24. ATH-VIE on OS in J
Athens, Greece to Vienna, Austria
OS 802 (Operated by Tyrolean)
Departure Time: 2:55PM
Airbus A320
Business Class Seat 3F
Duration 2.75 hours
After taking the Athens subway, we arrived at the Athens airport. For some reason, Austrian on-line check-in did not work for us, so we had to go to the Business Class check-in line to get our boarding passes. The gate agent informed us that Austrian uses the Lufthansa Business Class lounge, and we headed that way. I knew Aegean was also a Star Alliance member, with a hub at Athens, so I figured they had a lounge we could check out, too. And sure enough they did, right next door.
Austrian Airways business class check-in at Athens
A blurry shot of the Lufthansa business class lounge, about a two minute walk after clearing security.
The entrance to the Aegean lounge, right next door.
We only had about 20 minutes before we had to leave for boarding, so we did a quick scope out of both lounges, starting with Lufthansa. We left our belongings at the Lufthansa lounge as "base camp". Lufthansa had a decent spread of some sandwiches, salad, cream of asparagus soup, and a beverage center. I would say an average Lufthansa Business Lounge, which is a good thing. I was disappointed no soft pretzels like in Frankfurt and Munich.
Sandwiches with yoghurt and hummus dip at the Lufthansa Business Class lounge. After taking down a sandwich, I headed over to the Aegean lounge next door. On presenting my business class Austrian Boarding pass, and my US Airways Dividend Miles Chairman card, I was cheerfully let into the lounge.
This is the beverage center at the Aegean lounge. I liked it better than the Lufthansa beverage center because all the drinks were in individual cans and not bigger plastic bottles that you had to poor into a glass. I grabbed a can of coke and stashed it in my pocket to take back with me to the Lufthansa lounge.
The sandwiches at the Aegean lounge were slightly more meager than the Lufthansa sandwiches, although there was a nice Greek cheese and fruit spread.
After checking out both lounges and getting refreshed on food and drink, we headed to the gate.
A blurry shot on boarding, taken from the Business Class cabin.
Legroom was again pretty good. Was it USA First class legroom? No. And per usual, the seats were the same as Economy seats, just with a middle seat blocked off for economy. But there was more legroom than Economy, and I found the seat plenty comfortable.
We were served a meal of some Pasta with Veggies in a heavy and delicious cream sauce, a small salad, and an
Apfelstrudel. All were delicious and hastily eaten.
After an uneventful flight, we begun our descent into Vienna. We were going to take the S-bahn/U-bahn train system to our hotel, the Marriott Courtyard Messe is not far from the center of Vienna.