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Do NOT fly Condor airlines.

Posted by (Vancouver) on

Fraudulent charges, non-existent support = Condor.

On September 19th my wife and I flew from Vancouver to Frankfurt with Condor. The night before checking in online we were offered a business class upgrade for approx $700 CAD each. We processed the upgrade and were instantly charged however before confirming our boarding passes we noticed I was not assigned a seat. We called condor and of course the support was totally useless and she tried to reassure us this would be fixed at the airport.

Of course at the airport there was not a seat for our upgrade, the one we’d already been charged for. The manager on site at YVR once again passed the buck saying she had no power for refunds but it would be handled in Frankfurt. Upon arrival in Frankfurt AGAIN it was passed on saying the refund would come in 3-5 business days.

It’s now been almost a month later. Phone support is non-existent, the contacts provided for refunds gave the generic “we’ve received your enquiry” but almost 2 weeks later no response, the what’sapp contact on both the website and support link go nowhere.

Condor has literally zero support if anything goes wrong. We are out $700 now and it feels likely we will not get anything back due to how completely useless and futile the support has been.

We have documented every single interaction, we have pictures and have kept all our confirmations, boarding passes etc. and are now filing a fraudulent claim/chargeback with our Visa.

Do not fly Condor. Do not give them your business.

Posted by
11314 posts

Sorry to hear this. We’ve had great success with Condor over the years although in 2020 I had to get rather insistent to get a full refund instead of a voucher for future use.

You might look at Elliott Advocacy for some help, either DIY or through them. They have done miracles with unresponsive companies and I have twice used their methodology DIY to solve my own issues.

Good luck!

Posted by
16221 posts

I know that is frustrating, but it is not just Condor. I had a similar experience getting a $1300 refund from British Airways for a canceled flight. I called (and spent hours on hold before I reached a person) and they acknowledged it was due and they would “send it to revenue” for expedited processing. Then nothing for weeks. I wrote a letter and sent it by post to their US Customer Service address, with copies of documents showing what we were owed. They acknowledged my letter by email and said they had “opened a case” and gave me a case number. Then nothing. I emailed for information about my “case” and the response said they would “expedite it”. More nothing.

Finally I contacted consumer advocate Christopher Elliott for help.

https://www.elliott.org/about-elliott-consumer-advocacy/

They said they would help, but first I had to create a paper trail and send that to the highest level in the company. They gave me email addresses for several BA executives in the US and UK. I chose a vice-president and sent a concise statement of the problem with copies of my claim, case number, original ticketing, etc.

Two days later I had my refund. I suggest you try this route.

Posted by
169 posts

Great thanks for the suggestions.

The most frustrating part is that at least with other airlines I’ve dealt with, Westjet, air Canada, etc. I eventually speak to someone who can escalate the situation

With condor there is a barrier with their agents with basically no matter what you say, you don’t get any further with them.

I’m also still travelling so it’s a huge PITA to try and deal with this in between airbnbs etc.

Posted by
37 posts

Can you dispute the charge on your credit card?

Posted by
169 posts

I have to thank you guys Laurel and Lola for recommending the advocacy company.

After 2 full months of virtual no communication from Condor, we finally submitted all our documents with Elliot advocacy and within 2 days condor sent us a reply with some snarky remark about “we received your complaint from our management bla bla bla”

Condor responded a total of 3 times since our initial complaint on top of the in-person lieing and the useless phone conversations. 1 of those emails being automated.

They actually did ask for wire transfer information but 24 days passed in between that request and no payment.. we also got an additional run around with phone support and accounting which went no where. We then submitted with the advocacy company and within 2 days they replied and said the transfer will now he sent.

Still a complete garbage company to operate like this and I guarantee you if we had not continued to spend 15-20 hours on trying to get this refund, we would have never got our money back.

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