Condor Airlines Last Minute Deals PDX (Portland Oregon) to FRA (Frankfurt)

Thanks, Scott. I've yet to fly Condor, but the potential direct flight to Europe is very appealing. I used to use Alaska miles to book the Delta direct flight to Amsterdam, but they are no longer partners, so I can't. I now use AA miles which are easy to get with a new credit card sometimes with a great bonus, and occasionally even AA has last-minute mileage deals. (Last October, I booked a trip to with miles three days prior to departure at the minimum miles required.) But there are no direct flights from here - have to go through Dallas, Chicago, or Philly to get to Europe. You can get the BA flight to London but you have to pay a big fee for it so not much point.

Playing on the Condor website now, I see that they nickel-and-dime you for things like extra carry-on bags, seat selection, and meals so that's kind of annoying. I normally fly Southwest domestically and am used to not having meals on board or eating at the airport, but that's harder to work out with a 10+ hour flight...

I did this flight but in reverse when I returned from my GAS tour in 2019. I hadn't taken a flight on Condor before, either, but I was impressed with the service! Mind you, I was in business class.

We flew Condor from Seattle to Frankfurt in June/July on their newest plane, Airbus A33neo, in Economy. We paid extra $99/each way) for the XL seats, which are the emergency row seats where the doors are. That was worth it.

Once on the plane, everything was ok. Service was fine. Food was meh (Mac & cheese).

Checking in at Frankfurt was awful. There were two agents at the check in counter. The self serve kiosks were not working. You could not check in online. So the entire flight had to wait in line. We arrived 3 hours prior and were in line to check in for 1.5 hours. There were a lot of people behind us that were stressed.

Condor has a very restrictive carryon size (about 7” deep compared to most airlines 9”). So many people check bags. That is the biggest negative.

Also, my sister and her husband paid extra for the XL seats, but on the return flight they were assigned to regular seats. None of the crew would make changes, siting “equipment change”. She tried to get a refund from Condor and they have not been responsive. She is disputing the charge with her credit card company.

All that said, we found a great deal using miles and are flying with them in Nov/Dec to do a Christmas market trip.

Jill M and travel4fun: Did Condor check baggage sizes at the gate? I'm using a backpack and it's squashable and I won't pack it full but if fully packed out it would be 2cm too deep and 1cm too long. Might not be noticeable but I do want to be prepared.

When I flew Condor in 2019 there was a pretty serious size AND weight restriction. I didn’t realize I had bought a ticket that didn’t allow me to purchase extra weight, so my carefully chosen international-compliant roller bag got to fly in the belly of the plane. Size and weight checking happened at the pre-security check-in counter, not at the departure gate. But my experience was pre-covid, so YMMV.

Trotter, I checked in for my flight from a small airport using a different partner airline and our carryons were not sized or weighed. But we just had backpacks.

In Seattle, where my sister checked in directly with Condor, her carryon was sized and weighed.

We also had to go to the gate desk at Seattle and have our boarding pass stamped. The agent asked to see our carryons, but did not size or weigh the backpacks.

I suggest that you pack to meet the size and weight limits. The airlines make a fortune from luggage fees, especially at the gate.

Thanks Kristen and travel4fun. I have every intention of meeting the weight limit. I'm at 7 kg right now. It was the 2cm length difference that I am mostly wondering about. That's the manufacturer's specification. I think it's the top hand pull that sticks up. It's soft so I think it would squish into a sizer.

Right now they also have good prices from San Francisco to Frankfurt non stop.

@Trotter I always bring a huge backpack, the Rick Steves convertible one, and I've never had any airline ask to weigh or measure it.

I cannot recommend Condor Air business class. Flatbed seats are an essential part of of my jetlag mitigation strategy, so I tried flying in their business class twice last year. Once with miles, once with cash, both Seattle to FRA.

Both times, one of our seats were broken and we could not lie flat to sleep and achieve the reason to fly this product in the first place. On the second flight, about half of the business class seats were broken, so it was a very unhappy cabin.
The crew were not Condor employees; they were generic charter air employees that get contracted by Condor. So, no brand loyalty or desire to represent a quality product.

I did think that FRA was marvelous, so was public transport to the city, and so was the city.

I completed the first leg of my Condor airlines trip in economy class from Portland Oregon to Frankfurt Germany. The flight left Portland around 12:45pm and arrived on time in Frankfurt at 12:20pm. The Airbus 330-900 neo interior looked and felt newish. Each seat back had a 13.3 inch 4k video display. The seating configuration was 2 4 2, I was seated in 24c in the eisle on the left 2 seats. There were alot of empty seats in economy which may explain the last minute deals previously mentioned.

This plane did have one extra large bathroom which was the favorite for many passengers. The flight attendants served a round of drinks (beer was aprox 5 euros) and then our dinner meal of pasta (no choices), it may have been Mac and cheese. There was also a bread roll, cold pasta salad and a brownie.

After they came by to haul away our dinner mess, the 2 people sitting in front of me reclined their seats back and the video display was almost in our face, so much so that my seat mate and I started laughing at how cramped things had become.

After serving our dinner and the 2nd round of drinks they dimmed the lights and then later turned off the lights to help people sleep. The flight attendants disappeared for the remainder of the flight until near the end when the lights came back on and we were given a croissant with cheese for breakfast. One exception, during the flight when the lights were off there was one attendant coming around a few times with cups of water.

At some point well into this 10 hour flight I was hungry so I went to the back of the plane and asked for some snacks and was shown an ipad with items that could be purchased. I bought a bag of nuts from one of the attendants for $3 euro.

Overall the flight experience was about the same as my non stop Delta economy flight in June 2022 from Seattle to Paris. A previous Delta flight from 2018 seemed to have many more visits from the flight attendants with free alcohol and snacks, I guess this is the new norm.

One complaint for Delta, during one leg of my 2022 flight one of the toilets was heard to be continuously flushing and they announced that none of the toilets on the left side of the plane could be used. I alsonnoticed one of the Delta bathrooms had black duct tape holding an interior trim panel in place, not a good sign.

If the price was right I would fly Condor economy again as long as I kept my expectations low. Delta is another option for the 10 hour non stop flight. Many years ago Lufthansa used to have non stop PDX to FRA flight but haven't seen it for some time.
Cheers

Question, if there were empty rows of seats, why not ask the flight attendants if you could move instead of having that annoying seat shoved into your face? ( I hate those reclining seats.)

Scott, we have only flown Condor once. While I agree some good deals can be had, next time, I’m at least paying for premium economy. Basic economy is what we usually fly, but Condor’s economy seating is the worst we have ever experienced.

Update: I completed the return journey on Condor Airbus A330-900 neo from FRA (Frankfurt) to PDX (Portland, OR) earlier this week. Given the somewhat cramped feeling I experienced in regular economy during my PDX to FRA flight in late August, I considered upgrading to a Premium Economy seat for my trip back home. The night before when I checked in online there was an offer to upgrade to Premium economy for $199 euro. I hesitated to take the initial offer, and thought I would check the next morning. I arrived at the airport early and was able to check my bag and go through security with no delays.

After lunch I made my way to gate B48 around 1.5 hours before departure. The gate area was very crowded as people needed to wait in a separate line to have their passport verified. I got in a different line to talk to a gate agent behind about 15 people and asked about the premium economy upgrade. Yes, they have some premium seat upgrades available for $99 euro but commented there were no window seats, only an aisle and middle seats. I said I would take the aisle seat which I preferred after they showed me the seat location which was on the left end in the middle four seats. The agent also mentioned that no one was seated next to me at the time.

The credit card machine had run out of paper so they couldn't process my payment or give me the new boarding pass. One agent went in search of a paper roll while I stepped aside waiting nervously while they took care of many other people. Finally they got the card machine printing and I was given my new boarding pass for seat 17D.

Wow, what a difference being in Premium economy with more leg room making for a less claustrophobic experience . It was a pretty full flight and during the boarding process I was hoping no one would sit next to me as Condor allows upgrading your seat after boarding. Luckily no one showed up and the other bonus is the 2 persons in front of me did not recline their seats back during the entire flight. I felt like I won the seat lottery.

There are 64 Premium economy seats compared to the 216 regular economy seats and one benefit is our section had 2-3 dedicated attendants for quicker drink and meal service. We had a bottle of water on each seat back and got the usual pretzels with our drinks, no extra charge for alcohol drinks.

Our premium meal was better than the 1 choice of the mac n cheese in regular economy. Premium economy had a starter of Corn chicken breast, red pesto, garden salad. Main course had 2 options, either herbed chicken fillet, Mediterranean grilled vegetables and polenta or Italian gnocchi, tomatoes, sauteed spinach leaves, with mozzarella cheese. Desert was Bavarian cream with raspberry sauce. Bread roll with butter and cheese. After the meal and several drink rounds, the flight attendants became sparse that appears to be the new norm. We did get some Ben and Jerry's ice cream hours later and a final warm meal before we landed.

Going forward if I fly a nonstop 10 hour Condor flight again, I will have to get in Premium economy. I will also look at the Delta premium economy for future long haul flights.