I left for the airport quite early.
Since a couple of months, at Zaventem airport, electronic gates are used as security to enter the A concourse (which is for Shengen flights). Apparently there have been some small problems with these electronic gates, as sometimes two persons would sneak in at the same time, or people without boarding pass were able to access the concourse. As a result security personnel at the airport decided to go on ‘strike’ by performing additional security checks on the day of my departure. This was all over the news and there was a fear for long waiting times at security. Travellers were thus advised to arrive early at the airport.
As a result, I was at the airport at 3 p.m. for my 5.50 p.m. flight, plenty of time to spare.
I checked in through the Austrian Airlines app on my iphone and had both of my boarding passes in my passbook.
Check-in for Austrian Airlines in Brussels is handled by Brussels Airlines where there was no one in line for the business class check-in.
When I booked my flights, the only seats available for the flight to Vienna, were the aisle seats on the second row. When I checked in online, the first row opened up, so I changed my seat to 1C (I don’t like to take the window seat in order not to get locked up if someone is in the aisle).
At check-in, it was remarked that it was a seat change, which was the change I had made myself, so I confirmed that I was OK with seat 1C, after which the friendly lady at check-in asked if she needed to print paper boarding passes, which I declined.
I am a huge fan of passbook and electronic boarding passes, as you have all documents you need on your electronic device. I cannot understand why some airlines I have used in the past automatically give you a paper boarding pass, even if you have an electronic one and only let you use the paper ones at the airport.
After check-in, I proceeded to the A-concourse, and of course, there wasn’t any line at the electronic security gates, as the actions of the security personnel in reality were very limited.
I put my Iphone on the electronic gates and was through in a matter of seconds. For further security screening, I took the fast track, although neither the normal line nor the fast track had anyone in line, so also there it was only a matter of minutes before I was through and entered the A-concourse.
I did some quick shopping (perfume) in the duty free area (which of course isn’t really duty free), and proceeded to The Loft, the new Brussels Airlines lounge in the A-concourse (one level above the concourse), where I was granted access upon presenting my electronic boarding pass.
Now, my lounge experience is fairly limited . Last year on my way to Istanbul, I visited the Brussels Airlines lounge in the B-concourse, which is rather small, has limited food spread and is tired looking. So I must say that The Loft is a huge improvement over the lounge in the B-concourse.
The lounge is spacious and very light, and has in my opinion quite a lot of seating, although at the moment I visited, hardly anyone was there.
I grabbed at single seat at the window overlooking the apron and went to check out the food spread and the self-service bar.
As it was in the middle of the afternoon, I didn’t expect a lot of food (taking into account my previous experience with the other Brussels Airlines lounge), but there was plenty of choice and I settled for some tasty quiche, after which I took some home made chocolate mousse (one of my guilty pleasures). From the self service bar I grabbed a glass (or two) of rosé.
Free newspapers were on offer, so I grabbed some to pass the time.
Faster than expected, it was boarding time (5.20 p.m.) and I headed to gate A66 where my flight would leave. As I arrived at the gate, boarding was called for business and star alliance gold, and I headed straight through onto the plane which was painted in a star alliance livery.
Upon boarding I was greeted by two of the flight attendants at the door, stored my roll aboard in the lockers above row 2 and settled into 1C. The cockpit door was open, so I had an excellent view on the preparations by the pilots.
Business class within Europe are standard economy seats, with the middle left open. As luck would have it, there were only two other passengers in business class, so I moved over to 1A. Prior to push back, magazines and newspapers were offered. The newspapers were in German, so I grabbed The Economist and Time Magazine.
Push back was on-time and during taxi, a manual safety demonstration was performed by the cabin crew.
As soon as we were in the air, the flight attendant working business class came around to take drink orders. I ordered a glass of white wine, to which I was offered either a gruner vetlinger or a weissburgunder. I went with the vetlinger and was presented with the (full size) bottle to taste before pooring a full glass.
As this was a flight in the middle of the afternoon, I was curious which food service would be offered. Very soon the cabin started to smell of hot food, and the flight attendant came round with a tray containing a hot dish and a dessert. Further a choice of warm bread was offered from the bread basket.
The main consisted of scampi’s in a kind of tomato sauce with rice and vegetables, which was tasty. The highlight of the meal however was the dessert, which was a chocolate cake with a banana in the middle. This was absolutely to die for!
The meal was concluded with some tea.
Finally I relaxed with a magazine until descent into Vienna. During the remainder of the flight, the flight attendant working business class kept refilling my glass of gruner vetlinger and as a result I’m pretty sure I polished of almost an entire bottle by the end of the flight.
Descent and landing were very smooth, and as it was my first time in Vienna I was surprised not to see any mountains and that the landscape was very green.
We landed on time and parked at a remote location which resulted in a bus ride to the terminal, where I had to follow a series of hallways before I arrived at immigration before entering the non-shengen concourse of Vienna airport.
