Yesterday, avoiding going outside in the nonstop rain here, I was randomly pricing flights and I discovered that on the Condor website, I could book a nonstop from Seattle to Frankfurt and back from $908. They don't fly everyday and you have to pick and choose dates carefully to get the cheapest fare, but it's a pretty good deal. I was randomly looking at October 2016 so if you're traveling outside those dates, you need to do some looking around at fares.
Posted by
Honolulu/Seattle, HI/WA, USA
2788 posts
Have you flown Condor Airlines before? I realize that it is a sub-airline for Lufthansa and we have flown Luft. several times always trying to get non-stop flights from Seattle to Europe. However, after getting caught in two different Luft. strikes, one in Seattle was handled as poorly as I can imagine, the other in Europe which really screwed up our flight home, we do not fly them anymore.
The last two years we have made reservations on KLM and ended up on a Delta plane (code-sharing) but both Delta flights were non-stop and quite acceptable. The price you show is indeed a great deal but it is for October.
Posted by
OP
Pacific Northwest
2622 posts
They're not related to Lufthansa. They're related to Thomas Cook in some way but it's not apparent when you fly. I've flown them RT to Europe twice and they are as good as any other airline I've flown over...Delta, Air Canada, British etc. I think other dates may be available at that price...you would just need to spend some time on their website and see what you can come up with.
Posted by
OP
Pacific Northwest
2622 posts
Just looked around at fares a bit. There's many days in October to get that fare. Back up into September and you're going to pay about $180 more roundtrip. August is even higher. Condor lets you buy tickets 365 days in advance vs. most other carriers and their 330 day advance.
Posted by
4517 posts
I've flown Condor and was pleased with the value and would fly them again. I would pay a little more for a legacy carrier for better service (more videos, free liquor) but not that much more.
Always an advantage to flying a local carrier is that the foreign destination starts as soon as you board the plane. One curiosity I noticed on Condor is that when the pilot says after landing to remain seated until the plane reaches the terminal-- people actually do that!