Austrian Airlines advice
 

Hello all,<BR><BR>A couple of quick questions, please. We are wanting to do this: Fly DC to Prague, train to Vienna, and then fly home from Vienna to DC.<BR><BR>The best ticket I've found is for $603 on Travelocity (a fare about $150 better than the travel agent could find, which stumped me.)<BR><BR>My questions are:<BR>1. Is the airline generally considered a good one? I know this is relative, but the only information Travelocity gives is that the flight will be on an Airbus. No model number. Also, there is a Vienna to Prague leg that is on a DeHavilland Dash 4, operated by Tyrolean Ari. Any thoughts there?<BR><BR>2. Austrian Air is a member of the Star alliance. Is it possible to book the miles to my United account?<BR><BR>3. Lastly, is the $603 falsely low? That is, will there be much added in the way of taxes and airport fees on top of this? I can't understand why the travel agent came up with a fare (for the exact same itinerary) so much higer than Travelocity.<BR><BR>Thanks for any help. Travelocity just can't answer these questions!

I can only help w/parts of your ??. Austrian Airlines is fine to fly on, I've been to Vienna a couple of times & had very enjoyable flights. The price you mention is pretty good for right now but typically we book flights in Nov./Dec. for Jan./Mar. travel in Europe as usually there are discounts out @ the end of the year. W/the airline industry the way it is now, who knows if that will happen although some airlines have already discounted group fares to Europe.

You may want to check on the Austrian airline website directly. They had a couple of incredible specials online...NYC or WAS to Vienna for $249, $299, etc. It's a little hard to find (I think it's under a special deals banner) and the dates are very specific.<BR>But it's worth a look.

Still there:<BR><BR>https://book.aua.com/an/leisure/US/f...e_specials.htm

Austrian Airlines is fine! They used to have service from Chicago to Vienna -- nothing spectacular, but a good solid experience. <BR><BR>I've also used them in and out of Skopje. They [and the old swissair/crossair] were REALLY helpful/kind/good to me when I arrived in Thessaloniki on the train after the beginning of the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999. <BR><BR>I flew Tryrolean last back in 1997 -- the attendants wore blue and green dirndls and the food was good [as in fresh] -- no worries here:)

Wow, Steve, those deals are awesome! The thing is, we'd have to fly roundtrip to Vienna and train up and back to Prague. At 6 hours (we think), this might be more than we want to do -- twice.<BR><BR>However, if there is a discount airline between Vienna and Prague that would make this quick and worthwhile, we'd totally be into that. We only have 8 days to do both cities, so time is a bit of an issue.<BR><BR>Also, I tried to find a place to sign up for e-savers on Austrian Airlines' site, but couldn't find it. If you know that URL as well, I'd love it. <BR><BR>Thanks so much for the heads up on those fares. Definitely something to consider...