Condor

Condor is the Spirit Airlines of international travel, which is just another way of saying that they are simply the worst. I used them to fly to Amsterdam (via Manchester, from LAX) recently, because the flight was significantly cheaper than other airlines. I got a great deal, but I don’t know that I would fly Condor again. I’d almost rather shell out a couple hundred bucks for a better airline. Admittedly, I went into it knowing that it was a budget airline… I didn’t exactly have high expectations, but I was still disappointed.
I present to you, ladies and gentlemen, the top 10 worst things about this airline, in no particular order:
1. They don’t ever notify you to check in for your flight. What the hell guys. The only thing I EVER received was my initial booking confirmation. Not the end of the world, but seriously, what airline doesn’t notify you AT ALL about your upcoming flights? Even Frontier (who I used to fly to LA) sent me about 3 different emails.
2. Once I remembered to get online and check in for my flights, it would only let me check in for certain portions (despite being within 24 hours of flying). Why give me a reservation code that’s only going to work half the time?
3. No ability to pick a seat, or even pay to pick a seat. I’m not sure if this was related to my flight or an error on their mobile site, but it didn’t work either time. As soon as I checked in it assigned me a number and said «seat change requests unavailable». Had the flights been full, it would make more sense, but probably ¼ of the seats on my first flight were open. Luckily I got good seats, but what if I had been wanting to pay for a better one? The way they nickel and dime you over everything else; I find it hard to believe that they wouldn’t want to take my money…
4. Ridiculously low baggage weight limits, especially for international flights. And yes, they’ll weigh your carry on and fine you for it being overweight. I packed light and was fine, but I watched 3 different people in front of me shell out $ 100+ for overweight carry-​on/​overweight checked bags/​excess luggage. Ouch.
5. No wifi aboard the flights, nor the ability to purchase it.
6. Very limited TV/​movie/​entertainment options. Even if you decide to spend 12 pounds for the «premium package», (I didn’t) there wasn’t much. It really didn’t seem worth the money.
7. No free drinks. Yes, that includes soft drinks, not just alcohol. I’m on an 11 hour flight and you’re going to charge me two pounds for a fucking ginger ale?!
8. Oh, did you want to buy something? I hope you don’t have a Visa card issued in the US, because it will get declined, and they will not take AmEx or other CCs. They do accept paper money, but not coins. On the flight there, the attendant tried my card, told me that their system had been declining U.S. cards for some reason, apologized, and let me keep the wine I had purchased. On the way back, the same thing happened, except that this attendant was not as nice.
-«Your card is declined»
-«Ugh, that happened on the way here too. They said it was a glitch in your system because it’s a US card. I think that must still be going on»
-«No, it’s your card»
She kept implying that it was somehow MY fault that their scanners were not accepting my card, despite it happening to many other people around me too. Rather than being nice about something that was obviously a glitch on their end like the first attendant, she took the snack box, which I had already opened, and the wine I ordered away from me. I was SO hungry and so sober and so sad. Also, if you’ve been having a glitch with US cards, I don’t know, maybe address the problem or MENTION it to passengers?
9. Confession: I don’t ever usually mind airplane food. It’s like a weird guilty pleasure. So it’s significant when I say that the free meals they offered were truly, truly awful.
10. Very limited communication between employees, apparently. On my way there, my checked bag was transferred from Manchester to Amsterdam without issue. On the way back, they would not transfer our bags from Amsterdam to Manchester, saying it was because the U.S. was our final destination. So, we had to go through passport control, pick up our bags at baggage claim in the UK, change terminals, check them there, and go through security again. There were about 6 of us in the same boat and we all almost missed our connection. They had already closed down check-​in/​bag drop for our flight, but the desk agent was able to call someone and make an exception (the highlight of my experience with this airline). Then she said that they never should have made us pick up our bags at baggage claim, that they should’ve transferred all the way through. Still not sure which agent was right.
Ps. This was initially going to be a 2 star review, because as I said, I do realize that this is a budget airline (albeit a particularly shitty one.) But I’m still butthurt about the flight attendant taking my open snack box away.

I never actually flew Condor because i wasn’t able to make a booking. The website kept declining all my cards (that work perfectly fine otherwise). It was almost impossible to get through to the call centre and when i finally did, i received the most unprofessional service i’ve ever experienced from the lady who barely spoke English. She explained that if my card doesn’t work we can’t make reservation, because «she can’t use her card to help me». After this, she disconnected. I WAS SHOCKED. After that, i tried calling several times but had to wait ca. 20 mins to get through and my call would get disconnected. I gave up and booked with another airline.

Terrible. No leg room, lower weight allowances for baggage than any reputable airline. They weigh your carry on bag and allow 6kg. To put that in perspective, my laptop weighs 2kg and my empty luggage bag weighs 2.5 kg. That means if i wanted to bring 2 laptops or God forbid some clothes, they want another hundred us dollars. Same with checked bag overseas. Other airlines allow 23kg, roughly, 50 pounds. Condom air (Yes Condom) allows 15kg, Roughly 30 pounds checked. OH AND WORST OF ALL, the Condom air (yes Condom) luggage scales register .5kg higher than the other ones I used in the airport to configure my luggage! I checked three other airlines scales!
No leg room, in flight entertainment an absolute joke, food would be illegal to serve in a prison, and they spend the whole flight trying to sell you crap. Customer service varies, they’re usually very dismissive and rude.
Easily the worst airline u can fly on.

HORRIBLE HORRENDOUS DIPLORABLE CUSTOMER SERVICE. I did not raise my voice or speak down to Alexandria once, despite the act that she was shouting at me and interrupting me on the phone. She refused to give me her name saying that she is «not obliged to tell me» and would not let me speak at all. She just kept saying the same thing over and over again like a robot and would not answer my questions. I will never fly with this airline ever.

I have flown with Condor several times and once you are airborne, I have found the service to be good, the crew to be very attentive, and the planes to be as comfortable as any other.
However, the folks staffing the check in counter in Seattle are terrible en large. They had my wife in tears, were very rude, and clearly don’t want to be there. Condor (the airline) would do well in taking a very hard look at their ground service in Seattle.

10 REASONS TO NEVER FLY CONDOR AIRLINES… This review is based on «the» maiden flight from Providence, RI to Frankfurt, Germany and my return 10 days later, prompted by seeing a WSJ Travel Cover article, being reminded that Condor (Thomas Cooke) Airline entirely ignored my letter of complaint from my trip, further cementing the 1-​star rating. Booking on Condor was simple and only slightly less priced then Lufthansa and others. While there are $ 700 fares, we paid nearly $ 900, and given the ‘extra’ charges for luggage, food, beer or wine, and headsets, ignoring the service detractors, the costs seem to equate. First issue, Condor provided no connecting flight tickets. Second issue, my in-​flight TV did not work and would not turn off. Try an overnight with a brightly illuminated screen in your face – horrible! The flight crew’s only solution was to continually hit the reset which only made the bright non-​functional screen reappear after 1 minute. Third issue – the food was horrible. I normally will pick at the bread but gave my tray back in tact. Fourth issue, flight was 30 minutes delayed with a gate issue causing us to miss our connection. NO INFORMATION WAS PROVIDED TO ANY PASSENGER IN ANY LANGUAGE ABOUT CONNECTIONS beyond, «just go to your next flight and they will have your connecting ticket.» (My wife is German and assured me I didn’t just miss this. Fifth issue (being generous to call this just one issue), Condor IS a low cost airline that does not talk to other airlines, computer or otherwise. Lufthansa had no record of any flight changes beyond our missed flight. We were directed back to Condor ticketing, back on the opposite side of Frankfurt airport. Condor supposedly reissued tickets that Lufthansa never had record of, seemingly making my trip worthless and causing us to miss the connection. With subsequent flights sold out we were re-​ticketed on a flight later in the day. Sixth issue, Condor would not offer the new connection ticket and instructed me to return to the Lufthansa gate for ticketing. However, I could not return to the gate without a ticket. Are you laughing yet? I was doing my best not to choke anyone. Waiting in a long line at Lufthansa I was finally told they had NO record of the new ticketing and that I should come back in 15 – 20 minutes when the system might update to show my ticket. After waiting +20 minutes I was finally issued tickets and then needed to clear security and traverse Frankfurt airport back to our gate. [I need to interject as it was at this time in our journey that we bumped into other Providence-​Condor passengers scrambling about the Frankfurt airport having the SAME HORRIBLE experience!] Seventh issue, our 4 seats, including 1 infant and 1 toddler were in different sections of the airplane. Eighth issue, while this point may belong to Lufthansa, Condor booked my tickets and therefore needs to take the blame… I was told by Lufthansa that they could not do anything about it and to simply board the plane and figure it out onboard. The counter agent said, «No time!» I found that funny as I hadn’t said a word in English or German. She just offered me her hand. Onboard flight crew had no idea and told us to take our seats… I assume we were to drop our 2 year old in a random aisle? Thankfully German travellers are very cooperative and we quickly negotiated flipping seats by holding up our children and explaining kindly in German that we needed help. Ninth issue, alas a return to the US and arrival at Providence to meet…1 (ONE) US CUSTOMS AGENT FOR THE ENTIRE FLIGHT! 1 agent served to help flight crew and perhaps special assistance needs, though I only saw them helping flight crew. And 2 agents were serving to admit non-​US passengers. The wait was +1 hour, my longest US Customs arrival of any airport in all my flying days. Tenth issue, Condor Airlines ignored a letter outlining points 1 – 9 of my flying experiences. Shame on you Condor for not responding. I hope my Unilocal review will cause at least one person to AVOID YOUR HORRIBLE AIRLINE!!!

Nice flight, horrible customer service on the ground:
Before you fly Condor airlines, please know that this company provides horrible customer service within the USA. Since we were taking our 11 month year old daughter to visit family in Europe, I called Condor a few weeks before the flight to reserve seats to ensure we’d be sitting together. They sent us a confirmation and then changed our seats when we checked in for the flight. When I brought this to the attention of their gate agent he said there was nothing Condor could do and that Condor can cancel reserved seats for safety reasons. Once we boarded the flight it was obvious that Condor simply split up our reservation by mistake when they were trying to place a group of 5 people together. They never apologized and actually yelled at us when we expressed our concern of separating a family with an infant. On our return trip our flight was delayed and we missed our connection. Condor did not have anyone at the gate or at their check-​in station to help us. We had to find someone at the airport information booth who gave us a number to call.

Beware. Party of 7, Departed Santotini to Myconos 29 June 2015. 2 of us took flight no problems. Keep in mind Condor cancelled 730pm flight and move it to 1030 am. Final destination was Stuttgart Germany. Everyone printed out their new conformation with their names on the conformation when notified of the change before leaving the USA. The electronic conformation positively stated 1 free checked bag under 20 kilos. When you print it out this information did not or will not print out on your conformation. For some reason Condor had no evidence of 5 people in our group even though they had print outs of 1030am flight with everyone’s name on it. After check person checked with supervisor and much hassle they allowed the 5 to board but since the conformation did not indicate the free bag like the website states they had to pay 900 euro for their checked bags. Not a miss print 900 euros when it should have been free. They charged by the kilo like a grocery store. Condor gets 1 star because the plane waited 20 minutes past flight time. Flight to Myconos is 25 minutes.

Revising it now that things are done.
Customer service: ¹⁄₅ — Unacceptably long waits. They’ve been helpful in getting some flights refunded after I canceled, but it took nearly an hour waiting to get through to a person. They seriously need to hire more people, and there seems to be a lack of online technology compared to domestic flights for rebooking, cancellations, etc.
Flight: ⁵⁄₅ — Went really fast, food was pretty good. Note — you don’t need to purchase the premium meal, but if you get the free meal, make sure you’re not lactose intolerant, because I had pretty heavy meals on the flight (e.g. potatos and sausage, mac and cheese, bread and butter, chocolate cake).
Price: ⁴⁄₅ — Pricing is fair compared to competitor flights, but it feels nickel-​and-​dimed at times. For example, if you want to reserve your seat, it’s extra. In-​flight entertainment for a nearly 11 hour flight costs another 8 euros, and the headset is like 3 euros (?). Still cheaper than competitor flights, but having traveling nearly 150,000 miles on Delta, there are some things that should come free.

The absolute worst of all airlines to me !!! Super late staff very very rude at seatac airport me and my family will never fly with them again !!! EVER !!

Don’t let the 2-​stars fool you, Condor is a great value. If you’re looking to get a good deal on a flight from Seattle to Europe, fly with condor.
However, if you prefer to spend a little more to be comfortable on an airplane, Condor is not for you. This was the most uncomfortable long-​distance flight I’ve ever experienced. Usually airplanes for long distance flights are slightly more spacious and comfortable and well equipped than a flight from say Seattle to San Fransisco, but this one was not. It was a smallish plane, with seats crammed in everywhere possible. The leg room and chair width was at the bare minimum, and I am not a big person (5’5 and 140 lbs).
It’s doable, but you’re gonna be a little cranky on the other side. Weigh that with the fact that you’ll probably save several hundred dollars by flying with them.

Very recently this year Condor started nonstop flights from Seattle to Frankfurt Germany and other destinations in Western and Eastern Europe. We are talking about 10.5 hours on the plane people… it’s not that much fun.
Before I get into the actual flight experience, I wanted to mention the excellent customer service I received over the phone with these guys. While booking my EU flight online, my credit card company decided to block my card (common practice these days)…after spending nearly 20 minutes on the phone to get my card unblocked, I had to call Condor in hopes of still being able to get the same flight and rates. A gentleman with a German accent, very patiently made sure I got my flights. Even after my CC company decided to block my card once again, LOL. He waited until I got off the phone with them on another line and helped me complete the transaction. There was no fuss, only a very calm demeanor and a few jokes about my overly cautious CC company. I ended up getting a different card after my trip ;-)
As far as the flight itself, it was as pleasant as 10.5 hours on a plane could possibly be. Flight attendants were courteous and accommodating. We had lots of drink breaks and 2 meals… although the later was very German and may not be appealing to an American pallet.
Their rates seem to be very competitive, so I see myself flying Condor again across the pond.