And I thought I was going to get a bit of luxury! (Austrian Airlines)

Member Name: dangaroo

Product:	Austrian Airlines
Date:	21/12/08 (56 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Pillows and blankets, quite a lot of free beverages

Disadvantages: Dodgy food, rude staff

Recently, I was supposed to fly from Yerevan in Armenia to Riga in Latvia but Air Baltic the company flying between the two destinations, closed the connection and they re-routed me via Vienna with the first leg of the journey being ran by Austrian Airlines.

It didn't actually occur to me that this was happening until t he airport, firstly the Austrian Airlines staff at Yerevan airport were really quite helpful and their efforts can't be faulted. Whilst I waited in the new snazzy lounge at Zvartnots airport, I couldn't help but notice that the clientelle ont he plane looked a little bit classier than on a budget airline, considering I was knackered (flight left at 5.45 am - had been in the pub until midnight, then walked 10km and finally hitched the last 10km to the airport), I was quite excited about the prospect of some luxury.

So, the time arrives and we pile on to the aeroplane, somehow the plane filled up despite the waiting room being considerably quieter - it seemed as if it was an incredibly small plane actually. They gave free blankets and pillows, which was quite impressive as it was only a 3 hour journey, the food was a bit dodgyish - omelette and a small hotdog like sausage and a yoghurt. I was quite thirsty by now, so I was quite happy to get quite a few drinks - a coke and two waters for free wasn't too shabby!

The seating arrangement was an absolute disaster! I've flown with quite a lot of airlines and just about every budget airline in Europe and the Middle East and never have I seen so little room to manouevre. My seat wouldn't recline, whilst the man in front of me's seat was stuck reclined - something he discovered having been shouted at for having it down (it wasn't his fault, it wouldn't go up!), in fact the staff seemed a bit shitty all round - doing a lot of tutting and general face acheing, the sterned faced Austrians were hardly a laugh.

A lot of people seemed to be transferring to other destinations and the majority of passengers were Armenian, when the staff blurted out messages in grumpy German or short and sharp English, the Armenians didn't have a clue what they were saying - I thought it would have made sense to have at least one Armenian working on there or at the very least a Russian speaker!

I received the change to Austrian Airlines for free and now I'm reviewing it - I guess I can consider it as a 50p bonus with 2 waters, a coke and a dodgy Austrian breakfast but I would never pay the regular price for a ticket with this airline.

Cramped and grumpy staff (at least in the case of this flight), a flight which was full of people mostly looking to have some breakfast and then go to sleep was made quite complicated by the dodgy seating arrangements and aggressive behaviour of the girls working on the plane. The pilot needn't have bothered talking through the radio, at least not in English because the speakers were full of feedback and his words were incomprehendible - basically just waking everyone up!

Summary: I wouldn't pay the real price for this service