Game Changer: Condor's A330neo Business Class

How many planes do they get each month? Because the existing Business class is crap.

@ Parnel -- Last I heard, Condor should have all these jets by mid-2024, and at that point all 767s should be retired. So that's a pretty quick fleet renewal.

Condor is a small airline so can’t compare a fleet renewal to that one of major airlines like Lufthansa, BA…

Good to see the soft product measuring up by keeping a sense of occasion and choice even if it is a longer flow. They have done their homework on what premium leisure wants.

Excluding 767, Condor has 7 A330 so of course it won’t take long to refurbish the fleet.

I hope Condor starts flying to Canada, to disrupt the insane pricing there.

Won't be long before their prices go up to match the other carriers. They were cheap because they didn't have the product to demand higher prices.

"As you can probably tell, this seat is way more spacious than the other business class seats."

"The seat itself is no different than any of the other business class seats."

I get what you are trying to say, but it just reads awkwardly.

As nice as the space is, it really does look like parts of 2 different seats thrown together.

I flew with them in Jan - best transatlantic flight imo! You can't beat that price for business class seats.
So long Luft!

Business class: condor a330 + economy connections flight?
Or a330 eurowings discover + Lufthansa business(Eu) connections flight?

The striped livery on the outside somehow evokes reading "Condom" as the airline name.

I am not quite sure about the aggressive pricing. From SFO I see round trip fares to Germany in business of $4300+. This seems to be very comparable to the legacy carriers.

If I remember correctly, they do not have refundable fares, even with higher prices. Given their small footprint, it might be difficult to use the flight credits offered instead.

Given that the Lufthansa Group airlines have some of the highest market share in their home markets and also some of the highest average fares in Europe, Condor has enormous opportunity to grow. The A330-900 is a highly efficient aircraft that is well suited for the routes that Condor flies and there is more than ample availability for them to acquire more if they choose to.
Having flown Condor many times, they are indeed moving from their leisure base to being one of the few low fare transatlantic airlines after a rash of failures over the last few years including of Norwegian. Given that they are using widebodies, their impact will be far larger than those that try to use the A321XLR.

Stunning hard product. Why can't AA, DL and UA offer something at the same level? Why is it so hard? The premium product of our carriers in the US is simply shameful. We invented flying, richest, most powerful nation in the world, yet we can't even come close to a discount european carrier. Something is wrong with us.

Regis,
with all due respect, every one of the big 3 offer a hard product business class seat (not Condor's Prime) that is comparable to or better than Condor's. They also offer soft product services that matches Condor's. Let's not forget that the Condor Prime seat occupies a significant portion of attention in the article; that seat is comparable to Virgin Atlantic's premium business class seats - of which there are just a few on every aircraft. Also, the big 3 cut services dramatically during the pandemic and are still reinstating them. Comparing pandemic-cut services to Condor's launch services for a new aircraft is apples to oranges.

That said, competition is good and the biggest advantage that Condor brings to the market is a product that is just about as good as other airlines but at a whole lot less cost. Given that their primary competition is Lufthansa and the German market is one of the most protected, the fact that Condor is making as big of an impact as they are is reason to celebrate.

It's like WW1 era JG1. I understand that it's not a popular reference but can't really help it with the color scheme. It's definitely bold and eye-catching.

The US didn’t “invent” flying. You’ll find birds did. Joking aside, it was Santos Dumont. And stop with all this cr— about richest, most powerful, best blah blah.

Indeed DL UA AA have good premium products.

Agree
flying ex US the difference is smaller their network is much smaller (so good for point to point but beyond FRA you’ll have to add in another fare) and sone more restrictions on most fare basis
Having said that, hard product better than LH on these planes which is I guess the point of the article

AA's business class product for longhaul flights is better than Condor's.

sounds like this is paid and sponsored by Condor. I’m looking for the „ad“ I’m front of your words

Well I'd argue that both UA and DL have a better *flagship* premium product. That's to say that UA's Polaris and DL's Vantage XL is considerably better than Condor's J, but those two lack consistency across their fleet and you're very likely to sit in UA's 2-2-2 or DL's narrow staggered seats.

AA is probably the only one with the more consistent (and imo better than Condor's) hard product.

United has pretty well converted their entire long haul fleet to the Polaris 1-2-1 product by now. I’m pretty sure the High-J is 1-1-1. I don’t think you are very likely to find any planes in their long haul fleet that are 2-2-2 any longer. Perhaps they’re still working on converting just the 767-400

'That’s significantly under a quarter the cost of what Lufthansa charges for the same route.'

Come on. That's just silliness to make that claim.
You can get a return on that route with LH for about 2400 EUR. So surely someone would just book that and only use the one way rather than pay 5000 for one way...
The only difference is that Condor doesn't discount returns, while the other airlines do. So if you are going only one way, and insist upon a nonstop flight, yes, Condor might be the best option, but if you are willing to make one stop, there are cheaper airlines available. And if you are flying return, as many are, even if you insist upon direct, Condor is similarly priced to Delta and Singapore and Lufthansa. Personally I always prefer flying Singapore between NYC and FRA, but to each their own.

Flew DE a couple of weeks ago SEA-FRA and FRA-JFK. Aggressive upsells online and at the airport (esp. FRA). Paid $500 (+$29 tax) to upgrade to biz from Premium economy to FRA. Seems like price is same no matter of PE or regular economy. Same price on offer FRA-JFK, but decided to rough it PE. Both solid products and would fly them again.

Forgot to mention…originally assigned prime seat online, then was moved on check-in because they wanted the upgrade fee.

On board I asked to move to an open window seat…and got the prime seat anyway 🙂

They already fly to YEG, YHZ, YYZ, YVR, and YXY. I know, not a huge presence, but they've already started flying to Canada.

It's a flight review Pete. What exactly should he be talking about instead of the soft & hard product, service levels and costs?!

Gonna be a pretty useless and bare bones flight review without all of that. He called them out where he felt they didn't measure up so you can't exactly accuse him of being some paid for gushing simp like a certain ex banker from HKG.

FYI At the top of each article there's a standard advertiser notice and when you press "view all comments" you'll see OMAAT's review disclosure statement so technically that "ad" accusation you made was covered anyway and your then made fully aware of stated review policy in a transparent way. I can attest from numerous times over the years that on the rare occasions am airline, hotel or some other entity does pay for/ towards something that it's made abundantly clear how, what and who & the standard disclaimer is ammended.

With only a smattering of sarcasm but also with genuine desire. I'd love to see you write up a flight review sometime that avoids covering the things written about here AND isn't totally pointless and of no use to anyone as it didn't talk about the flight ( and all its elements) in the slightest.

If this annoyed you then I'd have to refuse to divulge some bloggers/ vloggers I know for fear you reading or watching them would give you a stroke

I'm with ya Bob. You wouldn't wanna take your grandfather on one out of fear several took off at once and he got flashbacks to D-Day from the livery.

Yes it's playful I guess but tbh idk why it makes so many people go giddy over it. That said: each to their own and if it makes you happy then all the better

How many of these planes has condor actually taken delivery on?

Can’t wait to read the full review. I’m particularly interested in whether the prime seat is comparable to first class and if it is worth the steep upgrade (given how accessible business class is on Alaska miles). Doesn’t seem like it, but very excited about the new product.

Sounds enticing,however we booked earlier a condor economy premium for April 2023,so I would have liked to see a review there also,but looking forward to our trip anyway

Thank you for this constructive review.

I am bout to book a flight from FRA to SEA and back, and the Condor website says that Air Belgium will operate those flights.

Do you have any insights into this cooperation and the quality of their business class?
Thanks!

Ben has a review of Air Belgium's A340 Business Class, if you're curious.
https://onemileatatime.com/air-belgium-business-class-review/

I just flew the Air Belgian operated flights for Condor from SEA to FRA and FRA to SEA in Business Class. The seats in Business were definitely different than what I saw in the review of AB mentioned in this comment thread. That said, the seats were similar to what appears in the new Condor product but not quite as nice. There were a lot of issues with the crew (not their fault), as there was a considerable amount of confusion about how they were to operate as a representative of Condor. The food was identical to what I saw in the Condor review here. Both to FRA AND leaving FRA the flights were delayed by more than 30 minutes, due to the communications issues and struggles I just mentioned.

I did have a relaxing flight nonetheless and will continue to book and fly Condor. I typically go to FRA twice a year and this is my preferred airline for flights out of SEA.

I was able to upgrade from Premium to Business for SEA>FRA and FRA>SEA precisely 24 hours before (the moment online check-in was available) for only $200 to FRA and $250 from FRA. The initial cost for Business was $3k each way, but I paid around $1100 total. Worth it, even if Air Belgium was substituted both ways. See my comment to Christian below about my basic experience.

Looks like they’ve lowered pricing on some routes. I’m flying Friday and just got the Prime seat for $210. Totally in it for the striped pajamas.