Austrian Airlines Reviews

Let me start at the beginning with booking our trip in April 2023. I booked through United, your partner airline. While booking our trip, you decided to raise the prices by $150.00 each. I then found out that the price we paid did not guarantee us specific seats but just a seat wherever you wanted to seat us. We are a party of 4 going to enjoy the Christmas markets which means enjoy our company together. Out of the kindness of your heart, you tell us we need to pay extra for the seats we want. Now it costs us another $50.00 each. What a scam. Several months later you changed airplanes to Vienna thus changing our seats. Another set of emails to straighten this mess up and get seats WE PAID EXTRA FOR.

The week before I checked all our bookings to make sure we had all the required documents. You did not have my wife’s and my passport information. How this happened is beyond me as I entered all this information at the time of booking and it is part of the United Airlines website that you supposedly share information with. We go on to your website which is as customer-friendly as your in-person contact to enter our passport information. That led to 2 hours of phone calls between your customer service and United passing us back and forth like we were soccer balls at the World Cup.

In the end, someone on your end said not to worry about it, you will be able to enter that information upon check-in. That’s two hours we cannot get back to find out this information after your app and the website kept insisting that the information needed to be entered. You need someone to redesign your website and app. Trying to find our boarding passes on the app was like trying to find a mini bratwurst on a 60 cm rollen.

Finally, our departure date arrives. We get to Newark airport 4 hours before flight time. We get the first rude person in a long line of them. She looked like she was doing us a favor being there. One of our party was asked to put their carry-on bag in the test container for size and weight. It was overweight. They made some adjustments and got it under the required weight. That wasn’t good enough and they were told that it would have to be checked. They made some more adjustments and went up to the counter. The woman there asked them why it was tagged for check-in. They advised her that the other woman said it needed to be checked. The counter walked them over to the same type of test container, put it in, and said that it would be fine to carry on. The counter agent looked at the other woman who shook her head no and that was the end of the discussion.

You should also check your communications with United because it is sorely lacking. When my wife and I got to the counter, we got our luggage checked in and the printed boarding passes. I looked at them and asked the gentleman at the counter where our TSA pre-check clearance was. He looked as though we were burdening him with a request to be upgraded to first class. I showed him the United booking information with our TSA number. We were met with our second rude representative as though he was doing us another favor by being there. The trip over to Vienna was mostly uneventful except for the overall rude attitude from some of the flight attendants. Again, lack of customer service training? Anyone?

Let’s get to our trip home. Again, we arrive 3 hours before departure time. I guess you have made it part of your airline policy to get rid of people to talk to when we have questions about self-check-in. Great move that must be to save money for customer service. Fortunately, as a seasoned traveler, I was familiar with this mess. Our next encounter with rudeness was the woman attending the self-bag check-in machines. There is someone who needs an attitude adjustment. She was either born rude or you are training them that way. And the overall theme again felt like I am here doing you a favor. Time to board the plane and the overall complete controlled chaos of boarding is in full swing. As our party of four gets to the area to check in I get separated from my wife by a rude traveler. That’s of course not your fault totally but maybe it’s time to be more forceful in boarding according to your zone.

I get to the person checking passports and boarding passes. I have my Android Wallet QR code up i.e., BOARDING PASS, because your airline has decided to go paperless which I hate. This has proven to me why and goes back to the lack of people to help you and why I get printed boarding passes. He looks at it, tries to do something with it, and then says he needs to print out a boarding pass. Really? He shuts down the lane to get a printed pass. Why? I would like to know. This now separates me from my wife and I am carrying her extra bag. God, forbid I try to help my wife in carrying her stuff. She later told me that they told her rudely and forcefully that she had to keep moving instead of waiting for me.

With the printed boarding pass in hand, I try to get through the automatic gate and I get pulled out of line for having an extra bag. Are you following this? I explained to the woman that I had to wait for a printed boarding pass and my wife had already proceeded on. I was sarcastically asked “So you want me to believe that your family has already passed through to let you on with the extra bag?” Seriously? This is how you treat customers. I said to the gate agent that my wife had already moved on. She asked the same question again. And I said to her yes. Sarcastically and rudely, she said that we shouldn’t get separated next time. This was all about customer service and the lack thereof. I am not going to say “I will never use your airline again” but I will make it a point not to use you if there are other alternatives.

Then 2 out of our 5 bags did not make it on a short, direct 1.5hr flight. It was impossible to contact the airline, they kept giving us different numbers to call, one of which was Lufthansa. Finally two days later we received an email that our delayed luggage arrived at the destination and I took a ferry boat and taxi to the airport only to find out one bag showed up. We had to repurchase clothing for the family member, then received a note that our lost luggage was sent back to our home airport in U.S.

Simply no sense of customer service. Ticketing agent interrogated us inquiring about our travel plans, flipping thru our passports, questioning authenticity. Gate agents were no help, general sense of confusion and chaos. Gate agent ran after us and plucked the spare ticket out of my hand to seat someone else. Very odd experience, resulting in cascading effect of ruined vacation.

They said my seat fees are not refundable and that I had receive a notice to this policy however I did not receive that notice until AFTER I made the purchase. What a SCAM this airline is. How do you know any of this at the time you're booking the upgraded seats. I have flown Lufthansa many times while traveling Europe but never again. I have submitted a claim to United Mileage Credit card so we will see what they can do. BEWARE!!!

Have you ever heard of something like this??? I travel more than 10 times per year and I have never ever seen an airline with this response. I have spoke to a member on the board who promised to get back to me - no answer. I have messaged the CEO and other numerous chair members- leave me on read. DISGUSTING. Never again in my entire life will I fly this airline and I will never recommend them to anyone. Spare yourselves this headache. Imagine showing up to the airport with this news being handed to you. If I could rate them a 0 I would. For one trip I have 3 issues with the same airline.

I tried to rebook my flights with my voucher as per their deadline request, I was on the phone for over 1 hour. Finally I get a person. The IR supervisor of the reservation dept. She informs to me she can’t provide what they have stated in the email. All she has is a credit on my taxes that’s not what was agreed upon. She then didn't say anything for 20 min or even tried to explain why she couldn't honor what they stated in their email. She just stayed on the phone waiting for me to hang up, I believe this is what they have been told to do. Stay on the phone and say nothing and wait until we hang up. You will see other complaints about this same tactic from another unhappy client.

I have had enough of the runaround because of the poor customer service provided to me. The hassles of trying to rebook my ticket with the lack of communication and being on the phone for along time waiting being told that I would have someone contact me with no email to me. With all the time I have spent and the poor communication provided by Austrian Airlines. My family is requesting a formal apology and a complete refund voucher with no expiry date like all other airlines have been providing. I second the other complaint from another unhappy customer of this poorly run airline that is listed for all to read. They are the only airline in Europe with whom we had this problem for flights cancelled due to the Covid-19 crisis. AVOID AUSTRIAN AIRLINES LIKE THE PLAGUE -- They are nothing but thieves.

Now they tell me they will only reimburse me 50% because I have the value of the clothes that were purchased. Their own policy on website indicates the compensation and their own representative instructed me to purchase clothes that were needed. If it wasn’t for Austrian Airlines losing my luggage and not even knowing where it was, I would never have needed the clothes. I had no intention of purchasing any clothes and certainly didn’t plan to go shopping for clothes while on vacation. So there was no enrichment for clothes that were not needed until the airline lost my luggage and failed to perform what it promised. I would not fly on Austrian again. Not trustworthy.

The next day we were put on a flight to Zurich leaving Vienna around 11:30 AM. We arrived that afternoon in Zurich but our baggage did not. We filed a lost baggage in Zurich and our baggage finally arrived on July 9th late evening. My wife had relatives in Zurich and was able to borrow clothes while I had been wearing the same underwear and socks since July 7th morning. I bought, relatively, cheap socks and underwear (one each). I would like for Austrian Airlines to reimburse for the socks and underwear which I believe is their responsibility. Now Austrian Airlines wants me to justify why I have to reimbursed for wanting to change my underwear and socks after having worn it for almost 2 days.

To get a call through, waiting time was on between 16 and 22 minutes based on 4 attempts made. Staff was not helpful. I had re-booked my direct flight on a date 5 days after my originally planned departure. Again, no compensation for the time lost. Upon checking the price on the website, the price of the new ticket on the website was cheaper than the one I had paid. Again, I was told no compensation will be provided since I ti "long term cancellation" (whatever that means).

Dissatisfied with Austrian Airlines. Poor customer service and terrible support. Long waiting times in a telephone queue. This is the 4th time happening to me when booking with Austrian Airlines. I never have such problems with any other airlines (Qantas, Emirates, Etihad, British Airways, Iberia). Will avoid Austrian Airlines in the future and recommend you stay away from them. Every booking I had with them (11/12 flights in total without exception) had some problems. Change in flight schedule, overselling seats (showing up at the airport only to be told that there are no seats available on the plane). If you want your trip to go smoothly, choose other airline! Don't book with Austrian Airline! Terrible!

After many, many emails, it appears that Austrian Airlines contracts with a third party accounting partner. The feedback department, which cannot be reached by phone, does not have customer account information. But they can make a request to accounting. But feedback cannot reach accounting by phone or email. Instead, the request goes to the scanning department which transmits it to accounting. Accounting may respond, but does not automatically forward confirmation information. As often as not, it requires more than a week for feedback to receive a response to a request sent through channels. My guess is that other customers have found Austrian's customer service operation to be years behind the current state of the art in customer relations. On the other hand, they are very loyal to their bureaucracy...

My wish was to buy my return ticket to Málaga with Austrian Airlines, but the customer service was not helpful at all in giving advice or changing my flight. It is a shame that low-cost companies such as Ryanair are more flexible and give you the opportunity to do modifications or cancellation on your flight online, plus provides better customer support. That is why I have decided to use Ryanair instead of Austrian Airlines for my return ticket to Málaga. I AM SURELY WILL NOT USE AUSTRIAN AIRLINES. NEVER EVER AGAIN!!!

Awaiting for rebooking in Vienna was unbelievably long, even though I have priority pass I could not cut through the queue. It is incredible how ground staff has little to no empathy for people that are not there on their own choice. Out of 4 working stations only 2 or max 3 at the time were working, with no-one demonstrating any sense of urgency, while queue was getting longer and longer, packed with pretty desperate people. As an example, one of the staff spent at least 45 minutes sorting out un-properly packed bottles of alcohol (was it really that urgent?), w/o duty free bill, discussing with that specific passenger how to take the bottle back to the shop and ask for refund etc etc, instead of focusing on people awaiting for rebooking and bed to sleep in.

Once I finally managed to receive voucher for hotel and taxi, I didn't get ANY information about categorization of either, even though I asked for hotel, and didn't get reply. If I had all information available at the time, I would neither accept hotel nor transport that you have provided as IT IS BELOW ANY DECENT LEVEL. Taxi contractor is below any standard: there is no organized way to get to the counter, service is completely inefficient, once I finally got to counter I was told to wait for them to call me by name (!GDPR!)? I would expect that company like Austrian Airlines would be more careful in selecting partners, but that is obviously not the case. At some point of time (much later after my first interaction at the counter) lady from the counter called 4 passenger by full name!!!

So now I even know one of them by first and last name, and would not be too much of the trouble to contact him/her or in other way abuse personal data. Probably needless to remind that as of May 1 GDPR is in full force and even though it is not Austrian Airlines, they have partner that is fully un-compliant. For me it is one and the same service. On the way to vehicle taxi driver was checking each voucher, like we are in kindergarten, or even refugees (without being disrespectful to refugees). Getting finally to the vehicle, another surprise / by all means not more than 3 people should be placed there: one in front, two in the back. Instead, I was squeezed between two ladies that I saw first time in my life, having a physical contact?

Total disrespect of personal space and privacy, and if this is the way to create savings (either in Austrian Airlines or Taxi service / again I do not care at all as it was one package to me), it is very very poor way to so. Austrian is not positioned as low budget operator, but surely they act like one. Hotel was another bad surprise and was a total disaster! I don't even know how to describe it. Starting from terrible smell at the entrance, to the smelly rooms, with no room service, no mini bar, no water in the room, dirty and old... unmatchable 'zero category'! At least they have internet so I can write this, instead of being in my final destination in Amsterdam. In 5* hotel, that I will need to pay anyway as there was no way to cancel the reservation at the night of arrival.

Breakfast only from 6 am, with no breakfast take-away: with my rebooked flight starting at 7 AM, I could not even get a cup of coffee, after not getting a cup of water day before or, dare I to say, a dinner! Indeed, I was offered a food voucher at the airport, but if by accident I took it I probably would not reach hotel even by midnight. Which probably would not be much worse either... And finally I will, hopefully, arrive to my destination, to which I am going for an important business meetings, w/o proper sleep, starved and terribly late.

Now I get to appreciate Lufthansa much more, despite many lost connections in Germany. Few weeks ago I missed flight in Frankfurt, and I got my own taxi, that I didn't have to wait for an hour (or even for a minute) or share with anyone, taking me to Kempinski hotel. Similarly, in Munich I didn't even have to leave the airport, just cross the street to Hilton hotel, with proper reception, proper restaurant, room service and bottle of water in room (needless to say mini bar). Lufthansa surely respects its passengers and even more, it gives Gold members level of service that reflect appreciation for people that are constantly in the air, running from gate to gate expecting in return just respectful treatment. I am sorry to say that I felt everything but respect in past couple of hours, and it will take a huge effort to risk again with Austrian Airlines.

Thank God my return leg to Greece after 7 months is LUFTHANSA. When I bought it it did not have very CLEAR on the ticket purchase that I had to pay for 1?? suitcase. It’s a misleading practice to take money. I am furious not so much for the 50 euro but for the practice of applying it. Lastly I want to say that their culinary treatment in the flight was very much below my expectations from what amount of food I was getting in Lufthansa and the amount of food (very little) according to my opinion I think in your flight from Vienna to LAX. Thank you very much and be advise. KEEP AWAY FROM THESE AIRLINES. THAT’S THE ONLY WAY OF FIGHTING THEIR GREEDINESS.

So originally whole mess started because wheelchair assistance didn't pick up my 75 y.o. grandmother from check in counter. Ok, I get it, it's a separate private company and whether airlines like it or not, it was contracted by airport. That's not the point. The point is, that I paid my ticket with Austrian, I am their customer, since they offer option of wheelchair assistance, they should arrange it by dealing with that contracted company, or by sending 1 of the employees from check in counter to take elderly flyer to the boarding gate. It's called customer service, its called problem solving. Because it doesn't help anybody to be looking for "who messed up", I know myself that wheelchair assistance company screwed up, but airline didn't fix it and made more mess on their end.

Since it was 15 min before boarding time and it's an international flight, I had to send my grandmother through TSA all on her own, she can't ask people in TSA line to let her pass, because she doesn't speak the language, if she doesn't make it to the gate in time, she can't ask for help either, we should've not be put in this position. Not only airline check in agents didn't care, but when I asked them to contact the gate and ask them if my grandmother made it there on time, they told me, that they can't do this, because of the safety reasons.

Such stupidity leaves me speechless. They didn't care to help us to make it to the gate, they didn't care even if my grandmother doesn't make it to that plane, though we clearly got checked in, they just didn't care to focus on customer assistance. It wasn't even the situation where they had to go extra mile for economy class customer, it was standard situation that they didn't care to handle. I don't have Swiss customer service manager name saved, I am sure there isn't that many of them, worked on 8/19/18 with 3 letter name. Needless to say, I will never fly with Austrian, and will not recommend it to anyone.