How is economy class on Austrian and Luftansa?
 

I will be flying to Lviv, Ukraine in early December from Honolulu. (yes, I will freeze!)

My flight from JFK to Vienna is operated by Austrian but has a UA flight number. I'm not sure if that is a United aircraft or not. If it's Austrian, it's on a 767-200/300 and I've got seat 10H (so my itin says).

It's an almost 9 hour flight - can anyone tell me how the economy class is on Austrian? They aren't listed on seatguru.com so I can't look up the layouts.

On my return I'm on the Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to LAX 747-400 in economy (says 33C). I've heard Lufthansa economy is nice. But for a 12 hour flight! Yikes. Only option is to use 30,000 UA miles to upgrade to business and I'd rather not.

Can anyone tell me how that flight is? Seats ok? Entertainment? Food? Suggestions for seats to get if I can change them in economy?

Thanks!

Denise

Don't know how many miles you have, but for a 12-hour flight I would not hesitate to upgrade for 30,000 miles.

Economy on LH is very decent. No more room than anyone else, but we've always had good, attentive service, food is more than adequate, snacks served as well as meals, free drinks before, during and after meals. Blankets and headsets come in a sealed bag. No IFE, just overhead screens with decent selection of music etc (not important to us but a negative for others).

We're flying them again next week.

You cannot use UA miles to upgrade a flight operated by Lufthansa, irrespective of whether you've bought the ticket using a UA (flight number (codeshare).

Austrian's economy is OK. The seat pitch seemed even bigger than on Lufthansa, at least on JFK-FRA flight. I flew both of them on the same route recently and have no memories - neither pleasant nor horrow.
Get something to occupy yourself during that 4+ hours Lviv connection. Vienna is a boring airport, at least the post-security area with nothing to do. The smoking area is close to the bar, so you sure get more smoke than you would like.

The Lufthansa Business class is excellent - with self-contained seats which move electrically in every thinkable position, including a flat bed. You have personal entertainment, good food and even better beverages (real Champagne, Grand Cru Classé wines, Cognac...).

I would not hesitate a minute to use the miles to upgrade. (In fact, I usually use my miles for transatlantic business class flights with Lufthansa.)

Lufthansa doesn't have a <b>flat bed</b> in business. What they have is a <b>lie-flat</b> seat, which is flat but is angled; not horizontal to the floor.

10H is a bulkhead aisle in economy http://www.aua.com/NR/rdonlyres/5D66...tzplanB767.pdf