by Lufthansa Flyer | Mar 17, 2015 | Austrian, Business Class, Fare Sale, Featured |
It’s not often that you see AUSTRIAN come through with a Business Class fare sale for their fantastic product but when they do, its something to take advantage of!
The fare sale covers travel between their USA gateways and a variety of destinations throughout Austria and is valid for travel between June 26 and September 3rd. This makes it an extremely attractive deal since it covers the peak travel season in Europe.
You can use this fare to get you to Austria and from there plan additional travel throughout Europe since airfares are typically low between European cities.
Fares from New York JFK and Newark are in the low $3000 range, while travel from Chicago and Washington is approximately $3500.
I’ve sat in the Austrian Business Class seat many times and it is among my very favorite when it comes to traveling between the US and Europe.
Vienna is a very easy airport to ‘manage’ and connections to other flights are about as easy as you’ll find anywhere. Its fast becoming a great alternative to other large European airports.
The fare sale is in place between now and March 30 – I suggest you try to take advantage!
by Lufthansa Flyer | Mar 8, 2015 | Austrian, Featured, Miles & More |
Late last week, Austrian unveiled a new ticketing concept for travel within Austria and Europe. The program is set to roll out in the Fall of 2015 and will substantially expand on their current structure. According to Austrian it is designed to attract a wide ‘audience’ of passenger.
The biggest enhancement with this new program is the addition of the ‘LIGHT’ fare option. This is designed to be a lower cost category than OS’ popular ‘red-ticket’ fare which has until now been the lowest fare ‘bucket’.
Ultimately, the new structure will be comprised of 4 categories: LIGHT, CLASSIC, FLEX, and BUSINESS:
LIGHT will offer the lowest fare but with fees for checked baggage and seat assignment. It will not be eligible for BUSINESS Class upgrades
CLASSIC will include seat assignment and a checked bag, but will charge a fee for lounge access and is upgradeable through the bid process.
FLEX will everything that CLASSIC offers with the addition of fee-free rebooking and will also allow you to purchase enhanced DO&CO catered meals.
BUSINESS will include the DO&CO dining, free rebooking and all the other features of FLEX.
All 4 structures will allow for the earning of miles towards ‘Miles & More’ balances.
As far as other Star Alliance frequent flyer programs are concerned, expect to earn little to no miles for LIGHT or CLASSIC. FLEX and BUSINESS should book into fare classes that earn at least 50-100% mileage credit. Please check with your FF programs as each program may have different policies for earning miles.
The well designed chart below from Austrian provides a nice side-by-side comparison of these new classes:
by Lufthansa Flyer | Mar 6, 2015 | Austrian, Destinations, Featured, Route Announcements |
Austrian has announced their latest destination to the USA.
Beginning on October 16, 2015 Austrian will begin service between Vienna and MIAMI, FLORIDA with 5x/week service. Specifically: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
A 777 will fly the route and will of course feature OS’ fantastic Business Class cabin that is among the best when it comes to flights between the US and Europe. This will mark the 6th destination that Austrian service in North America, complimenting Toronto, New York (JFK & EWR), Chicago and Washington DC.
Flight Specifics:
Flight OS 97 will depart Vienna at 9:55a and will arrive in Miami at 3:20p
Flight OS 98 will depart Miami at 5:10p and will arrive in Vienna at 8:50a the following morning.
Booking is open now on www.Austrian.com, round-trip fares start at €699 ($760)
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jan 2, 2015 | Austrian, Brussels, Featured, germanwings, Lufthansa, Swiss |
On the heels of successful development and testing, LUFTHANSA is set to expand their BioFuel efforts to a new airport for 2015.
Beginning in March, Lufthansa will begin to use a blended Biofuel Kerosene on all flights that depart from Oslo, Norway. This will cover nearly 5,000 departures from Oslo flown by Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian, Brussels and Germanwings. The blended fuel will be provided by Statoil, a Norwegian energy company.
Oslo will be the first airport in the world that will have continuous availability of Bio-Kerosene as plans call for 2.5 million gallons to be delivered to Oslo and pumped directly through it’s refueling infrastructure throughout the year.
As part of this long term development process, Lufthansa had previously tested the use of BioFuel on regularly scheduled flights between Frankfurt and Hamburg for a year and a half as well as on a long-haul test flight between Frankfurt and Washington DC back in 2012.
Lufthansa has been working on a BioFuel alternative for several years and during that time had run extensive testing on a variety of blends from several providers. The challenge has never been the effectiveness or safety of BioFuel but rather finding a sustainable long term supply solution. The key to BioFuel’s future success will depend heavily on Lufthansa’s ability to build a reliable network of suppliers who can source the fuel and meet stringent and consistent criteria as to it’s quality.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Dec 11, 2014 | Austrian, Business Class, Featured, Smart Upgrade |
For those of you not familiar with Austrian’s ‘Smart Upgrade’ Program, it is an excellent concept that allows a passenger who has purchased ANY Economy ticket for an Austrian long haul flight to bid for an upgrade to Business Class. The upgrade bid can be made as early as when you first book your tickets or as late as 72 hours prior to your flight. Bidders will find out if they are successful between 48 and 72 hours prior to their flight. It is a system that I have used successfully in the past and I think it is an outstanding program for Austrian passengers.
However, there are a few things that you should be aware of, and prepared for, when using Smart Upgrade. Mind you that these things are not Austrian’s fault but rather things that passengers are responsible for. I bring this up because of a personal experience that took place today when dealing with my parent’s travel plans.
About a month ago, my parents booked tickets to Vienna so that they can visit family in Slovakia for the next month. Fares were attractive at only $650 per parent. At the time we had also decided to place a ‘Smart Upgrade’ bid in the hopes of upgrading to a Business Class seat for the outbound flight. The bid was placed, billing information provided and all we needed to do was wait for the 48-72 hour window to find out if we were successful.
This morning I wake up to an email from Austrian saying that the bid was unsuccessful. Out of curiosity I call OS to find out why the bid was declined since several seats were still open in Business (actually nearly half were open). The OS agent informed me that there was no problem with the bid, but the billing information was incorrect and the bid could not be awarded, thus it was cancelled.
What happened?
Well, my mother, whose credit card we had used to buy the tickets as well as for the upgrade bid, had cancelled that card thus leaving Austrian with credit card info that was no longer valid. Austrian basically had no choice but to cancel the bid thus relegating my parents to Economy. They could still upgrade to Business but now the upgrade price is more than they are willing to pay. If you have Eastern European parents you would understand their concept of frugality.
So the lesson learned, and one that I hope can help others:
If you are going to bid for an Austrian ‘Smart Upgrade’, please make sure that the credit card you are using for the upgrade will still be valid 72 hours prior to your departure. If you are going to change cards or get a replacement due to expiration, you can cancel your existing bid and replace it with a new one. You do not lose your ‘place in line’ since Austrian’s bidding process awards the highest bidders, not the one that has been there the longest.
Also, I would suggest that you inform your credit card company that a charge may be coming from Austrian Airlines from a billing location in Austria. Many credit cards will put a security block on your card if they see unusual or international activity attempted on your account. Make sure that you provide them the dates of when you expect your bid to be awarded and processed. Give the credit card company a 5 day window so that there is no risk of the credit card company blocking your charge. I had this happen this summer when I was using the Smart Upgrade window. Fortunately a text from my credit card company alerted me at which point I let them know that this was an authorized transaction. I had to replace the bid, but I was successful anyway.
Remember, the burden to provide proper information rests with the passenger!
