Vienna-Paris in business class on Austrian: catastrophic connection

This Vienna-Paris flight on Austrian is the last article of my vacation in Croatia. My last post ended with the arrival of my Dubrovnik-Vienna flight, which was running a little late and I was worried about my connection. Here’s how it happened.

For the record, the air routing for this vacation:

And the list of articles related to this vacation.

#	Type	Review
1	Hotel	Moxy Charles de Gaulle
2	Lounge	Sheltair Lounge Roissy Terminal 2D
3	Flight	Paris-Vienna in business class on Austrian
4	Lounge	Austrian Business Lounge (Non Schengen) in Vienna (T3 G)
5	Flight	Vienna-Split in business class on Austrian
6	Hotel	Le Méridien Lav Split – Deluxe Sea View Room
7	Restaurant	Restaurant Süg Split
8	Restaurant	Restaurant Kadena Split
9	Flight	Split-Zagreb in business class on Croatia Airlines
10	Flight	Zagreb-Dubrovnik in business class on Croatia Airlines
11	Hotel	Sheraton Dubrovnik Riviera Hotel – Deluxe Room
12	Restaurant	Restaurant Konoba Bonaca Dubrovnik
13	Restaurant	Restaurant Heritage of Dubrovnik
14	Restaurant	Restaurant Zuzori Dubrovnik
15	Restaurant	Dubrovnik Restaurant Dubrovnik
16	Flight	Dubrovnik-Vienna in business on Austrian
17	Flight	Vienna-Paris business on Austrian (here)

Connection in Vienna and boarding

So we arrived 30 minutes late. No worries in principle…if the connection goes well.

But my worries are becoming reality. Is this due to specific COVID measures or not, but after passing through immigration control after disembarking (I was moving from the non-Shengen zone to Shengen), I had to go through security control again, and to do so we are sent back to general inspection with all passengers, including those departing from Vienna.

And then….

But of course, when you travel in business class, you have access to priority lanes! But in Vienna it turns out that the separation between priority and non-priority is upstream of the checkpoint, so to get into the right lane I’d have to get out…which isn’t possible unless you use the automatic doors in the opposite direction, taking advantage of the passage of a passenger.

It’s certain that in the normal queue I’ll never catch my flight, which boards in 10 minutes.

So I approach the fast track and wait to catch an agent’s eyes. No one.

Then I see someone, obviously an airport official, opening a special queue for the crew of a flight leaving for Israel. I approach him with my biggest smile (even though I’m pretty pissed off) and explain my situation.

He says “oh yes sir, that’s really not convenient” and opens a gap in the security cordons to let me cut a queue and get into the priority lane.

From then on, everything goes smoothly, even if, understandably, I find that the agent in charge really takes his time.

When I collect my things, my flight is boarding…

I sprinted (fortunately my luggage was in the hold for once… so it would have waited for me a bit…) and reached my gate, fortunately not too far away.

A large number of passengers have already boarded, but I’m right on time, I pass the others in the priority line and find myself on board.

Sorry for the lack of photos so far, but the context just wasn’t right.

Austrian’s A320 business class cabin

Here you can see Austrian’s new medium-haul cabin.

As in the outward journey, where Geven ESSENZA seats are gradually replacing the old Neks that have had their day. I won’t miss the “ironing board”.

I don’t know if it’s really thicker, but it’s more comfortable and looks more premium (on the other hand, they’re new…).

Legroom-wise, it looks better than on my Dubrovnik-Vienna.

There will be 4 rows of business class on this flight.

Boarding goes quickly and we’re soon ready to leave.

The flight and the service

As we taxi towards the runway, the staff make one announcement after another over the microphones. It feels like an eternity, and I haven’t been used to such verbal diarrhea since I limited my use of Air France.

We finally take off.

The curtain separating the galley from the cabin is closed, but not the one separating the business class from the economy class. It will be done 5 long minutes later.

My meal arrives quickly.

And yes, on Austrian (as on others) there are hot meals on flights of 2 hours or more. On the other hand, we are told that Air France’s hot meals service will quickly disappear on flights of less than 5.5 hours…

It’s a kind of Indian-style chicken, with what looks like a massala sauce. It’s melt-in-the-mouth, the sauce excellent but not spicy. Shame. The Do&Co catering that supplies Austrian is as good as ever!

The accompanying passion flan is light and can be eaten in two spoonfuls. It’s fresh and feels good.

We are offered drinks 3 times before the traditional tea/coffee before our arrival in Paris.

I breathe a sigh of relief as I look out of the window and think of my tumultuous connection.

Our descent begins.

Landing and arrival in Paris

The Paris region is gradually taking shape below us.

We land and taxi to 2D, arriving on time. By the way, a small view of the Sheraton CDG, which won’t be seeing me again anytime soon, given my last experience.

We park next to a LOT.

Barely out of the plane…we come across a closed door. An “oversight” on the part of the ground handler. We waited a good 5 minutes before being let in.

Off to the baggage carousel….we wait another 15 minutes, even though the aircraft is just a few steps away and we arrived a good 10 minutes ago.

Eventually I collect my luggage and prepare to head home, ranting about the legendary efficiency of Aéroports de Paris…

Bottom line

A good flight on the Austrian side, with a nice hot snack, but suffering from two things the airline can’t do much about: the organization of Vienna airport and the slowness of Aéroports de Paris.

For me, this concludes the series of articles on my vacation in Croatia, but 48 hours later I’m off to Scandinavia. More articles to come.