Condor Airlines - safe? Good experience? Anything I should know? Never heard of it
Mar 19, 2019, 1:40 pm
#1
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Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 179
Condor Airlines - safe? Good experience? Anything I should know? Never heard of it
I am trying to go round trip from Portland, Oregon to France for the Women's World Cup this summer. It seems my best option is $1400 where I can fly from PDX to Charles De Gaulle, and then fly out of Lyon back to PDX. The flights would go in and out of Frankfurt via Condor and Lufthansa. Having never heard of Condor, is there anything I should know? The fare seems to include taxes, meals, a checked bag and a carry-on, which is everything I need. Is there any catch? Thanks in advance.
Mar 21, 2019, 2:37 am
#2
Moderator: Lufthansa Miles & More, India based airlines, India, External Miles & Points Resources
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: MUC
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Condor is a leisure charter airline, so economy seating is brutally tight. Safety standards are high, together with their owners Thomas Cook they are one of the major players in the European leisure market.
Mar 21, 2019, 9:29 pm
#5
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Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 179
On Delta, I have had experience showing up to the gate early and asking for a free upgrade to an aisle seat. Do you think Condor would do this? Or should I try to get my boss to pay for the upgrade? A middle seat on such a long flight would definitely suck.
Mar 21, 2019, 9:31 pm
#6
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Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 179
If I have to go from PDX to SFO or SEA, I'm not sure I am saving myself any money or hassle though? I did check SEA specifically and at most I'd be saving maybe $100-$200, which doesn't really seem worth me having to travel to another city.
Mar 26, 2019, 9:11 am
#7
Join Date: Jan 2012
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I fly them a lot (10 r/t per year) because 1) lots of miles-earning on Alaska 2) cheap business class (also not very good, but still ok) and 3) the only nonstop SJU-Europe.
F/As and pilots are fine. Ground process is ....-tier -- you have to call them on the phone and wait for many minutes/hour to change things. Unless you pay for flex, changes (even business class) are expensive.
I arrived 54 minutes before a business class SEA-FRA and my ticket was invalidated; I had to buy a new ticket on another airline.
If I weren't trying to requal for AS MVPG75K despite living outside the US, and if there were literally any other airline for SJU-Europe, I'd never fly Condor.
F/As and pilots are fine. Ground process is ....-tier -- you have to call them on the phone and wait for many minutes/hour to change things. Unless you pay for flex, changes (even business class) are expensive.
I arrived 54 minutes before a business class SEA-FRA and my ticket was invalidated; I had to buy a new ticket on another airline.
If I weren't trying to requal for AS MVPG75K despite living outside the US, and if there were literally any other airline for SJU-Europe, I'd never fly Condor.
Mar 26, 2019, 11:57 pm
#8
Join Date: Nov 2005
Programs: BA Gold, TP Silver
Posts: 888
I fly them a lot (10 r/t per year) because 1) lots of miles-earning on Alaska 2) cheap business class (also not very good, but still ok) and 3) the only nonstop SJU-Europe.
F/As and pilots are fine. Ground process is ....-tier -- you have to call them on the phone and wait for many minutes/hour to change things. Unless you pay for flex, changes (even business class) are expensive.
I arrived 54 minutes before a business class SEA-FRA and my ticket was invalidated; I had to buy a new ticket on another airline.
If I weren't trying to requal for AS MVPG75K despite living outside the US, and if there were literally any other airline for SJU-Europe, I'd never fly Condor.
F/As and pilots are fine. Ground process is ....-tier -- you have to call them on the phone and wait for many minutes/hour to change things. Unless you pay for flex, changes (even business class) are expensive.
I arrived 54 minutes before a business class SEA-FRA and my ticket was invalidated; I had to buy a new ticket on another airline.
If I weren't trying to requal for AS MVPG75K despite living outside the US, and if there were literally any other airline for SJU-Europe, I'd never fly Condor.
Mar 27, 2019, 10:01 am
#10
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Lyon is only a short train ride from Paris, and you're paying a lot more for the return portion than the outbound part of the ticket. It might be much cheaper to simply buy a PDX-CDG RT rather than this open jaw ticket. Also, IIRC DL offers PDX-CDG and vv as a nonstop route, so I;d start by checking prices on the Delta website, although a connection through some USA city is likely to be cheaper. Also, be sure to look at the connection times; some legal connections aren't wise as the risk of missing a flight is just too high, even if the airline will rebook you for free onto its own next *available* flight.
Would you be buying the ticket directly from LH or from some OLTA? Don't assume that you will be able to reserve seats in advance or get an aisle seat, even if you're willing to pay extra.
Would you be buying the ticket directly from LH or from some OLTA? Don't assume that you will be able to reserve seats in advance or get an aisle seat, even if you're willing to pay extra.
Mar 31, 2019, 4:28 pm
#11
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Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 179
Lyon is only a short train ride from Paris, and you're paying a lot more for the return portion than the outbound part of the ticket. It might be much cheaper to simply buy a PDX-CDG RT rather than this open jaw ticket. Also, IIRC DL offers PDX-CDG and vv as a nonstop route, so I;d start by checking prices on the Delta website, although a connection through some USA city is likely to be cheaper. Also, be sure to look at the connection times; some legal connections aren't wise as the risk of missing a flight is just too high, even if the airline will rebook you for free onto its own next *available* flight.
Would you be buying the ticket directly from LH or from some OLTA? Don't assume that you will be able to reserve seats in advance or get an aisle seat, even if you're willing to pay extra.
Would you be buying the ticket directly from LH or from some OLTA? Don't assume that you will be able to reserve seats in advance or get an aisle seat, even if you're willing to pay extra.
They do have options to choose seats, including aisle seats, via a seat map but it costs $60. Which brings me to a question I'm going to bump up in my next post...
Mar 31, 2019, 4:30 pm
#12
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Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 179
Has anyone who has flown Condor ever had success asking for an "upgrade" to an aisle seat?
I arrived early to the gate for a direct Delta flight to Amsterdam once and the lady at the ticket counter switched me to Comfort+ so I could get an aisle seat at no cost. Does Condor ever do anything like that? Right now, the seat map has tons of open seats, including aisles and windows. But $60 seems really steep to me, so I'd like to try my luck at the gate if possible.
I arrived early to the gate for a direct Delta flight to Amsterdam once and the lady at the ticket counter switched me to Comfort+ so I could get an aisle seat at no cost. Does Condor ever do anything like that? Right now, the seat map has tons of open seats, including aisles and windows. But $60 seems really steep to me, so I'd like to try my luck at the gate if possible.
Apr 1, 2019, 6:49 am
#14
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Condor flights are likely to be completely full, so if you want an aisle seat, it would be wise to pay now to reserve a nice one.
Apr 1, 2019, 9:43 am
#15
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Poland
Posts: 869
I just booked a few of us on Condor this morning via premium economy. Does anyone have any thoughts on the food in that category? My kids are debating between the regular meal and the vegetarian meal. They still eat meat, but aren't big fans of airline meat as a general rule. I was only able to find one picture online though and in that picture the veg meal looked to be about 1/3 the size of the regular. My son is 6'3", so I want to make sure that he's getting enough to eat. I'm not sure if a few bites of zucchini will cut it since he doesn't eat tomatoes. (The picture was tomatoes/zucchini & a spinach pastry.) I'm just trying to get an idea if this is what we should expect.