Condor
 

Anyone fly condor air recently? Any problems, good comments about them?

I just posted a similar question in Air Travel forum. I am looking at some great deals on Condor to Europe in July. Don't know much about the airline, other than what's offered on Wikipedia. It seems they operate jointly with Lufthansa. What's their reputation?

Look at Skytrax reviews http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/condor.htm
where a fair number of the respondents come across as grumpy. Condor's operations centre on Europe where the sky is crowded with budget competitors, so set your expectations at the charter/no-frills end of the scale.

I tried to call the call center and it is not open. Not a good sign. So called international center. Got a quote for flight big down fall in no seat assignment before the flight. If you want to pay for a seat assignment in Eco flight it is 50 euros. Per passenger and flight. So for 4 tickets 200 euro. Two legs of the trip 400 euro added to the bill. No a great discount. Also I was trying to redeem cc points and they will no longer book with them because of many issues.

why reserve seats, lindad?

most of the budget airlines do this "no reservations" system and there's only been one time when DH and I couldn't sit together.

it would be different if i were travelling with children - do they not offer "speedy boarding2 to people with kids?

I don't think my 11 year old would like to sit with people he does not know.

well, that's the point Lindad. you did not mention that you are travelling with children.

i'm not sure that I wouldn't have welcomed a couple of hours free of my DS when he was 11!

i had a look at the condor website, but it is not particularly helpful - it only mentions possible preferential boarding for families with under 2s.

I would tend to agree with you that it is not a good deal if you have to pay €50 each just to sit together. where is it you want to fly to [and from?]

Condor is comparable to a charter carrier. Expect it to be a pretty grim experience. I'd avoid them, unles the savings were substantial.

Sorry, but most of the info is at least half incorrect.

Condor operates a 2-3 class system on long-haul flights: Eco, (Premium Eco), and Comfort Class.
Eco is a bit more cramped IME than Eco on (many, not all) signature airlines. Comfort is more like business class, but not with all the features and comfort of a really good business class. More like a "cheapo" business class - and, in fact, it is much cheaper to fly comfort class than true biz.

You always have assigned seats - but can't reserve for free until (online) check-in deadlines. For a fee, you can reserve your preferred seat in advance, though. Also those at the exit rows with most legroom in Eco for a bit higher fee.

Condor has evolved from a pure charter airline to what it is today. Still, you find many/mostly people going on holiday on board rather than many business travellers.
The airline has no problems or attitudes with/towards kids - on the contrary. Families are one of their main target groups.

Basic food/meals is for free. You can upgrade (for a fee) to "gourmet meals" if you think it's worth that (I have no clue how "good" those are).

So, in a nutshell, Condor is a bit in between a "pay for everything" flying tin of sardines like Easyjet/Ryanair and a "get pampered all the way and all drinks for free" national carrier.

Cowboy - I looked at the website and didn't pick up half of that - and that seems to have been the OP'd experience too.

is there anywhere that the OP can look to find out more?

hi annhig,

Well, some info is 1st hand so to speak as I have used Condor for some short-/mid-haul flights.
I think the usual clientele is more what you find on a Thomas Cook flight (I think you are based in the UK) than what you find in BA's business class.

The website has a somewhat odd design, and some pages look as if there is not much info until you discover the somewhat hidden drop-down navigation or other links.

seats:
http://www12.condor.com/tcf-eu/reise...itzplaetze.jsp
p.s. seat reservation fee is €15 (FIFTEEN) pP per leg on long-haul in Eco, not FIFTY Euros as OP heard from call center..
more info via that box "at a glance" on the right side of the webpage

once you are on that page, you can pull down more info via the "topics" drop-down menu, e.g. info on travelling with children

meals:
http://www12.condor.com/tcf-eu/anbor..._getraenke.jsp
The wording there is maybe not too precise, but regular meals and non-alcoholic drinks are free. Additional snacks, the range of premium meals and alcoholic beverages cost extra.

hope this helps a bit.

thanks, condor. the OP appears to have disappeared but I'll store this us for future reference.

BTW, why DO companies hide things in websites? I was trying to look at a menu on a website for a very chi-chi restaurant [a girl can dream, can't she?] and every time I moved my mouse, the darn thing disappeared. rats. I reckined in the end that if they couldn't sort out their website, they probably couldn't cook!

I wished I jumped on the sale. The airfare has now gone up to $1600 from $1000. Oh well. Carpe Diem!