To Ibiza with Condor
 

Yesterday I had a pleasure to fly with a Condor 753 from Frankfurt to Ibiza.

This was my second time on a Condor 753. Three years ago I flew on a special solar eclipse charter, but that time, there was special catering, plus I had the best seat on the plane. So I was curious how the regular Condor experience would look like.

Ibiza is the only destination I book package tours to because of low hotel prices. Hotels as part of a package deal cost about 50% of the best deal when booking the accomodation separately - even when booking through the same company as the package tour. Ibiza doesn't have a good reputation here on FT, but in reality it is an amazing place, especially for electronic music lovers like me. And if anyone is scared of puking and fighting drunk Brits, they can be easily avoided by staying away from two(2) streets in San Antoni.

For my 6:40am departure, I arrived at the pretty empty airport at 5:00am. There were very few travelers checking in, but I saw a moderate crowd in front of the Condor check in counter. The crowd appeared bigger and bigger as I came closer, and turned into a long queue circling a whole block of counters. Fortunately, the queue moved quite quickly, and after 20 minutes waiting time I was able to check in. I had pre-reserved the seat 5F and also booked a premium meal in advance.

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At the check in (most of the queue already behind me)

There were no queues for security, so I was at the gate in no time. The boarding started on time and as sadly usual in FRA, we were riding a bus. Seriously, how can Fraport expect the population to support its expansion plans, if already nearly half of all plane movements use apron parking positions and subject their passengers to lengthy and unpleasant bus rides??? No other airport in Germany shows such a disdain for travelers as the arrogant greedy hit-and-run managers running FRA.

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At the gate

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These days in FRA, you will rarely find an Airbus or a Boeing at the gate

I was secretly hoping to fly on the would-be official Star Alliance Mega DO airplane (or at least one with the official DO paint scheme ;) ), but the bus arrived at a Boeing 757-300 in standard Condor colors. I climbed the front stairs and turned left :)

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The (still empty) main cabin. Don't let yellow headrests fool you, there is no seat blocking and all seats will be occupied

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The front section

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Guessing the seat pitch

I snapped a few photos of the cabin with blue fabric seats. While other travelers were making pictures of themselves going on vacation, I tried to capture the seat pitch and probably looked like an idiot to most of them :)

Finally I took my assigned seat 5F. The seat pitch felt much like the new Lufthansa shorthaul seats. On LH, when stretching my legs while keeping the feet on the ground, I can barely touch the seat in front of me with my lower legs, and exactly the same was the case here. The recline was similar to Lufthansa too. There were a few overhead monitors in the cabin, but no individual backrest monitors.

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Me in my seat

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Making precise measurements :)

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Other pax looking forward to their (I hope) vacations in Ibiza

There are 3 disadvantages compared to Lufthansa seats. First, the seat lacks a hard solid plate in the backrest, so if someone from behind shoves stuff around in the seatback pocket or (God forbid!) kicks the seat, you would feel it quite directly! Second, there is a metal rod in the seat pocket, which reduces the knee room when you put a water bottle there. Third, the seats feel slightly outdated and look by far not as cool as on Lufthansa. Not sure if the entire Condor fleet is like this; last year I flew on their 767 and the seats felt more modern. But the seats are comfortable to sit on and quite OK for shorthaul journeys.

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Knee room taken away by the water bottle

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"A usual morning in Frankfurt, nothing works", as once announced by a Lufthansa captain. Still waiting for the baggage to be loaded.

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A Condor FA busy with passenger service

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Finally!

After a short wait on the ground for the baggage to be loaded we thrusted off into the clear morning sky covered with a very light haze. We took off from the runway 18 and the flight went to the Southern direction without much maneuvering around. A nice feature of the Condor 753 is a nosewheel camera, so you could see the taxi and takeoff from the pilot's (or stowaway's?) perspective on cabin monitors.

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Soon after the takeoff, the airshow was on for a few minutes. After that, the entertainment program started with some movie being shown. FA's offered headsets for purchase for 3EUR.

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Soon thereafter, the meal service started. An FA asked me, "are you Mr. cockpitvisit?" After my decisive "Yes!" she gave me my premium meal. It was a cold breakfast tray with a fruit salad, a bread roll, a croissant, some salami, ham and cheese, a raspberry joghurt, cherry jam, a chocolate bar and an absolutely delicious brownie with walnuts. I ordered an OJ and a tea with lemon to go with the breakfast. The breakfast is OK but not great, since I am a sucker for fresh squeezed OJ and hot egg meals, and neither was available.

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My premium breakfast

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Find 6 differences!

All passengers without premium meals preordered got sandwitches, this included my seat neighbours. They looked at my meal with envy, I am not sure they understood completely why this fat capitalist pig in the window seat got a much nicer breakfast than them. Social inequality at it's best - on a charter airline! Will economy passengers on the Airbus DO feel the same? ;)

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Breakfast over Switzerland

Meanwhile we were crossing Provence. Soon we crossed the Mediterranean coast over the Camargues nature reserve to the West of Marseille. The Med was first covered with clouds, but from the weather forecast, I knew that perfect sunny weather would await me in Ibiza. And even if not, the dark sand at the Cala Boix beach is warm even during cloudy days! It got a little bumpy afterwards. FAs made their rounds with boring "duty free" items.

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Crossing the Mediterranean coast over Provence

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Clouds and light turbulence ahead

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Northeast corner of Mallorca, with Cap Formentor. There is a beaufitul 10-mile mountain road going there with nothing at the end but a huge traffic jam!

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Palma de Mallorca

We started the descent while overflying Mallorca and after another 20 minutes or so landed at the Ibiza airport. A short bus ride to the terminal awaited us. After leaving the bus, I ran to the deserted Avis counter located in the baggage reclaim area to get my rental car. Baggage can wait, but the station can easily run of cars on this island! As I walked away, a queue of other passengers has already formed.

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Ibiza in sight

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Santa Eularia del Riu

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Ibiza town and harbor

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Fortifications of the old town

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Salines

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Es Vedra island, which looks much more magnificient from Ibiza than from the air

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Turning for the final approach (and leaving a contrail)

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Landed! All passengers clap their hands because we didn't die!

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A little hot outside

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Good thing I already got my car :)

After getting my suitcase, I walked out and located a Thomas Cook representative. Package travel is the worst form of travel, and the worst part of package travel are transfers between the airport and the hotel, as the transfer bus always has to visit 10 other hotels before arriving at mine. So I was happy to tell him that I had a rental car and sadly could not use their valuable transfer service. I walked to the nearby garage where I picked up my rental Seat Leon. Accordung to the rental agreement, the car was without damage, but both the front and rear bumpers were covered with scratches. As I complained to the representative about them, he happily entered them into the rental agreement without even looking at the car. Hmmm, I wounder how many generations of unsuspecting customers paid for the same scratches over and over...

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Outside of the terminal

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The car I got. Had only some 5000km on it, but felt more like 100000km

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Freedom at last!

After a 10-minute drive, I arrived at the Torre del Mar hotel where I always stay in Ibiza. It is probably the uncoolest hotel on the whole island and looks like a 1970s museum from the inside, but in the absense of really good and affortable hotels, it is perfect for me. It has great sea view rooms with balconies, good air condition and free WiFi, no loud animation, an own parking lot, is located outside of the Ibiza town with it's traffic jams, and has a boat connection to the Ibiza town offering a very spectacular ride to the port of Ibiza. Every other location on the island is easily reached by car. The Playa d'en Bossa beach is just a 5-minute walk away, and getting to my favorite ses Salines beach requires a 10-minute drive.

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Cat without a tail outside the hotel. Will be eying the breakfast buffet with suspicion.

I asked if they had free rooms despite the early hour, and 10 minutes later I was enjoying the view from my room.

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My room. The sea view is terrific - you have to lean out from the balcony to see land on Ibiza :D

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View from the balcony towards the old town

I will spend my time in Ibiza fighting the world hunger, helping the poor, solving the financial crisis, stopping wars, preserving the environment and working on a number of other important matters ;)

Thanks for reading!

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Thanks for sharing this report; especially nice since the Airbus DO will be on a Condor 757-300!

Thanks for an interesting trip report. Don't worry about other peoples snobbery, like the places you want to like.

So if you get a sandwich for free, and can pay for a more complete meal? I reckon they should at least give you something hot as a 'premium' meal.

Good luck with your quest for world peace ;)

Condor is quite honest that their shorthaul premium meal is cold. Mind you, it is better than what you get in shorthaul C on Lufthansa (food wise, not drink wise ;)), so no real complaints.

You have to order it before the flight though. Once you are onboard, you cannot buy it anymore.

Thanks for the report! Not too many charter reports on FT .-)

Good report. Thanks! ^ Enjoyed the pics too.

See you on the MegaDo! :)

Nice pictures + report ^ .

Great trip report and thanks for sharing the pictures.

1. Coffee
2. Orange Juice
3. Fork
4. No more fruit salad
5. Yogurt
6. Lemon Juice packette
7. Condor 753 Safety Card?

Onedog

Great report, thanks! Thanks for taking the time to write it.

Great report!

I was wondering how much the "premium" meal cost you, when booked prior to the flight.

No, I didn't eat the card :D It's still there but invisible due to a slightly different perspective. Other guesses are correct :) When there is no fresh squeezed OJ, I begin the breakfast with fruits, otherwise I save them for the end of the meal.

Me, nothing (free premium meals are a perk when booking with Thomas Cook, you just have to call to reserve them). Otherwise, they cost 7EUR, I would have paid without hesitation (and note to Condor, I would have paid 20EUR for a proper hot meal). It's a lot cheaper than a comparable breakfast at the airport.

What would you expect for a premium meal on a 2-hour charter flight, a 2 liter Dom bottle at every seat with beluga caviar served on disposable platinum utensils? :D It's all about managing expectations, have a laugh at people discovering how the tray table works, recall your first conscious flight as a kid and just enjoy it while keeping in mind that there are better ways to fly ;)

Thanks for your comments, I am glad you enjoyed this short report.

is that Armin van Buuren @ whatever club u where?

Yep (the club is Amnesia). Played an amazing set ^ (Blake Jarrell did a good warm up too). A little too crowded though - and they don't sell VIP terrace passes for Armada events. A 200ml water bottle costs 10EUR at the club (for those complaining about the value of the 7EUR breakfast on Condor)

Today I am going to the Cream party at Amnesia (this time with a VIP terrace pass) with Ottaviani, Sied van Rial, PvD etc., so it can only get even better :D

Not a lot of big clubs playing trance these days, so it's mostly Amnesia for me.

(To FlyerTalkers preferring hip hop or classical music, I apologize for venturing off topic here :p)