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Warning about Condor Air broken seats in business class

Dear fellow travelers - a warning:
Condor Air is a budget airline that has appealing fares in business class over the Atlantic. I thought it would be worthwhile to buy those seats and earn mileage under Alaska Air while getting a nap in flat seats for a long flight. Big mistake.

On our outbound flight, one of our seats did not have functioning in-seat entertainment or flight maps.

On our return flight, both of our seats were broken, had no power (for charging and for CPAP), and could not recline or raise footrests. Also, entertainment was only by wifi to your tablet or phone, with a choice of less than 20 movies, most of them older. On this flight, 20 out of 30 seats in business class were defective and could not be reclined.

Other passengers that I spoke to had experienced similar breakdowns on other Condor flights, resulting in unsatisfactory flights. I know this can be considered a first-world problem, but when you are counting on getting some sleep on the journey, and have paid the money to get the product that will help you do that, this is not a good performance.

Also, the plane and crew were leased from Smart Lynx, an airline from Latvia.

My real concern is about their equipment maintenance. The flight attendant told us that they have made multiple referrals to maintenance to repair the seats, but repairs have not been done. This makes me wonder what other areas of maintenance have been deferred?

Posted by
2743 posts

Well you’re drawing a conclusion where one does not exist. There are government agencies that regulate the maintenance of the parts of the plane that keep you safe. That’s not including the foot rests or the TV so they don’t care. As a matter fact that’s probably why those weren’t fixed because the government agencies don’t care

Personally though I never assume in-flight entertainment will work. No matter what airline you should be prepared to entertain yourself for the entire flight

Posted by
2065 posts

That is sad, Julie. I too would be concerned about what else might need some maintenance despite government regulations.

Posted by
110 posts

Thank you for sharing Julie. I have wondered what their business class was like. I would be especially disappointed to have paid for a reclining seat/footrest that I didn't get.

Posted by
2274 posts

Personally though I never assume in-flight entertainment will work

I'd be looking to fly a higher quality airline.

Posted by
11247 posts

Sorry you had such a negative experience. We have taken several Business Class flights on Condor. We found the seats fine, the food excellent, but I have had screen problems, which really do not bother me. The association with Alaska Air is attractive as are the fares. Have you registered a complaint with Condor?

Posted by
6227 posts

On my recent trip to Germany (flying Delta, Premium Select), my seat monitor did not work. Everyone else's did, so it was obviously some kind of glitch in the system. The flight attendant reset it twice and it still didn't work. She offered me another seat but I was happy where I was and planned on trying to sleep, so I declined. But it can happen to better quality airlines as well.

Posted by
2300 posts

I flew British Airways from LAX to London on a red eye flight. Across the aisle from me, one of the overhead lights would not turn off. They tried everything. You’d think the flight attendant would have offered the poor occupant of the seat an eye mask from first class. Nope. Poor girl wrapped her sweatshirt around her head and was obviously uncomfortable. I wished I had an eye mask to offer her her!

So it’s not just budget airlines that have equipment issues that can result in unpleasant flights. But I would have been pretty upset to pay so much extra for business class and have seats not function fully.

Posted by
3057 posts

You were not a plane leased from Smartlynx on your flight from Seattle. Those planes are A320’s which do not fly the long routes like Seattle to Frankfurt.

https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/news/18410-latvias-smartlynx-wet-leasing-a320s-to-corendon-and-condor

https://www.smartlynx.aero/en/news/smartlynx-signs-wet-lease-agreement-with-german-leisure-airline-condor

Apparently it is one plane?

The Seattle flight is a wide-body A330. Apparently Condor has leased 4 of these from Etihad, which is not a Latvian airline.

https://onemileatatime.com/news/condor-leasing-airbus-a330/

He says one of those planes flies the Seattle route.

I am sorry that you had a broken seat, but that can happen on any airline (Insee lots of complaints about that for British Airways). Also non-working IFE—-it is a common complaint. If the plane isn’t full they will move you to a better one, but if all the business class seats are taken there is nothing you can do. Bit you should ask for some compensation.

Posted by
16025 posts

We flew Condor in business class from Seattle to Frankfurt in late August, courtesy of our Alaska Airlines miles. It was a last-minute change due to British Airways canceling our flight from London to Milan, leaving us with inconvenient options to get to our destination in Italy. So we took the opportunity to fly Condor instead, and make our way by train to Italy. Since we usually fly BA in business class, it was interesting to compare.

We had no issues with the seats at all—they worked fine. My husband’s IFE worked for him; I never use it to watch movies (I try to sleep) but I do like to use the map feature and that did not work. We found the service and the food to be as good as BA. In fact my beef filet dinner was nice and rare, and perfectly sauced, so probably one of the best airline meals I have had in business class to Europe ( ANA to Japan is in a whole different class).

So we have no complaints about our Condor flight, and would fly them again.

I am sorry that you had a bad experience with your seats and IFE, but as others have pointed out,that can happen with any airline. It is unfair to generalize from your issues to condemn the whole airline.

The one complaint I have consistently seen with Condor, across websites like FlyerTalk and others, is that if something goes wrong (lost baggage, a missed flight due to late arrival, etc.) and you need to talk to someone, it is very difficult fo get help.

Posted by
3057 posts

Scudder, the article I linked from onemileatatime says the Condor A330’s were leased from Etihad. That is the title of the article. And one of those four planes leased from Etihad serves the Seattle route. That is in the article too.

The articles you linked about an A330 leased from Smartlynx says it is one A330, total. That is what I said too, one plane. But that one plane serves JFK in the US, Toronto in Canada, and two airports in Spain. Not Seattle. So the OP was not on a plane leased from Latvia, and her speculation about that being the cause of poor maintenance has no factual basis.

Posted by
3809 posts

I‘m hoping the OP will return to tell us the origin of her info on SmartLynx.

Because I‘m an airline dork with insomnia who is interested in such things…

The A-330 SmartLynx flies for Condor is YL-LCQ. No Seattle flights on the plane‘s log on FlightRadar24.

Review of the logs for the Condor Seattle to Frankfurt route shows that with one exception, the route has been served by aircraft D-AIYA, D-AIYB, D-AIYC, D-AIYD at least since August 1. These are the four former Etihad planes leased (but not wet-leased) to prepare Condor pilots for the new A330-900neos that will start being delivered at the end of this year. It appears the Etihad-leased planes are just a short-term presence so not a lot of motivation to fix those seats, but I‘m sure there is a lot of motivation to make sure the planes don’t fall out of the sky and damage Condor‘s reputation in a way much greater than that of a disgruntled post on the Rick Steves Forum (though I understand the disgruntlement). As an aside, the one exception was a Condor B767 in mid-August.

Posted by
3941 posts

Well, obviously “things can happen”, but if I pay lots extra for some sort of reclining seat, I can live with it but would want some sort of refund on my extra cost. But it would at least be more understandable.

However if a flight has 20 of the 30 seats in that condition, that’s a whole other thing and I also would not be likely to fly them again.

Posted by
2267 posts

Sasha- Dave has added good information above (thank you, Dave). The links you posted as SmartLInkx having one a320—I shared that they do have an a330 operating for Condor, even though it might not be operating to Seatle, as I mentioned.

Nowhere in the One Mile at a Time post does it say that Condors planes are leased FROM Etihad—only that the plans used to fly for Etihad. According to Airfleets, those four planes are now owned by a company called Altavair Airfinance, from whom Condor leases them.

Julie- I am curious as to how you came to believe your flight was operated by SmartLynx.

Posted by
3057 posts

Thank you Dave and Scudder for straightening out the situation with respect to the 4 A330’s that Condor is leasing, not from Etihad, but they formerly belonged to Etihad—a good reputable airline.

I think I confused the discussion by posting a link about all the A320’s that Condor is also leasing. But maybe that lease is what caused the OP to think their plane came from Smartlynx—-mistaking the A320 used within Europe for the A330 wide-body long haul planes used from the US to Europe.

I think we all agree that the record shows the Condor plane the OP flew on was not leased from Smartlynx or from Latvia. Although why she thinks that if it were, that would make it a sketchy situation with respect to maintenance and safety is beyond me.

Posted by
301 posts

I agree with Carol. In fact, I've been on flights - in various classes of seating with various "full fare" airlines - and I've had entertainment systems that simply didn't work or entertainment offerings that I found wanting. So the "clunkiest" part of my carry-on, especially for the long flights, is my entertainment gear... A tablet, noise-cancelling headphones (one set for me and one for my wife), and a device that enables me to share the sound from the tablet. (oh, and I also have at least one old-school book to read). I download Netflix or other offerings of our choosing to the tablet for us to watch. I listen to downloaded music and podcasts on Spotify. And I read. But I wish I didn't have to lug that stuff on the plane.

Now about Condor... Travelers' price sensitity keeps airlines like them in the sky. I've never flown them because the reviews I've read echo your sentiment. And I've avoided TAP and Air Canada, too, because of traveler reviews. But I've found American and United wanting, as well... "You can't complain about customer service if there isn't any!" And it's hard to find any, let alone great, customer service on any airline it seems...

Comedian Bill Burr kidded that he travels first class because we fans pay for it. But really, he says, it's just "nice class" -- how we used to get treated when airfares were fixed by the government. In the '60s my parents flew to Japan for about $1,000 each. Today, it still costs about that much. So we've got that going for us, sort of. But fly coach, and you have to pay extra to select your much smaller, non-reclining seat with no leg room for anyone over 5' 10", and you pay to carry a bag on or pay more to check, as well as pay for more than water or a soda. And you may as well bring your own food because what the airlines offer -- even in the upper classes -- is only filling, but not tasty. Even when you pay for first class on American for a transcontinental flight you aren't allowed into the Admirals Club. If you're traveling internationally, you can get in, but American has yet another tier of club for its most loyal customers or those willing to pay the price of admission. So now there are classes of clubs for us to use.

These are first-world problems, to be sure. But the worst part of traveling now is from the departure airport's curb to the desitnation airport's curb. Condor, United, whatever... We travel on sky buses now.

Posted by
16025 posts

I was just searching Condor flights for someone else and noticed that some flights offered to US airports from Frankfurt fly to JFK,mand then partner airline (Jet Blue, Alaska, or other) from there. The FRA to JFK flight, DE2016, says right on the website that is it a Smartlynx plane.

Posted by
4324 posts

Everyone kind of got off on various tangents. The point is, you didn't get what you wanted/paid for so you definitely need to complain to Condor. Realizing that you might just be yelling into the wind.

You can't stop the credit card payment since you did in fact fly, but they should offer you a partial refund. And DON'T let them give you a credit you'll never use (this is a favorite trick of cruise lines).

Posted by
5239 posts

I would complain, it's unacceptable to not have a seat that fully reclines due to a fault, that is the major selling point of a business class ticket.

FWIW I've been reimbursed by BA on two occasions. The first was on a flight from London to SFO, first class, when checking in to the lounge we were advised that our flight did not have the new interior. We were offered cash or a hefty wad of Avios points so I took the latter. As it was the interior was absolutely fine and everything worked and the Avios points paid for four business class flights to Washington DC the following year.

The second was on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to London, again first class, and I received a call from the lounge by a BA representative to inform me that the in flight display on my son's seat was faulty. I wasn't interested in the IFE so I swapped with him but during the flight I jokingly requested some Avios for my trouble with the flight attendant and he agreed, a few days later I received a load of points into my account.

It pays to complain, particularly when paying for premium seats.

Posted by
3057 posts

Unfortunately, from what I have read in reviews, trying to complain to Condor is truly like yelling into the wind. Maybe one can look into EC261 as a means to get compensation? I don’t know the answer, I have just heard it mentioned.

Good to hear JC’s story about BA and getting a bunch of miles for the inconvenience of a broken IFE monitor, though!