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***Update below*** Condor airlines glitch and customer support response

Posted by (California USA) on

We’ve met up for a week with our 19 year old granddaughter who is in Europe this summer. She arrived on July 5 and flies back August 28. Today as we were taking the train up to Chamonix with limited cell service, she noticed an email first from Lufthansa then from Condor saying she should check in for her JULY 28 BRU to FRA and FRA to SFO flights respectively. She (and we) got pretty worried. After a not very helpful call to Lufthansa and reading that Condor could only be called M-F on WhatsApp she thought she would have to wait until Monday to call Condor.

When we got back to our house we searched for other numbers to call and used Skype to mimic a call from the US to the Condor 24/7 number for US callers. She got a Condor customer service person within a minute using the Germany contact number. The customer service person was helpful, efficient and just put her on hold once for a few minutes. She said they apologized for the error, could see her August 28 booking and blamed it on a technical problem.

Lessons to pass on: She had booked directly with the airline as one ticket, Condor in this case.

She could retrieve her original booking and had made backup screenshots.

She/we researched alternative phone numbers and methods to call Skype vs WhatsApp.

Do not wait until the deadline to fly happens, it’s easier to correct before the wrong date happens and the booking goes out of the system as a no show—she was going to just wait until Monday when she could use WhatsApp to call!

We hope the drama is over and Condor successfully gets this error out of their system today as promised.

I just wanted to encourage others to be proactive when travel glitches happen and report (so far) on the prompt and efficient customer service we experienced with Condor.

Posted by
17417 posts

That is honestly the first time I have seen a good report on Condor customer service! We like that airline—-it is our preferred choice to Europe when we run out of miles to fly British Airways. So it is good to know that they have improved Their customer service. Fortunately we have never needed to contact them as our flights have been very smooth.

It sounds like the “glitch” was not in your actual booking, but in the notification system. Glad you got it all sorted out—-I am sure that was nerve-wracking.

Posted by
627 posts

It’s so nice to read about a good Condor situation although the email glitch was no fun. Great idea to mimic call from US. This is why I love reading the forum, I read lots of helpful info. Thanks for sharing your story.

Posted by
4098 posts

Update: with no further drama she took both her Lufthansa and Condor flights today and just landed. I asked her to rate her Condor experience (1-10) and let us know if she had any other problems today. She said everything was perfect today and she’d give the airline a 10. Oh to be 19 again and flying to Europe for the summer. She’s at home for a day and a half then flies to NY to start her second semester.

Posted by
76 posts

@Mona, Would you please elaborate on how you used Skype to call? You said you mimiced a US call, but you also said you called Germany. I’m confused and would love to truly understand the process. Thanks. :-)

Posted by
4098 posts

With Skype, VPN isn’t actually needed but we always use one when on WiFi in Europe. So we have a Skype account that we keep <$10 in. Calls only cost 2.3¢ per minute. The Skype number assigned to us is random but the response number we used to set up the account is our US cell #.

When we chose a Condor customer service number to call, we looked down the list and picked a number that was in our current European time zone. It worked for well for us in July to have more than one way to make a call inexpensively while in Europe. Lucy had been given a text that said call Condor with WhatsApp, M-F between 8-5. We needed a time critical and different way to call them on Saturday before she would possibly be made a no-show on Sunday.

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