Flying to Germany

Travel agents in this day and age?
You would get better free advice here if you say where you are trying to fly from the day you are leaving and the day you need to fly back.

I used priceline last year in May on a one way flight from Washington DC to Frankfurt. They sold me a ticket on one the so called great airlines Lufthansa. It cost me $270 one way but unrelated Lufthansa canceled the flight, though we ended up flying out the next day.

Condor is a reputable discount airline. Just make sure you read the luggage rules and inflight services like food and the seat size and pitch.

Condor is a low price airline, but reliable, safe, and fine. Put Condor in the search box above and you will find several threads with comments from people who have flown. Do the Priceline 'blind flight' thing only if you are very comfortable with several connections and long layovers. Enjoy your trip!

Condor is neither a discount nor a low cost airline - fully wrong classification.

It is a big renowned charter airline belonging to Thomas Cook group (TCG) which announced their plans to sell Condor. Delta and United are offering only scheduled flights under their brand (like Lufthansa).

Charter airlines can offer unregular flights which can change on a short-term notice (so far less likely with Condor) and have some other less regulation compared to scheduled flight airlines. But be aware that in the case that TCG sells Condor some flights can be cancelled, flights times can change or flights can suddenly be operated by a different airline (all possible with charter regulation). German news group FAZ recently wrote an article whether to still book Condor or not (six days ago, German).

Besides this special charter and company-on-sale topic for you as passenger there is normally no real difference, except price and less flight frequency. Expect German and English as spoken languages on Condor.

And still in Internet age travel agents make sense because compared to the forum entries here so far they know the differences between charter and scheduled flight connections, know these details of airline status and will help you when issues arise. They can see also other contingency types you will not see in a regular price comparison engines.

I flew Condor several times Frankfurt to Seattle. I have frequent miles with Delta. I don't see big difference between Condor and Delta besides price. The same for United. Nowadays airlines are very similar - cramped seat, miserable food. Exception are some Asian airlines.

zoopan, what is your departure city? Are you having to make connections to get to the Condor flight? Are you looking at multi-city (aka open jaw) itineraries?

Hi Stan I am flying out of Spokane WA and have no problems with connections to get to the Condor flight. My only worry was that the first travel agent we spoke to said in her 25 years in the business she has never heard of anyone who has used them. I thought that was strange and it kind of scared me away as she said they were a low budget airlines.

As far as Delta and United, Delta is fine I have never had a bad experience with them, but not United, they changed my flight 3 or 4 times once calling me at 8am east coast time which was 5am my time then got mad when I called back to make sure I had written my fights down. My whole experience with them was not good.

Now my concern is what MarkK said about TCG saying they might sell them. I have priced out flying out of Seattle but it is only about 100 less then Spokane and we would have the drive over and parking. I have even looked into NYC I can get a ticket for about 310 but flying to Frankfurt is 530sh so that 840 and still it is Condor, though I would not mind spending a day or 2 in NYC as we used to live there and I love the city.

I still have 6 months before we leave it is just that I am a planner and it stress me to wait. I am so afraid the prices will shoot up and I will regret waiting.

Thank all of you for your responses and help.

Try Icelandair. They fly from Seatac to Munich with a stop in Iceland. Their cheapest ticket option is light economy.

a couple of travel agents ... have totally discouraged me from Condor saying Delta and United are the best

I wonder if commissions have anything to do with what they feel is best (for them).

Lufthansa also flies between the US and Germany, and, in my experience, they are the best, head and shoulders better than United. (I won't comment on Delta. I flew Delta 17 years ago to Germany. They were OK, but not nearly as good as Lufthansa.) Five years ago, my partner and I flew Lufthansa to Germany and United back, and she was amazed at how inferior United's service was.

Thank you everyone for your replies, it is so stressful trying to book as you want the best price and it changes every few minutes it seems. Last night I got on Expedia and they had a deal where they bounded our hotel into the flight. We are coming in early and staying a few days in Frankfurt before going on to Trier. The airlines they had was Lufthansa so that made me feel better also as Candor maybe being sold kind of stressed me also. We were able to get 3 nights of hotel plus the airfare at 833 per person. Every place else had it from 1,200 to 1450, flying Delta, United and Lufthansa expect for Candor, so I kind of jumped on that.

I have never flown out of the USA, which I know it is not that big of deal, it just seems different somehow and it is like the stock market the way it fluctuations in price that is why I am not in the market to much stress.

Thank you again for all of your help so much appreciated.

@zoopan I know it's hard to do, but you need to not obsess so much about making the right decision.It's a vacation, not a long-term decision like marriage or career choice or choice of a house to buy. Buy tickets when you see a price you can live with and then don't look back or second guess yourself. You likely won't go bankrupt if you buy tickets and then later wish you'd waited for a better deal.

We haven't used a travel agent for any trip in this millennium. For most trips, they are as dinosaurish as traveler's checks and lira, deusch marks, francs, etc.

zoopan, I always book directly with the airline and the hotel. I rely on third-party booking sites for information only. If you encounter any problems with either your flight (such as overbooking, canceled, etc.) the airline will refer you back to Expedia or whoever you booked through. Same experiences with lodging in the US booked through Expedia or other third-party site, plus I've been told by a hotel manager that they put the Expedia rentals in the worst rooms.

We have flown Icelandair twice from Colorado to Europe and have no complaints. We had comfortable seats and there were no hidden costs. Yes, the lay-over in Reykjavik is a pain, but their prices beat out the other major airlines.

Unless Condor has changed for the worse, I would fly Condor now. In the the 1980s I flew Condor r/t three times SFO to Frankfurt, also for the 1992 trip. It was all right, price was acceptable, pleasant , no problems Back then Condor was known as the Tochtergesellschaft of Lufthansa.

Forget listening to that sort of advice.

If it's $780 non-stop SFO to FRA, I would take it, regardless if it's night flight, which makes no difference to me, seating in the sardine can Economy seat for ca 11 hrs...no problems...since the arrival time will be ca 10-11 am...great. If earlier, even better.

A well-travelled, and well-healed, friend swears that Condor's business class service is good and considerably cheaper than the competition. But he never sits in the back rows.

Does "Zoopan" have any connection to the name "Zsupan" as in "Countess Maritza" (Gräfin Mariza) by E. Kalman...imaginative!