Condor is a German leisure airline owned by Thomas Cook Group. The big difference from other airlines in the group is that Condor sells tickets individually, and even reasonably priced one-ways.
If you live in the biggest US cities such as Los Angeles and New York, chances are you aren’t familiar with Condor since their US network is quite unusual. They fly to Anchorage, Fairbanks, Portland and Baltimore, among other cities.
I like that they choose to go into underserved markets, as opposed to launching flights to destinations where they have half a dozen competitors. Last year, the airline announced new flights to San Diego, New Orleans and Pittsburgh. The first two just launched this past week, and I had the pleasure of joining one of the inaugural flights.
The seasonal flights operate thrice weekly to San Diego and twice weekly to New Orleans, with different schedules every day. My flight from New Orleans was scheduled to depart at 8:00pm local time and arrive in Frankfurt at 12:45pm the following day.
All the routes will be operated by their 767-300 with 259 seats. Flights can now be booked from $349 one-way in economy and ~$880 in business. I’ll be posting my review of the flight in Condor Business Class shortly, so stay tuned for that.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of these new routes for those of us who are miles and points geeks is that Condor recently partnered with Alaska’s Mileage Plan. Flights in business earn 300% redeemable miles without elite status. That’s an incredible return, especially since the flights are relatively cheap. While it’s not yet possible, we should soon be able to book award tickets on Condor through Alaska as well. Three new destinations and 1000+ new seats per week will certainly be helpful when looking for award space.
Have you flown Condor before? Will these new routes be useful to you?
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