (around 5-10°C).

February 14, 2004

We spent the last day of our trip in Midtown and went back to the hotel at
14:00 to eat at a nearby "Diner". Our pre-booked black Lincoln Town Car already
waited for us in front of the hotel when we got there at 15:00. We grabbed our
bags and ten minutes later we left Manhattan on the Queensboro bridge. Traffic
was low, so we made it to JFK in just 40 minutes.

I

[norge75]

Koncowka:
February 14, 2004

We spent the last day of our trip in Midtown and went back to the hotel at
14:00 to eat at a nearby "Diner". Our pre-booked black Lincoln Town Car already
waited for us in front of the hotel when we got there at 15:00. We grabbed our
bags and ten minutes later we left Manhattan on the Queensboro bridge. Traffic
was low, so we made it to JFK in just 40 minutes.

I entered Terminal One and couldn´t believe my eyes when I saw the departure-
panel. All flights on-time with one exception. Guess which flight? Right! OS88
to Vienna DELAYED from 18:45 to 20:10. "What the hell is going on with
Austrian?" I said to myself. However! Off to the ticket-counters to check the
status of our connecting flights. The old lady gave us an "OK" for the VIE-GRZ
flight. But Dad was rebooked on the next available flight to Altenrhein (ACH;
Switzerland). Next stop: the Check-In area; WIth just three or four people in
the Economy-line we got our boarding-passes within two minutes.

We spent the next hour in the crowded food-court on the upper floor of Terminal
One and I did some plane-spotting at the big-windows. Not much to see. There
only were two Air France planes (777 and 744), a Lufthansa 744 (no scheduled
flight; flight number LH423; according to the timetable that´s a BOS-FRA
flight; diversion? But why to JFK?), a Royal Air Maroc 763 and one Alitalia
777. The terminal is pretty empty since Virgin Atlantic and Singapore Airlines
transferred their operations to Terminal Four.

At 18:00 we went through security. This time they performed no additional
controls like bodysearch, just the usual stuff. Another boring hour later, we
slowly moved towards gate 8 to wait for the boarding-announcement.

February 14, 2004
JFK-VIE / OS88
Sched: 18:45-09:15
Actual: 20:15-09:45
Airbus A-330-200
OE-LAM
Seat 32K

Boarding started at 19:15. Before that, they apologized for the delay and
explained the reason: The flight crew of the previous day arrived some hours
too late (so another late arrival from VIE!) and now they had a problem with
the minimum crew-rest-time and so on, which sounded plausible. Back to the
boarding-process. Everything was very orderly and they precisely announced
which passengers are allowed to board the plane. Cause our seats were in the
rear part of the Economy-cabin our rows were called first. Boarding was
completed 20-30 minutes later. The flight was completely full this time. At
least the Y-cabin. The captain informed us about the quite short flying time of
07:30h (strong jetstream) and also apologized for the delay. Push back
commenced at 19:55 and just 20 minutes later we took off from runway 31L.

Service started soon with drinks and those little pretzels. Dinner was served
one hour after our departure. Choices: Chicken with potato-noodles and
vegetables in a creamy sauce or Penne-pasta with tomato-sauce. I don´t like
most airline-pasta-dishes so I took the chicken. The chicken was OK but
everything else was tastelesss and boring. One year ago (February 2003) I flew
the same route also with Austrian and the food was gorgeous (a tasty salmon-
dish with fresh spinach if I remember correctly; accompanied by a small bottle
of sparkling wine). Back in 2003 catering was done by Do&Co. Today I think it´s
LSG Sky Chefs (the Lufthansa-company; probably cheaper).

After another drink service they collected the trays and dimmed the cabin-
lights. I watched "The In-Laws" (funny movie with Michael Douglas), enjoyed my
Bailey´s on the rocks and tried to sleep. My "overnight-equipment" (eyeshades,
inflatable neck-pillow, warm slippers) was quite useful and I managed to sleep
for two or three hours. When we reached the European-continent the cabin-lights
were switched on again and the captain made his "Good morning"-call. Some
minutes later the FA´s appeared with hot-towels (the only hot-towel-service on
this flight). The breakfast tray was served soon after that. It consisted of a
dry ham- and cheese sandwich, a small piece of cake with almonds and fruit-
yogurt. I wasn´t hungry at this time of the day/night, so I just ate the cake
and drank some orange juice. One hour later we started our descent into VIE and
landed at 09:45 local time. After a short taxi we arrived at our parking-
position at gate A07. OE-LAN, the plane that carried us to New York one week
ago occupied the gate next to us.

The transit-area at VIE was crowded and cigarette-smoke was everywhere. Very
annoying, especially when you arrive from (almost) smoke-free New York City!

February 15, 2004
VIE-GRZ / OS5963
Sched: 10:45-11:25
Actual: 11:30-14:00
Dash 8/Q-300 / Bus-service

Thirty minutes later the boarding-sign for our flight to Graz appeared on the
screens and we said "Goodbye" to Dad. After another (rude) security check we
arrived at our bus-gate B32. Some seconds later, the boarding-sign suddenly
disappeared and they announced that they had some technical problems. "Not
again!". Too much problems on this trip don´t you think? Another half an hour
later our flight was cancelled. We proceeded to a information counter and they
told us that they arranged a bus-service to Graz for us. GREAT! 2.5 hours on a
bus instead of 30 min on a plane! What a nice surprise! We got our bags at one
of the baggage-belts and carried ourselves and our bags to the waiting bus.
Forty minutes later we were on the highway to Graz/Hell. Did I mention that I
hate long bus-journeys? Especially when the bus has no toilets! At least we got
something to eat (one apple, a small sandwich and a chocolate-bar) and a tiny
little pre-packaged orange-juice. At 14:00 we arrived in front of the departure-
building of Graz-Airport! We jumped in a cab and at 14:30 we finally arrived at
home. Home sweet home!

Conclusion:

As you probably can imagine I was not very happy with this Austrian Airlines
trip. Two days after our arrival I contacted the customer-relations department
and sent them a nice long E-mail with all my complaints. New York was great as
always but I´ll definitely try to avoid Austrian-flights in the future. IMO:
Too much technical problems (you probably remember the almost-crash of a Fokker
70 near Munich earlier this year?), too much delays and last but not least
unfriendly employees and bad service. So take my advice: take Lufthansa
whenever you can. No PTV´s in Y but better service!

Regards,
Thomas

[Gość: antois]

Norge75, jak to jest z toba? Masz idealny serwis w Austrian, a ty głową
kręcisz. W LOT Ani w ekonomicznej ani w biznesowej nie doświadczysz podobnego
serwisu. W ekonomicznej w lot prawie już nie ma nic , a niedługo trzeba będzie
dodatkowo płacić za te orzeszki i sok pomidorowy. LOT zniósł ciepłe porcje w BC
i luksusowe alkochole. A ty starasz się wyszukiwać skrajne opinie. Prawda jest
taka, że LOT jest tandetny a Austrian daje serwis jak w wykwintnej restauracji.

[norge75]

Antois, polec sobie kiedys Austrian. Idealny serwis?? Na lotach do 100 minut w
klasie ekonomicznej dostajesz tylko wode mineralna i nic poza tym, mozesz
jedynie sobie *kupic* drogie kanapki. Poza tym stan ich maszyn jest rowniez
niepewny, zwlaszcza tych mniejszych (Fokker 70 Austrian Airlines prawie sie
rozbil przed lotniskiem w Monachium na poczatku tego roku).

> Norge75, jak to jest z toba? Masz idealny serwis w Austrian, a ty głową
> kręcisz. W LOT Ani w ekonomicznej ani w biznesowej nie doświadczysz podobnego
> serwisu.

????

W ekonomicznej w lot prawie już nie ma nic , a niedługo trzeba będzie
> dodatkowo płacić za te orzeszki i sok pomidorowy.

W Austrian nie dostalbys nawet orzeszkow ani soku.

[Gość: antois]

Leciałem w BC i czułem się jak w bajce. Przed oczami stewy roznosiły mi całe
galerie egzotycznych potraw i luksusowych trunków. W LOcie tego nie ma zarówno
economy jak i BC jest oszczędnościowa.

[norge75]

Polec sobie dla odmiany super oszczednosciowa klasa ekonomiczna Austrian
Airlines. Szkoda, ze super oszczednosciom w klasie ekonomicznej nie towarzysza
super tanie ceny biletow.

[Gość: antois]

Moim zdaniem na krótkich lotach serwis w ogóle nie jest potrzebny, to strata
czasu i pieniędzy. Jesli porównywać serwis to na lotach atlantyckich, gdzie LOT
wypada słabiutko.

[Gość: Lukasz]

rzeczywiscie czest OS sie na opuznienia. Szczegolnie przy starcie z VIE ale
jakos zawsze nadrabia to na trasie.

OS latam tylko z JFK do VIE (czasami w IAD do VIE) tak wiec o innych trasach
nie moge powiedziec.

Byc moze OS ma inna "kadre" do obslugi rejsow krotko-europejskich, ale bardzo
SZCZERZE jeszcze nigdy z nikim nie milym w OS sie niespotkalem.

Choc dawno temu ... tzn w zeszlym roku w wiosna lecialem OS z WAW do VIE
wlasnie OS (tez w C) i opinie wynioslem dobra.