Originally Posted by
boycruz
i posted this on alaska page as well
I have flown condor several times
always in business class
Here are a few tips for those lured by Alaska and the huge amounts
of bonus miles available for flying condor
1 Do NOT book anything beyond USA-Frankfurt
Dont do any continuing cities in Europe or
Originating cities in the USA that is not a non stop gateway
to Frankfurt
2 No one including Condor take any responsibility for flight cancels or changes
on non condor operated routes. Although Condor offers fares
beyond Frankfurt they buy these at the cheapest rate from LH/OS and
its always coach and no advance seats
3 Our recent experience SFO -SEA-FRA-FCO
You cant check in online in advance
At Sfo sometimes they can issue a Condor boarding pass and sometimes not
at Sea condor can issue LH but not allow any seat changes
4 our recent return VIE-FRA-LAX-SFO
OS canceled our flight and no automatic rebook by OS
Calls to Condor rebuffed even by the business class desk for 48 hours
“we cant see the cancellation” “call back in 24 hours”
“ we can rebook you but you need to pay 1600 USD more”
“Talk to austrian”
We were rebooked but of course austrian cant issue
condor boarding passes and they have NO customer service
counter airside in Frankfurt so you have to
hunt down a gate agent to get a boarding pass issues
FInally you cant standby on earlier
Alaska flight on a condor issued ticket
Overall
Dont buy anything besides point to point on Condor
Pay for the Flex fare for rebooking ( they want $$$$ for any changes and you lose all value
on non flex fares)
Condor has NO social media presence and agents who are not trained to
be helpful. Emails sent to Condor take 5 days to respond . Twitter not kept up to date
Despite your Alaska Mileage number being in the reservation you
may or not get automatic mileage posting and even if you do it could
be a incorrect calculation
Overall Condor inflight is a pretty good experience in business ( inflight)
but they are a Leisure carrier and trying to play with the majors
but customer service had never caught up
thank you for the detailed and useful guidance.
A couple of points to clarify:
- Did you book on the website? We found it buggy as all heck- but were able to secure a booking number. Not sure if it matters but no e-ticket number on the booking confirmation.
- re 3)- cannot check in online- was this a problem on the first (non DE) leg only or throughout? We have the PNR reference for the non DE flight we are taking and can see the reservation.
- I am going to leave any FF number off and pursue flight credit post trip esp as one leg is on a partner carrier not DE.
We have booked a biz-leisure trip (where the timing of the biz portion can be flexible if IRROPS) so there is some margin for flight interruptions, but do hope DE is getting their act together given the recent and relatively positive PR on the blogs.