Austrian A320 family experience (OS461 VIE-LHR) 2017.06.20

On my way to England. Heathrow via Vienna. Leg 2: bound for London

20 June 2017
OS461 (1250-1420) VIE-LHR
OE-LBW Airbus A320

After a smooth inbound flight I have just enough time to walk around the shops, the skylink terminal (which must be one of my favorite terminals), take some pictures and board without any hassle. The flight was delayed due to a slot restriction. It didn't really make any difference for me as I had a long stop at Heathrow before the onward journey. I was lucky to have a free seat next to me as the flight was rather full. The service during the flight was basic. Austrian offers WiFi connection in 3 different plans depending on what you would like to do during the flight. You may test it during the flight for a limited time and I must say it works pretty fine. The plane (despite being not the newest of frames) is clean and looks younger than it really is. The legspace is alright but the Recaro seats feel hard. All in all rather a typical flight from A to B, the seats are known from the OS EJet, the LH short-haul fleet, the SN short-haul fleet and the LX short-haul fleet. In other words, the entire LH group has these seats. I ain't a fan of them to be honest.
While we approach London I hoped for a landing from the east with superb views on London downtown. Unluckily, we did hold in one of the stacks and later on proceeded for the approach from the west. After touchdown we taxi around the airport to get to our gate.

Austrian Embraer 195 experience (OS626 VIE-WAW) 2017.06.20

On my way to England. Heathrow via Vienna. Leg 1: a short hop to Austria.

20 June 2017
OS626 (1030-1155) WAW-VIE
OE-LWK Embraer 195

Seated in row 23, a small load factor on that flight, less than 50%, plenty of free seats in the rear giving freedom to move around, photograph and film. That was my first flight on the OS E-Jet, the seats didn't make a good impression on me, desk-like with minimal material around it. Small recline but legroom was sufficient. More seats compared to the E95 of LOT thus windows aren't perfectly aligned with the seats. Nevertheless it makes it job and gets you from A to B quickly, but I wouldn't choose the OS E95 for longer journeys.
I arrive at the airport a little early thus I get some time to take a couple of pictures before boarding. The flight is on time giving me a decent 1 hour in Vienna (slightly more than planned as the next flight to LHR got delayed).

Quick hop to WRO LO3847 & LO3860

After the trip to Frankfurt time came to realize the last segment of my ticket, the short hop to Wrocław. Why? For the fun and for the M&M segment. So the day after the return from Frankfurt I hop on the evening flight to Wrocław, fly, wait 3,5 hours for the last flight of the day/read/take a couple of photos and return to Warsaw. Both flight: a quite usual Dash commute from A to B. Not much to say about them. One thing was that I got to fly on the last "untouched" Q400 in the fleet (EQE) so now I did sit on board each Q400 flying for LOT (and previously Eurolot).

22 May 2017
LO3847 (1640-1725) WAW-WRO
SP-EQI Bombardier Q400

22 May 2017
LO3860 (2105-2200) WRO-WAW
SP-EQE Bombardier Q400

Wrocław downtown during approach

LOT Boeing 737-400 post retrofit experience (LO380 FRA-WAW) 2017.05.21

After an entire day of spotting (second in FRA) it was time to return back home. Having plenty of time to my flight I used the final energy reserves for a walk around to perhaps get some through window shots, but I've shown these in the link above. Here I wanted to focus on the plane. It was going to be the 737-400 and my first journey on it after the interior has been changed. (Here the pre-retrofit version)

21 May 2017
LO380 (1950-2135) FRA-WAW
SP-LLF Boeing 737-400

We've been taken to the aircraft by bus, the flight is half full so there is plenty of free space on board. I take my seat in row 13 by the window and wait for the departure. Plenty of legroom here (emergency exit right by my side) but other, "standard" rows aren't bad either. Power sockets are available throughout the entire plane and the new seats are much thinner than the previous ones. They are the same as on the 738. A good choice for a ~2h flight. Decent quality and comfort. A thing that I miss are moveable headrests but that will change with the arrival of the 737 MAX. You just can't like the good ol' classic 737s' and in the new interior they are a real good hard product to fly on. The lav is refreshed as well.

Frankfurt spotting EDDF/FRA day 2, 2017.05.21

After the first day of spotting, a short night, the second and last day came. Early morning wake-up call in order to get some shots of the morning arrivals. We had a flight later in the evening so we wanted to use as much of the day as possible. The morning was chilly, which compared to the heat we got later during the day was a very nice thing. Our main goals for the day were the retro planes that we didn't manage to catch the day before, as well as the MD11s. Despite the heat, the limited amount of  combinations available I am happy with the results. We changed our location a couple of time and after ANA 777 BB8 c/s arrived we headed to give back our car and wait for the flight, hence the couple pictures from the terminal. After a long and exhausting day we later boarded the half empty flight to Warsaw. Overall, very well spent two days at FRA!

A6-EFL