Zorro
Jul 12, 02, 5:10 am
Kempis´ Post regarding a cheap companion ticket on OS in C caught my interest as I had planned a few days holiday with Mrs. Zorro.
The website was in Swedish, and it proved quite difficult to reach LH /OS/SK in Stockholm, as all numbers were toll free numbers only reachable from inside Sweden. Eventually I mailed Kempis directly who was very helpful and booked the tickets directly for us. We had booked ARN-VIE-BKK-open-PEK-VIE-ARN for SEK 11,900 each.
OS ARN-VIE-BKK
We flew from MAD to ARN on LH, stayed at the Radisson Sky City at Arlanda airport and checked in at the SAS Gold/Business counter. The check in area seemed rather old and queues were long everywhere. The check in girl was helpful, especially as my luggage had not made the LH connection the night before, and was somewhere between FRA at ARN. She managed to locate it, and gave me a luggage tag through to KUL, our next destination after BKK. This surprisingly worked, and the luggage made it to KUL.
We went to the SAS lounge, half empty, nothing to write home about. Boarding was early, so when we arrived at the stated boarding time at the gate, we were the last passengers to board. C Cabin was small (Sunday morning) and we had seats 1a and 1c. These seats are like the LH seats, and can be changed into 3 seats for Y class. Unfortunately there was a problem withthose seats, as the seat bottom was configured as 2 seats, but the seatback as 3. If you recline, only part of seat reclines. This actually happened to us the night before on LH from MAD-FRA, and nobody could change it, so we moved to 3d and 3f, which was ok since the middle seat was empty. The flight was ok, service was good, but we only had some coffee, so no report on the food.
At Vienna airport we went to the OS lounge in A where evrybody congregated around the TV to watch the World cup final. Viewers were obviously German or germanophile. (On the flight later it was the opposite - when the pilot announced the result, universal cheer on the plane).
We had seats 1a and 1c on the Lauda Air 767, and the plane was packed. Even in C Class, the dress sense (shorts, sandals,sleeveless shirts) and body decoration (metal in sensitive areas, tattoos, etc.) of the passenger gave the flight a distinct charter atmosphere. The seats did not recline very far, and as others have commneted, the first row on Lauda Air has very little legroom. Service and food however were superb. I am not great fan of airline food even in first, but Lauda Air somehow figured out how to do it. I have flown them on short tips in CRJ´s (VIE-SOF) and even then the salad was superb. Since it was not a real night flight (arr. at midnight VIE time) and the seats were not conducive to sleep I watched a movie and had the pre landing meal, some superb pasta dish.
Overall not bad experience, but the seats are a serious drawback. For dayfligyt to the uS for example, perfectly adequate, but I wopuld avoid them if I had to work on arrival after a night flight.
The steards disguised as cooks are a nice touch, but I ma sure that any other airline could produce Laudalevel meals if they just put their minds to it.
Return flight PEK-VIE-ARN
I had never been to China before, so I was surprised by the lenghty airport check in procedure. Queue up for security control. Reach security control to be told, to buy airport tax (90 Y). Queue for airport tax, told that they dont accept US$ (We had spent the last Yuan on the airport car)´. Queue at the bank, change $ into Yuan. Queue up again for the tax. No proper lines, everybody, pushing, shouting, eventually buying the tax. Again queuing for security control, showing the tax. Check in at OS was quick, no lines at Grand Class. Got seats 1j and 1k. but were told that the connecting flight in VIE was full and could not get seats together. Queue at passport control, queue at security control, have bags x rayed agin, and we are through.
There are two lounges that appear to cater for *A carriers, both with a C and F section. We only went to one, which was ok, spacious and light, and western newspapers were available.
Boarding was early, and we were offered drinks and towels. Unfortunately the airport did not allow the pilot to start the engines, so we were stuck at the gate for 45 minutes without aircondition, and 45º C outside at lunchtime. It was simply unbearable, and several people including myself were close to requesting medical attention. I don´t understand wnough about engineering, but even with the engines switched off , there must be a way to use temperature control in the cabin ! I have waited in airplanes in hot airports before, but I have never suffered as much as this time.
The flight was just over 9 hours, and there was excellent weather throughout the trip. I do not know whether other airlines have this too, but the outside spy camera searching the ground for hidden rocketlaunchers over enemy terrain is a great feature. The change in lanscape was impressive from China, over the Gobi desert, Mongolia, Outer Siberia and so on. Unfortunately the cabin crew forced me to stow the monitor 40 minutes before landing (Ve haf orders to secure ze cabin now).
The seats were the best I know for long haul C class. Admittedly I can not compare it to many other C Class seats, since I have mostly flown F before. The legrest goes completely horizontal, and the recline is probably as good as the old LH F class. The food was not bad, but clearly below Lauda Air standard.
In summary, if I could get OS C class everywhere, I would not bother about paying the difference to F class anymore. Perfecly adequate for flights up to 10 hours, night flights included.
At Schwechat we had a short connection to Stockholm. so only glimpsed into the Senator lounge. As usual standing room only so proceeded to the gate, and took the bus out to the F70. Expecting the usual cramped 2x2 seating on small planes, I was pleasantly surprised to see a spacious jet cabin (similar to the M80) with the C Cabin half empty. So after all we could sit together in 1d and 1f. The backrests again somehow did not seem to correspond with the seats, so it was a bit uncomfortable. Did not eat, so again no comment on short haul OS C catering
The website was in Swedish, and it proved quite difficult to reach LH /OS/SK in Stockholm, as all numbers were toll free numbers only reachable from inside Sweden. Eventually I mailed Kempis directly who was very helpful and booked the tickets directly for us. We had booked ARN-VIE-BKK-open-PEK-VIE-ARN for SEK 11,900 each.
OS ARN-VIE-BKK
We flew from MAD to ARN on LH, stayed at the Radisson Sky City at Arlanda airport and checked in at the SAS Gold/Business counter. The check in area seemed rather old and queues were long everywhere. The check in girl was helpful, especially as my luggage had not made the LH connection the night before, and was somewhere between FRA at ARN. She managed to locate it, and gave me a luggage tag through to KUL, our next destination after BKK. This surprisingly worked, and the luggage made it to KUL.
We went to the SAS lounge, half empty, nothing to write home about. Boarding was early, so when we arrived at the stated boarding time at the gate, we were the last passengers to board. C Cabin was small (Sunday morning) and we had seats 1a and 1c. These seats are like the LH seats, and can be changed into 3 seats for Y class. Unfortunately there was a problem withthose seats, as the seat bottom was configured as 2 seats, but the seatback as 3. If you recline, only part of seat reclines. This actually happened to us the night before on LH from MAD-FRA, and nobody could change it, so we moved to 3d and 3f, which was ok since the middle seat was empty. The flight was ok, service was good, but we only had some coffee, so no report on the food.
At Vienna airport we went to the OS lounge in A where evrybody congregated around the TV to watch the World cup final. Viewers were obviously German or germanophile. (On the flight later it was the opposite - when the pilot announced the result, universal cheer on the plane).
We had seats 1a and 1c on the Lauda Air 767, and the plane was packed. Even in C Class, the dress sense (shorts, sandals,sleeveless shirts) and body decoration (metal in sensitive areas, tattoos, etc.) of the passenger gave the flight a distinct charter atmosphere. The seats did not recline very far, and as others have commneted, the first row on Lauda Air has very little legroom. Service and food however were superb. I am not great fan of airline food even in first, but Lauda Air somehow figured out how to do it. I have flown them on short tips in CRJ´s (VIE-SOF) and even then the salad was superb. Since it was not a real night flight (arr. at midnight VIE time) and the seats were not conducive to sleep I watched a movie and had the pre landing meal, some superb pasta dish.
Overall not bad experience, but the seats are a serious drawback. For dayfligyt to the uS for example, perfectly adequate, but I wopuld avoid them if I had to work on arrival after a night flight.
The steards disguised as cooks are a nice touch, but I ma sure that any other airline could produce Laudalevel meals if they just put their minds to it.
Return flight PEK-VIE-ARN
I had never been to China before, so I was surprised by the lenghty airport check in procedure. Queue up for security control. Reach security control to be told, to buy airport tax (90 Y). Queue for airport tax, told that they dont accept US$ (We had spent the last Yuan on the airport car)´. Queue at the bank, change $ into Yuan. Queue up again for the tax. No proper lines, everybody, pushing, shouting, eventually buying the tax. Again queuing for security control, showing the tax. Check in at OS was quick, no lines at Grand Class. Got seats 1j and 1k. but were told that the connecting flight in VIE was full and could not get seats together. Queue at passport control, queue at security control, have bags x rayed agin, and we are through.
There are two lounges that appear to cater for *A carriers, both with a C and F section. We only went to one, which was ok, spacious and light, and western newspapers were available.
Boarding was early, and we were offered drinks and towels. Unfortunately the airport did not allow the pilot to start the engines, so we were stuck at the gate for 45 minutes without aircondition, and 45º C outside at lunchtime. It was simply unbearable, and several people including myself were close to requesting medical attention. I don´t understand wnough about engineering, but even with the engines switched off , there must be a way to use temperature control in the cabin ! I have waited in airplanes in hot airports before, but I have never suffered as much as this time.
The flight was just over 9 hours, and there was excellent weather throughout the trip. I do not know whether other airlines have this too, but the outside spy camera searching the ground for hidden rocketlaunchers over enemy terrain is a great feature. The change in lanscape was impressive from China, over the Gobi desert, Mongolia, Outer Siberia and so on. Unfortunately the cabin crew forced me to stow the monitor 40 minutes before landing (Ve haf orders to secure ze cabin now).
The seats were the best I know for long haul C class. Admittedly I can not compare it to many other C Class seats, since I have mostly flown F before. The legrest goes completely horizontal, and the recline is probably as good as the old LH F class. The food was not bad, but clearly below Lauda Air standard.
In summary, if I could get OS C class everywhere, I would not bother about paying the difference to F class anymore. Perfecly adequate for flights up to 10 hours, night flights included.
At Schwechat we had a short connection to Stockholm. so only glimpsed into the Senator lounge. As usual standing room only so proceeded to the gate, and took the bus out to the F70. Expecting the usual cramped 2x2 seating on small planes, I was pleasantly surprised to see a spacious jet cabin (similar to the M80) with the C Cabin half empty. So after all we could sit together in 1d and 1f. The backrests again somehow did not seem to correspond with the seats, so it was a bit uncomfortable. Did not eat, so again no comment on short haul OS C catering