| THE ALVIATOR'S VERDICT The flight itself was run-of-the-mill with no in-seat power ports, though really I wanted to try out the airline's catering; I wasn't a fan of the specific dish I was served, but could see the effort that Austrian puts into their catering | 4.0 |
After visiting all of the Star Alliance lounges available at London and Zurich Airport, I flew Austrian’s intra-European business class from Zurich to Vienna. This was the second leg of my two-segment Aeroplan itinerary, with the first segment being from London to Zurich.
While the focus of the trip was to review Star Alliance’s hub lounges, I was also curious to try Austrian Airlines for the first time, and compare it to Lufthansa and Swiss’ offering, as well as those offered by intra-European competitors (such as British Airways, Air France, etc.) I was also interested to know how good the airline’s intra-European catering was, given that they’re quite renowned for their premium cabin catering, particularly on longhaul flights.
Here’s a taster of the Austrian intra-European business class experience on this 1h 20m flight, including the ground experience, seat, catering, as well as small touches. I’ll also share a few photos of the stunning views you get on the route from Zurich to Vienna, as there’s a “correct” side of where to sit on the plane.
Booking Austrian’s A320 Business Class
I booked an Aeroplan award ticket from London to Vienna via Zurich. This would allow me to try the Star Alliance lounges across both London Heathrow and Zurich Airport, as well as try Swiss and Austrian’s intra-European business class products.
The ticket set me back 15,000 Aeroplan miles, as the full itinerary clocked in at under 1,000 miles. Unfortunately, Aeroplan’s carrier-imposed surcharges on this ticket aren’t light – there’s a carrier-imposed surcharge of 161.90 CAD (£89.18/HK$925). On top of that, since my itinerary wasn’t bookable on the Air Canada website, I had to pay an extra 30 CAD (£16.28/HK$170) to book it via their call centre, which ended up being an adventure in itself. While the Austrian flight was the next day, I had less than 24 hours in Zurich, so it didn’t count as a stopover (i.e. I didn’t need to pay an extra 5,000 miles).
The itinerary I booked was as follows:
26/02/26 Swiss 317 London Heathrow (LHR) – Zurich (ZRH) dep. 09:00 arr. 11:55 (Business Class)
27/02/26 Austrian 134 Zurich (ZRH) – Vienna (VIE) dep. 10:40 arr. 12:00 (Business Class)
I’ve reviewed the Swiss segment here, whereas this post will focus on my experience flying Austrian.
Austrian Business Class Ground Experience at Zurich Airport
My Austrian ground experience began at Zurich Airport, where I had a leisurely morning walk from the Zleep Hotel Zurich-Kloten. While I’ve been to Zurich Airport a few times, this was my first time walking up to the airport, so it was cool to see it from a distance.
Walking to Zurich Airport
As you’d expect as an fellow Lufthansa Group members, Austrian shares the Swiss check-in counters at Zurich Airport. I didn’t need to drop by here today, though the little lamps next to the check-in counters are quite cute. I find Swiss’ brand to be quite tacky sometimes, though I quite liked how the check-in area was designed.
Swiss check-in desks at Zurich Airport
Since I had my boarding pass and didn’t need to check in a bag, I headed straight through security. At Zurich Airport, there’s a separate priority lane for first and business class passengers. This was a moot point since the economy line was empty anyway.
Zurich Airport Priority Security Lane
Passing through security was painless, and on this morning, I did a run of all of the Star Alliance lounges at the airport. The two lounges most people flying from Zurich to Vienna will use are the main A lounge and the Alpine lounge, though you’ll also be able to use the E lounge (with a fabulous outdoor terrace) or the D lounge if you’ve got a bit more time on your hands, and have a passport on you to cross over into the non-Schengen region. Out of the two main lounges for Schengen flying, I recommend the Alpine lounge, as it’s significantly quieter and open to Austrian business class passengers.
Anyway, I made my way to gate A63. While Zurich Airport is very pretty, there’s quite a bit of construction going on around the Schengen area at the minute, including the below abomination.
Construction at Zurich Airport
I got to the gate area at around 10 AM, before our posted boarding time of 10:10 AM.
Austrian Boarding Gate at Zurich Airport
Since it was a beautiful day at Zurich Airport, I was a little sad to see that the view of our A320 was obstructed. Today we were going to be taken to Vienna on OE-LBX, a 24-year-old A320 that had been with Austrian for 14 years (and had been with Finnair prior).
Austrian A320 at Zurich Airport
Boarding commenced at 10:10 AM. Business class passengers are in group 2, behind first class feeder passengers (e.g. a passenger getting off a Swiss first class flight on the same itinerary) and HON Circle members.
Austrian Flight OS134
Friday, February 27, 2026
Origin: Zurich (ZRH) Gate: A63 Dep: 10:40 (10:40)
Destination: Vienna (VIE) Gate: F27 Arr: 12:00 (11:55)
Duration: 1 h 20 min (1 h 15 min)
Aircraft: Airbus A320 Reg: OE-LBX
Seat: 3A/1F (Business Class)
The flight attendants welcoming me were friendly, and I made my way into the intimate business class cabin.
Austrian A320 Business Class Cabin and Seat
Austrian’s A320s feature Recaro BL3520 seats, similar to what you’ll find on Lufthansa and Swiss’ older fleet, among subsidiaries such as Eurowings (all three airlines have the same Geven Essenza seats on their newer fleet, as I experienced on Swiss on my preceding flight).
The business class cabin on this flight was very intimate, spanning just the first three rows. There was a flight attendant stationed at row 3, and she let me into my seat 3A when I motioned that I was seated there.
Austrian A320 Business Class Cabin
Each seat featured a fold-down tray table.
Austrian A320 Business Class Table
As you’d expect for an intra-European business class product, the middle seat was blocked off. There’s a headrest indicating this, though no other perk – there isn’t a tray table to put your items, or anything.
Austrian A320 Business Class Blocked Seat
I find the Lufthansa group seats to be middling in the grand scheme of things, and prefer the seats offered by British Airways, Air France/KLM’s newer fleet, Aegean, etc.. This older A320 also didn’t feature any in-seat power, though it’s my understanding that Austrian’s newer fleet do feature this.
Austrian A320 Economy Class
Since I was seated in the last row of the business class cabin and was first onboard, I could peek into the economy cabin. Austrian’s A320s feature 174 seats (including in the business class cabin, and including the blocked seats), spread across 29 rows (the last row is row 30, as row 13 is missing).
Austrian A320 Economy Class Cabin
Austrian A320 Lavatory
This Austrian A320 featured one lavatory for business class passengers and two lavatories for economy passengers – the business class lavatory was located in the front of the aircraft, whereas the economy ones were located in the back. Some of the Austrian A320s (not including this one) have an extra row at the back of the plane, with the lavatories both featured behind the rear galley. In this case they were situated in front.
The lavatories were standard, and featured no extra toiletries.
Austrian A320 Lavatory
Taking off from Zurich Airport
During takeoff we were handed refreshing tissues, which were the extent of the pre-departure service.
Austrian A320 Business Class Refreshing Tissue
At 10:35 AM, five minutes before our scheduled departure, the inflight manager came onto the PA. She mentioned that we’d have an on-time “operation” to Vienna, and wished us a pleasant flight. There was also a special welcome to “top customers”, including Miles and More frequent fliers. We were also informed of our flight time of 1h 5m.
We pushed back a couple of minutes early, saying bye to the beautiful ITA Airways A319 parked next to us.
ITA Airways A319 at Zurich Airport
It was a quick taxi to runway 28 on this stunning day, and by 10:55 AM we were ready for takeoff.
Taking off at Zurich Airport
We took off westbound and made a 180° U-turn towards Vienna. It was a cloudless day, and we could see some snow-capped mountains in the distance.
Taking off from Zurich Airport
Since we’d done a U-turn after takeoff, we had an amazing view over Zurich Airport, where you could see a birds’ eye view of the airport’s various runways and terminals.
View of Zurich Airport during climbout
I hadn’t connected to WiFi yet by the time I’d taken the below photo – can anyone recognise the below body of water?
Takeoff from Zurich Airport
Austrian A320 WiFi
The WiFi was activated once we were at cruising level. Austrian has two fairly simple packages on their A320s:
- Miles and More members receive free messaging
- A full flight pass costs EUR 6 on flights of up to 90 minutes (shorthaul flights over 90 minutes charge EUR 8)
- You can also pay 2,000 miles on flights up to 90 minutes, or 2,600 miles of flights beyond 90 minutes
I didn’t feel the need to purchase WiFi on a 80-minute flight, as much as I would’ve wanted to test out the offering. Thankfully I do have a Miles and More account, so was able to use the free inflight messaging service. It worked fine, though was nothing to write home about.
Enjoying views of the Alps from the first row
By the time we reached cruising altitude, the curtain was closed between the business and economy cabins. The curtains have a gingham trim on them, which is a fun way to spruce up a drab cabin.
Austrian A320 Business Class Curtain
At this point I realised that some beautiful snow-capped mountains were visible from the right side of the plane, and the right hand side of the first row was empty. So I decided to move there, and just had my eyes glued outside the window for a while.
View from Zurich to Vienna
Legroom wasn’t half bad in these seats. I usually never pick an economy-style bulkhead seat on purpose (I’m not the tallest, and don’t like that I have to put my bag in the overhead bin instead of under the seat in front of me), though with a seat pocket present on this ultra-short flight I actually enjoyed the extra space that this seat afforded.
Legroom in first row in Austrian A320 Business Class
The tray table folds out of the armrest, so the only thing featuring on the wall in front is a huge “Austrian” sign.
Austrian A320 Business Class Logo
Austrian A320 Business Class Meal Service
As you’d expect for a flight with an air time of under an hour, the meal service was executed at pace, being served under 15 minutes after takeoff. I’ve heard lots of awesome things about Austrian’s catering before, particularly on longhaul flights – however, I’ve heard great things about their shorthaul catering as well. The airline is also known for bringing Austria’s rich culinary heritage into their meals, so I was looking forward to what the airline had to offer.
Austrian’s website states that cold meals are offered on flights of up to 80 minutes, and a hot meal is offered on flights of 80 minutes or more. Our flight was scheduled at squarely 80 minutes, though unfortunately we received a cold meal.
Additionally, I got somewhat unlucky, as the tafelspitz we were offered (boiled beef) really wasn’t my favourite dish. The friendly flight attendant described the meal as boiled beef with broad beans and sauce, and that’s what it was – the sauce was a traditional chive sauce. The broad beans were absolutely fine, though the beef itself really wasn’t my preferred preparation.
The meal was served with a warm Viennese semmel (bread roll) and butter, which I enjoyed.
Austrian A320 Business Class Meal
While I wasn’t a huge fan of the main, I could still see how seriously Austrian takes their meal service. For example, the airline has two red wines and two white wines, one of each which is Austrian. When I asked if I could look at the bottle, the flight attendant presented it to me.
Austrian A320 Business Class Riesling Wine
I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to have a Riesling on top of the Austrian Alps, despite it being a late morning flight. I had this with a truffle cake (trüffeltorte), which was very tasty.
Austrian A320 Business Class Truffle Cake
While I couldn’t take a photo of it in time, the coffee I was served after was also presented very nicely, with a full cup of sugars to choose from and a jug of milk. This isn’t their longhaul eiskaffee presentation, though the coffee was good.
Austrian A320 Business Class Coffee
30 minutes after lunch was served, and just as we were starting our initial descent, we were handed a Mozartkugel, a filled chocolate with marzipan. I didn’t realise how big of a thing Mozartkugeln were in Vienna until I visited!
Austrian A320 Business Class Mozartkugel
While I personally wasn’t a fan of the dish we were served, I still recognised the effort that Austrian puts into their catering. I’d be keen to try them out on a longhaul flight, as I’ve heard that catering on those flights is outstanding.
Flying over the Central Eastern Alps
After lunch, I continued to enjoy views of the snow-capped Alps on this cloudless day.
Flying over snow-capped mountains
As we entered Austrian airspace, the landscape changed a bit, with shorter mountains and lush greenery.
Flying over Austrian Alps
This was definitely one of the more scenic flights I’ve had, and I wasn’t complaining about the weather either!
Landing into Vienna Airport
At around 11:40 AM we were told that we’d be descending into Vienna Airport in about 10 minutes. I decided to move back to the left side of the plane, and enjoyed our landing into Vienna from there.
Landing into Vienna Airport
We touched down into Vienna Airport at 11:50 AM, just under an hour after we left Zurich. I’d never been to Vienna before, so it was cool to be at a new airport for the first time.
Taxiing at Vienna Airport
I enjoyed seeing an AZAL Azerbaijan A319. This plane would’ve just flown the 4h 20m flight from Baku to Vienna, and was parked next to an Austrian A320neo.
Taxiing at Vienna Airport
We ended up parking at F27, by the Schengen area of the airport. We parked next to another Austrian A320.
Austrian A320neo at Vienna Airport
Deplaning was a smooth process. While there was a direct exit, I wanted to wander around the departures terminal for a little bit, given that I hadn’t visited the airport before (I didn’t have to pass security to do this, since I was flying intra-Schengen). When I did eventually decide to leave the terminal, I went down quite an interesting stairwell to reach the arrivals area, before taking the train into the city.
Exit at Vienna Airport
Conclusion: Austrian A320 Business Class
From my impression of Austrian Airlines, I was expecting to get a very half-hearted soft product, but a very tasty meal. Instead, I think my experience was the opposite – I wasn’t that impressed by the meal, though I thought that the airline had among the more premium touches I’ve seen for an intra-European business class product.
Don’t get me wrong, this is an old plane with an uncomfortable seat and no power ports, though I appreciated the nice meal presentation and beverage selection, and some of the quirkier elements of the (limited) onboard decor. I did also appreciate that there was WiFi on this flight, even though I only used the free messaging service.
Admittedly there’s not much differentiation, but Austrian might have my favourite onboard experience out of the three “main” Lufthansa Group airlines (including Lufthansa and Swiss), and I’d seek Austrian out if I just wanted to earn or burn some Star Alliance miles in shorthaul business class. However, I’d be keen to try Austrian on a longhaul flight, particularly in their premium economy cabin.
What’s your favourite Lufthansa Group airline to fly?
