The date looks to be 18 October 2023
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From the looks of it, I really think it has to do with whatever carrier Austria Post gave the contract to, to transport Economy mail to the US. Looks like they took their sweet time getting it here.
All mail from Western Europe comes in at the exchange office in New York City. Economy letters and cards would be transmitted inland as first class. As there do not seem to be extreme delays with other Western European countries, nor with Austrian Priority Mail then it is probably Austria Postâs choice of carrier. There would be no reason for the USA to detain mail from Austria.
Of course USPS screw ups can happen but it would seem very unlikely only the mail from Austria would get misplaced.
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Like @uconn wrote, itâs like USPS pictorial postmark. Austria has them too, both for special places and when a new stamp (like Bambi whose author was Austrian) is issued
The counter-argument would be that even at the height (or low) of the âcrisisâ some cards, prio and ecomony, found their way through in reasonable time. So that ânew contractorâ (which is nothing known about in the first layer of the intranet) would have had processed some mail, then some not, then some again, and this over several weeks âŚ
Also, Austrian postal service was not aware of any problems until some costumers (postcrossers) told them. One would assume that a new contractor is been extra-carefully watched for the first few weeks/months.
(Also, why only a new contractor for US and not for Canada too?)
Thatâs why I still lean towards âhey, thatâs a bag of economy mail, letâs process some of it later when end-of-year-rush is overâ on the USPS side. Which does not show for the other international items, as almost all of them send postcards priority.
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Today I received this card: drawn on 9 March, postmarked on the 11th, and now registered today. Thatâs as quick as one could hope.
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Iâm curious: Was it sent with a priority label or with stamps? My two priority cards have also taken about 10 days to reach their destination.
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The cost for priority is 2,10⏠so the stamp would mean itâs priority.
But apparently officially they arenât allowed to use stamps for priority mail. (Even though some do it and it works.)
The information about allowing to use stamps in priority mail is still not updated, so I think there should be a sticker/label and no stamp.
The priority really seems work priority there 
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I donât think you can tell from this marking if it took the priority route (against all rules out there) 
If it was put in a mailbox it doesnât matter what value stamps was put on- even if itâs 100 Euro, it will be handled economy.
Ive had a check on my cards to USA since January.
12 Sent average 16 days and 14 received average 17 days
This is an improvement on a historical 21 days so not seeing any issues with US post so far in 2024
Hope things start to improve for you .
I know we Austrians are not known for being extra rebellious (ObrigkeitshĂśrigkeit als Monarchieerbe), but donât overestimate too much the strict-to-the-rules-spirit. You can always find a relaxed employee at postal office or distribution centre who realizes the stamp value and moves a card in direction priority. Esp. maybe if this employee knows postcrossing or is procrosser themselves. (Also, maybe, the international departement is more attentive (or generous) at the moment after weeks of complaining emails)
(Also, sometimes we have this âmir-wearn-koan-Richta-brauchenâ-mentality in regard to rules. That may be destructive for society far too often (corruption), but some few times itâs the better way)
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Thanks for pointing this out- actually I wanted to add that maybe it was handed in at the counter and the postal worker was nice and put it in an priority bin. But I did not know if they would need to add another sticker for that or if it would have a different cancellation on it then, so I decided to leave it at that. Youâre the expert for this, I was hoping youâd jump in if you can tell more from the picture that was posted above than a regular user of postal services 
I guess in this case we really can only speculate, and not be sure if it was handled priority or economy.
I absolutely agree on your last comment!
That card was stamped at Distribution centre 4000 Allhaming, so it was collected via mailbox, prepared for stamping mashine by employee, then sorted by small letter sorter or by hand for international departement at 1000.
So we have about six or seven employees who could have seen the value and have upgraded the card accordingly (I mean, itâs 3 Euros!!), or there is a general âtake care about cards for USâ attentiveness (=send them prio no matter what) in place atm.
And just to be clear (big brother): Austrian postal service is 100% correct and perfect all the time. 
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There are news regarding the priority issue with stamps in Austria: from April 1st on we officially can use stamps again for priority mail. However, it still has to be turned in at the post office, no putting it into a mailbox. The post worker has to add a sticker that says that itâs priority, and has to enter it into the system.
I donât know yet how big the new priority sticker is. For postcards we will have to leave some space for the postal worker to attach it. From the picture Iâve seen it seems to be about as big as a definitive stamp, so about 2,5x2,5cm.
Not sure if it will be possible to get some stickers from a nice post worker to take home, so we can attach them ourselves and can work around them more precisely with writing and decorations 
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Thank you for the news,considering the fact that post offices in Austria are closed on saturdays not very practical.Postcrossing should stop giving out US addresses in my opinion.When I last time sent in travel mode from AT I got only US âŚ
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Just because some persons canât go to post office on Saturdays? I donât think thatâs enough reason.
There are options:
- use economy
- only draw an address if you can go to mail office
- collect your mails, and send these to the mail office (if thatâs possible, sometimes you can even get nice postcark this way), they will open it and postmark it
- suggest they put special mail box where you can leave your priority mail during week end (good four tourists as well)
- take a risk, and put it in the mail box
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Well, there is still this part: The post worker has to add a sticker that says that itâs priority, and has to enter it into the system.
I wonder if items with priority labels not entered into the system (as those in mailboxes would be) could somehow slip through and go the priority route, or it will be only those left at the post office that will be treated like priority. Remains to be seen, I guess.
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Itâs a different, new, sticker.
For me it sounds like a simpler version of registered mail, without real tracking number but the post would be able to tell exactly how many items are sent with this type of service? Something to scan quickly, like those QR codes on stamps many countries now have, but the code would be on the label.
Yes, I think so as well.
Good news! 
Postcards I sent in November from Austria to USA are all arrived now. Last of them, a card to my friend´s son, arrived few days ago after travelling over 140 days.
But two official cards (to Germany and to Belarus) are still missing. I suppose they followed other cards to USA and are now coming back to Europe. 
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