Anyone travel austrian airlines?

amother

Pink ↓

Sun, Nov 04 2018, 12:30 am

I'm taking a flight to israel on austrian airlines using points, and wondering if anyone ever did that, and what there experince was.

too tired

Sun, Nov 04 2018, 12:42 am

I did about 5 years ago. Great company. The airport is a little meh. Its very safe. Take enough snacks. Buy enough drinks at duti free in NY or wherever you are and have it sealed to take in flight so you have when you are at the airport in Austria. There is nothing kosher in the airport in Austria. Maybe something is kosher but they dont bear any symbols that can hint as kosher. Not too many seats in the transit area in the airport. If there is no stopover in Vienna you can disregard the latter comments

Zeleze

Sun, Nov 04 2018, 5:06 am

Seats on the shorter part are very unfordable, seems like a cheap seat and to sit on that for 4-5 hours wasn't very pleasant

the larger plane on longer part if I remember well, was OK

amother

Khaki ↓

Sun, Nov 04 2018, 7:23 am

it was a great flight, pleasent flioght attendants. NOTHING KOSHER on the airport in vienna, take nnough snacks along!!!
the airport is neat and safe, everything was fine b´´H.

amother

Smokey ↓

Sun, Nov 04 2018, 9:18 am

I did it recently. The kosher meals are under a reliable hechsher, though I forget the specifics. Some of the stewardesses were nice and friendly, others very much not.

The airport was kind of gross. People openly smoking and no air conditioning- I guess just very European, and people obviously anti semitic.

The second leg of the trip was in a small dinky plane with no entertainment.

I can't say it was awful, but it was not my favorite experience.

It is certainly doable, just not awesome.

Safe trip!

EishesYo

Sun, Nov 04 2018, 9:58 am

amother wrote:

I'm taking a flight to israel on austrian airlines using points, and wondering if anyone ever did that, and what there experince was.

We did it recently, food on flight was yum! Personell were amazing! They helped us get to our connecting flight because we were delayed....

amother

Blue

Sun, Nov 04 2018, 10:18 am

Just flew on Austrian two weeks ago. We flew on Austrian many times. It was always a very pleasant experience. Crew is amazing and food is good. They are always many religious Jewish passengers on most flights to Vienna. Most of the time there are enough men for a minyan shacharis at the gate to TelAviv.
There is also the option offered by austrian "Vienna on us " numerous people take advantage to tour beautiful Vienna without being charged extra for the stop.

amother

Olive

Sun, Nov 04 2018, 12:57 pm

Regarding snacks, there are several very specific snacks with a reliable hashgacha in Vienna, with hebrew lettering on them;chips, pretzels ... maybe start a new thread asking if there are any Viennese amothers who can help you

amother

↑ Khaki

Sun, Nov 04 2018, 1:57 pm

food on the plane is rav schwarz - mehadrin and delicious

there are kosher snacks but NOT in the transit area (aaik and ive been there 2 weeks ago).

the terminal has supermakets with kosher snacks.

amother

Natural ↓

Sun, Nov 04 2018, 2:44 pm

amother wrote:

Excuse me, but smoking at the airport is not allowed in Vienna. And its super clean and neat and organized to the minute. And it def has air conditioning! And austrians are so not anti semitic, sure the uneducated ones are very nationalistic like in any other country but the normal working people are open minded especially stuff that works at theairport. So please dont share disinformation!

amother

↑ Smokey

Sun, Nov 04 2018, 4:17 pm

I wasn't sharing disinformation. Or misinformation as I call it. I was sharing my experience. I'm glad to hear that it must have changed over the last year.

Just out of curiosity, do you work for them?

serenity8843

Sun, Nov 04 2018, 4:22 pm

When flying to seminary four years ago, my seminary's group flight was through EL AL and I found the flight super claustrophobic...I flew home for Pesach on Austrian and it was a world of a difference. The flight from Tel Aviv to Austria was on a small plane but I basically slept the whole time. The plane from Ausria to my U.S. hometown (not NY) was big and seats were roomy and comfortable. The Kosher meal wasn't that bad either. I remember that during the stopover in Austria when I was returning back to Israel after Pesach had two shachris minyanim going on at the gate. There were that many frum families. I would definitely recommend!

amother

↑ Natural

Sun, Nov 04 2018, 5:18 pm

amother wrote:

Its been like this for the past 15 years, not a year. No I dont work for them but I know Vienna and the law which is against smoking in closed places like restaurants,bars, train, tram, bus stations and airports. I really wonder where did you see people smoking at the Vienna airport.

ggdm

Sun, Nov 04 2018, 8:11 pm

About the airport: European law forbids smoking in public places, including airports. You will have specific smoking zones (like glass aquariums) which yes, are disgusting, but the general area will be free of smoke. So if you were in an airport were people are smoking in recent years, it was not in Europe.

About kosher food: You will not find anywhere where you can sit down and eat kosher food. You will most probably not find food with printed hechshers on them. But there is food certified by the Austrian rabbinate as kosher. Just no symbols on the package, like in most places in Europe. You can use the kosher list to look up what you can buy in a normal supermarket:
https://www.misrachi.at/images.....h.pdf

About Austrians: They have currently elected a right-wing gouvernment, but they are not more anti-semitic than other nations. They are generally polite and organised and easy to get along with.