Flew business from LAX to VIE on June 20. Cabin was warm when I boarded. Asked purser to cool it off. Yes, yes, no problem, once we get going it will cool off. After dinner went to bed....woke up half way through the flight sweating (was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and not using the provided blanket). Rang the bell....asked what the temp was set to....learned it was 24. 24 is ridiculous. Everyone on the flight can wear a sweater and cover up with the blankets provided. There's nothing I can do to cool off if i'm already stripped down to shorts and a t-shirt. Austrian does not have individual air vents.

Ideal sleeping temperature is between 15.6 and 19.4 degrees according to www.sleepfoundation.org.

After arguing with the purser for over 10 minutes she agreed to lower it to 22. I argued this was not enough and argued there was no way I could sleep in such a hot cabin. She then grabbed my arm and said, 'do you feel how cold I am? i'm freezing'. So because the purser is a tiny little frail woman with bad circulation the whole cabin has to suffer in a sauna-like environment on a 10 hour flight.

I've written letters to the standard customer service team, and have forwarded comment to the head of operations asking what the official policy is for cabin temperature, so I at least know what the policy is for the 12-hour flight home. 4 weeks later no response.

My conclusion: even though I think the products and service are generally better on international airlines, I simply can't trust foreign carriers to have a reasonable cabin temperature, and will therefore will resort to flying US carriers that don't bake the passengers.

(same thing happened a couple years ago on Asiana....temp might have even been more than 24. Never been so hot on a plane. FA's kept nodding and saying they would fix it and then when I finally challenged them directly they admitted that they were afraid other passengers would complain so they wouldn't adjust the temp. Also J class. Haven't flown them since.)