Even after being yanked around with endless gate changes and delays in the hours leading up to my first Air Baltic A220-300 business class experience, I’m going on record as saying that it was pretty darn awesome.
The food was some of the best I’ve ever eaten in intra-European business class. The seats were very stylish. And there was even a splash of neon green mood lighting.
It just would’ve been nice if it happened an hour and 15 minutes earlier than it did, that’s all.
OS3752
Vienna, Austria (VIE) – Amsterdam, Netherlands (AMS)
Thursday, June 5, 2025
Aircraft: A220-300
Registration: YL-ABI
Duration: 1 hour 33 minutes
Seat: 1F (business class)
Air Baltic A220-300 business class from Vienna to Amsterdam
This was a codeshare flight with Austrian Airlines. Not only did I book it on the Austrian Airlines website, it even had an Austrian Airlines flight number. There were Austrian Airlines dishware and utensils, and even the friggin’ pillow was red. This is an Air Baltic business class review though. I promise you that.
The Air Baltic business class ground experience at VIE
All Air Baltic business class passengers get complementary access to the Austrian Airlines Lounge at the Vienna International Airport. I popped in for a plate of chicken curry before heading down to the gate area about an hour before boarding was scheduled to begin. I didn’t want to be late!
So much for being punctual. Not only had the flight been delayed by 55 minutes, there were a total of five gate changes over the span of 45 minutes. And I thought that I was indecisive.
The boarding process
Boarding finally got underway about an hour and five minutes late. My attempt to look like cool and collected frequent flyer failed the moment I began stomping towards the gate agent even before she was able to finish her announcement.
This flight was going to be departing from a remote stand, which required a five minute bus ride across a not-so-scenic part of the airport. There wasn’t all that much to see actually.
Air Baltic A220-300 business class seat overview
Business class on the Air Baltic A220-300 features two rows of seats arranged in a 2-3 layout (10 seats total). It’s a typical European business class setup, which means that the seats themselves are the same ones that you’ll find behind the curtain in economy. Everyone is guaranteed an empty seat next to them.
I booked seat 2F (a window seat) for this flight, but I didn’t realize they had changed it on me until a friendly looking chap informed me that I was sitting in his seat. The hell? They had bumped me to an aisle seat (2D) without even telling me.
I wasn’t happy about being bumped to an aisle seat. The window seat in the bulkhead row in front of me was unoccupied though, so I switched to that just after they closed the boarding door.
The departure from Vienna
Just as it was with the bus ride out to the plane, there wasn’t all that much to see during the taxi to runway 29. It took all of 4 minutes from the moment we started rolling until the moment we took off.
Food and drinks
Cabin service began almost immediately after takeoff. We hadn’t even hit 10,000 feet before I was smelling something really good coming from the galley.
Who would’ve guessed that Air Baltic partners with Do & Co to cater their in-flight business class meals? That was news to me. Very good news actually.
There was only one choice of a meal on this evening’s flight. Based on what I was smelling in the minutes leading up to it, I knew that I had nothing to worry about.
If it wasn’t obvious by now, the food on this flight was fantastic. Restaurant quality stuff. Every bite of it.
In-flight entertainment
Streaming movies and TV shows isn’t really a thing on intra-European flights (business class or not). Wi-Fi isn’t either. And you know what? I actually like being disconnected from the world for a bit from time to time. No complaints from me.
Seat comfort
As you might imagine, this felt almost identical to Air France A220-300 business class. Not only are the seats the same size, the legroom is exactly the same. No surprises (or disappointments) here. Other than maybe how hard the seats are.
The descent and landing into AMS
The weather had taken a turn for the worse as we began the descent into Amsterdam. Low clouds, fog, and rain made for an eventful approach. A little bouncy, but fun. And scenic!
We touched down at exactly 8:20 PM, and from there it was a 10 minute taxi over to Concourse B.
Pros and cons of Air Baltic A220-300 business class
I’ll be honest. I didn’t expect Air Baltic business class to be all that great. This is an airline I hadn’t heard much about prior to this flight, so I went into it relatively blind. I’m happy to report that they exceeded my expectations in almost every way. Except the part about the delay. And the last minute flip-floppy gate changes.
Pros
- Very high-quality (and delicious) food!
- The 2-3 seating configuration is perfect for solo travelers. Pick an A or B seat and you’ll have an entire row all to yourself.
- Neon green mood lighting (something even Aer Lingus isn’t brave enough to do).
Cons
- No Wi-Fi. No in-flight entertainment. No nothin’.
- There won’t be a choice of meal options.
- Rock hard seats. Like sitting on a park bench.
What? They served you pierogis???
Is that what that was? I obviously have no idea lol. It was either that or ravioli of some kind.
I know I called Austrian Airlines interesting in the last review, but Air Baltic, as a semi-low cost carrier, has a fair bit of character too! They have an all-A220 fleet, they lease (and have leased) to multiple airlines all over Europe, and I like how distinctive their interiors are, with the light gray seats & neon-green mood lighting. The only thing they’re missing is a more scandalous livery. Just imagine how cool a fully neon green A220 would look!
To compare the two (especially since this flight had an OS flight number and meal), I’d say Austrian has more interesting service elements, while Air Baltic has the more interesting operation. Both have unique-looking cabins (Air Baltic more so than Austrian, since light colors aren’t common in airplane cabins).
Btw, I’ve noticed that your reviews have been getting shorter over the past few months, with shorter sentences & I think less pictures. While they can sometimes feel a bit “bare” compared to those from 1-2 years ago IMO, I like the straightforwardness, and I think you could make it a selling point (in addition to the humor of course). Especially considering that written flight reviews on other sites (onemileatatime, Live and Let’s Fly, The Points Guy and flyertalk) are generally longer-winded.
Air Baltic surprised me as well. I was expecting a bare-bones experience, but it ended up being Austrian Airlines with a different paint job. It was neat though!
The reason why I’ve been trimming things down a bit (at least for the more routine reviews) is because of what I’m seeing in my analytics. Most people don’t scroll down past 60% of the page. Some do of course, but not all.
And yes, I’ve been shortening (and tightening up) the sentence structure for the meat of the review. Partly because of the scrolling thing, partly because of the zero click search thing. If I can get more to the point without the fluff, maybe the LLMs will cite me as a source when someone is searching for info about a particular airline seat/experience? I don’t know. It’s hard being a blogger right now because nobody really knows what works anymore.
Combine that with the fact that the younger generation doesn’t read (short form video content is all they want) and, well, I’m basically doomed lol.
Oops! No PDB to calm you down after being maneuvered around the airport and seating cabin??? Food looked good. Your posts are truly enjoyed by this armchair traveler!
Thanks Ted! The food was enough to take the edge off haha. Glad you’ve been enjoying the reviews!