Review: Condor Business Class A330-900neo (FRA-SEA)

If you were flying them from North America to Frankfurt, would there be any lounge access?

Where would you credit miles?

@ Bitter Proffit -- I'd credit to Alaska Mileage Plan. And yes, Condor offers lounge access to long haul business class passengers, so there are contract lounge arrangements at major US airports.

Awesome, and thanks for the great review. Definitely see good fares tied with Jet Blue.

I’d like to try the new Condor product but fear that it won’t live up to the hype created by blogs such as this. Too often bloggers gush, ooh & ah over every new product as if it were the best product on earth. We’ll see.

@ T- -- I don't think I'm suggesting this is the best product on earth? I point out both the pros and cons. What I am saying is:
-- This compares favorably to Lufthansa, which is impressive, given that this is a leisure airline that only ordered these planes a couple of years ago, while Lufthansa has been talking about its new business class since 2017 (which still isn't available on a single plane)
-- The airline has attractive pricing, so it's nice to see an airline offering value, rather than just a great product
-- This is potentially a great award option, since it's an Alaska Mileage Plan partner not many people may think of
-- It's exciting to see more competition in the premium German aviation market, since it's a market that previously belonged almost exclusively to Lufthansa

Fair?

My last several flights on Lufthansa were abysmal, so I look forward to trying this.

Definitely fair!

Finnair should read this review.

Flew last summer round trip Business from Seattle on Airbus A330 acquired from Etihad. Want to try Condor again with A330 Neo.

I went on by train to Berlin for a few days and returned to Frankfurt to fly out. Frankfurt has good central location for trains to a few European cities.

Hope to do another trip in 2023. Condor offers good alternative to American and British for travel to continental Europe, avoiding Heathrow connection on BA and AA or circuitous AA routing to U.S. departure airport for flight direct to Europe.

Having flown several roundtrips from USA on Condor in business class, I want to offer some cautions in what I have experienced. I was attracted by the good price without needing to worry about trying to find upgrade space and the ability to credit to Alaska and earn elite qualifying miles.

Here are my experiences and cautions:

First the positive: on the A330 planes the hard product was good but not better than other airlines. I flew the ex-Eithad and ex-Singapore A300's. The food was generally good but not great: don't expect it to be any better than on any other airline's business class. On the flights I took staffed by Condor, the flight attendants were good. The flights were generally on time. Like Ben's experience, each of my flights departing Frankfurt didn't start boarding until 30 minutes past the stated boarding time.

But there are a lot of gotcha's when taking Condor, especially if there are connecting segments involved. Condor's website is pretty terrible. Once you have made your reservation, it's essentially impossible to modify anything. Not your frequent flyer number, not your seat assignment, nothing. So anything that needs to change requires a phone call. Actually you can't even enter most of your information. That can't happen until check in. Condor's website doesn't seem to interact well with either Alaska or Lufthansa, where your connecting flights are likely to be. So you won't have confirmation numbers or frequent flyer numbers or seat assignments or upgrade opportunities.

Even though I entered our Alaska numbers at online check in for all our flights, and made sure again at the airport and they were printed on the boarding passes, they only credited on 2 of our 4 Condor long-haul flights, so save all your documents and receipts and be prepared to request credit manually.

In each case departing Europe, Lufthansa wasn't able to issue the Condor boarding pass, so we didn't have a Condor boarding pass on arriving in Frankfurt. Condor doesn't operate a transit counter at FRA airport. So you either need to exit security at FRA, or wait until the gate opens or find another departing Condor flight and hope the agents there will issue your boarding pass. (In one case they were happy to help, in another case they told us to wait for our flight, which means no lounge access until you have your boarding pass.)

We only checked luggage on one of our flights, but the luggage didn't arrive at the U.S. arrival airport, nor did any Condor representative. The lost luggage was due to the Lufthansa originating flight, but we'd given our claim checks to the Condor agent in FRA, but when inside customs and no Condor agent present, we didn't know what to do. You are supposed to clear your luggage at the arrival airport, and no luggage and no agent.

I shudder to think what Condor would be like in the event of serious IRROPS. I think they need to up their game.

One more thing - even when you buy a business class ticket on Condor, you are in coach on the connecting Alaska and Lufthansa segments. This isn't clear in the booking process. And unless you figure out how to get your Alaska number into the reservation, you aren't even on the upgrade list.

Thanks for the review Ben. Like you, my early experiences to Germany were on Condor. For me, though, it was 1978 and the 747-200 from SFO to Frankfurt with a stop in Minneapolis for fuel. Always have had a soft spot for them and glad to see them upping their game - especially now that I live in Seattle.

The service pace was very leisurely on this flight, with the appetizer being served just under two hours after takeoff

You are so in love with German airlines. On numerous occasions you complain about the fact that the meal service is so slow and I didn’t even start until a couple of hours late yet in this review, you think it’s just fabulous that they start the mail service over two hours late.

FU - I think Lucky is usually very clear about his servcie preferences.
On shortish night flights, when all people want is to have dinner and crash - it is very annoying when service takes forever. On a much longer flight, heading to the West Coast, slower service is a lot less annoying.
I think Ben has been quite critical of Lufthansa over the years - especially their ridiculous hype over a non existent product, so suggesting he is in love with German carriers is not quite an acurate represenattion. If anything, I'd say the middle eastern carriers are his faves.

Pedant Alert: The M&M's you are showing are peanut (yellow bag), not peanut butter (red bag).

I am in Germany right now having flown from Seattle to Frankfurt on Condor as well. Condor has always been my choice for the SEA/FRA route. Living in Seattle, this has been the best choice for the last ten years from a price perspective and also the scheduling.

I was so looking forward to this new business class product in seat 1A. The day of the flight I was sent an email that I would be flying on air Brussels instead. So disappointed.

The same food it appears. However the Duval Leroy champagne was switched to the Prosecco after one glass.

We shall see what plane I am on when I return next week. The seat was somewhat narrow as a bed and the staff was…just ok. However, for the price, it is still superior to Lufthansa.

Very helpful review. I didn’t realize Condor was an Alaska partner and I needed to get home from a wedding in Europe. This seems like a great way to go and I managed to find availability. Thanks!

I had a flight swapped out to Wamos Air A330 angled seats about 10 days before flight at which point you don't have many options. Spanish speaking crew. Apparently Condor subcontracts to several charter operators to supplement their own fleet. Another thing to be aware of if you book Condor...you may not get Condor. It was still Condor's catering but not their plane, not their seating, not their flight attendants, not their pilots.

Do shut up and get some rest.

Booked with 55K AK miles for end of July. FRA -OGG via LAS and SFO. All the way in 'J'. Fortunately the only day this was available in July without 'Mixed cabin' was the day I wanted to travel.

Thank you for your review! You have helped this reader set more accurate expectations.

If I've booked a Condor flight from Frankfurt to LAX in June, but it says that the plane will be an Airbus A330-200, what is the likelihood of getting these new seats? Seems strange that they would use the old plane/seats on such a long-haul flight?

Flew Condor Fra-Sea on 5/25 (connecting from Athens). Our checked luggage also didn’t arrive in SEA with us. At least there was a Condor rep by the carousel in arrivals, who had us fill out a form after waiting for our bag for an hour (!). Husband smartly got her contact information, which included a screenshot of her private iPhone with interface in Mandarin. Very odd, Condor must be subcontracting their ground services to a 3rd party. We got no updates on the search for our bag for the next FOUR days. Finally, after calling the number they delivered our bag to our home, to our great relief. Overall, less than professional impression. Next time, will strongly consider flying with only a carry on.

Thank you for the write up. I'm am flying this leg today and was worried about the experience. I'm more at ease.

Oh man. What a bummer. So much for a fantastic new product. Booked a business class round trip ticket Seattle to Frankfurt. Sitting on the plane right now before take off.

With zero communication they flew an old borrowed airplane instead of the scheduled A330 neo. As a result they moved 10 passengers from business to economy. And the new aircraft has no premium economy so all premium economy lost their legroom.

Massive letdown losing my business class prime window seat and being moved into an economy middle seat for a 10 hour flight!! Passengers are angry and flight attendants aren’t prepared to answer any questions.

I called to book a Prime seat today. It now costs $600. This would be for the SEA-FRA route.

That is horrific

Ben would there be any arrival lounge access flying to Fra from JFK?