Avoid Condor
Prós: If you are not from Germany, please, avoid at all costs Condor airlines. They have managed to create an industrial scale chain of customer mistreatment. Went from Rio to Frankfurt and back with them. I'll do my best effort to describe what I went through.
1) Their web site is outrageously unhelpful. Bought my tickets from a third party search engine as it seamed like a great deal. Even though you get yourself a code (six digits letters and numbers), it'll be of no use since you are not able to book your seats in advance, book meals nor entertainment and not even buy yourself a premium class upgrade. Their website won't accept your code, and if you choose the option "bought with another agency", guess what, most engines won't be on their list;
2) Check in opens 2h before takeoff. You'll have a window of opportunity here to get an upgrade to premium. Tricky part is you'll have to pay what they call "the Airport rate" for upgrade, which is €90,00, even though you didn't have the chance to do it before, because their site wouldn't allow you to.
As my final destination in Europe was Prague, connecting flight was done by Lufthansa. When I was going back to Brazil Lufthansa again was the company for the connecting flight from Prague to Frankfurt. Now this time I couldn't upgrade my seat to premium, as Lufthansa was not allowed to. Tried to do it at the gate, but it was already sold out. Never had a chance, neither online nor at the airport as my tickets were bought in Brazil and some how you end up getting some sort of xenophobic deal;
3) Comfort in the so called Premium class is pretty much what you will find in most serious airlines. Economy class is ridiculous. A flight from Frankfurt to Rio takes around 11hours and on economy class you won't get the smallest amount of comfort necessary to sleep and I'm not complaining of space here (I could fit with my 178cm height). What I mean is seats are hard and won't do any, I mean ANY degree of reclining. As a doctor I can assure you this is not at all healthy for your lumbar spine and the least you'll get is lumbar pain, as I did. I wonder if Condor airlines' values involve transporting people with dignity.
4) Entertainment is fully available for premium and business class. There are around 30 movies and 4000 musics available for your choice. On economy you get two movies and two TV shows, but they don't come from the same set of premium entertainment. Movies available were Frozen and The Older Women (not so good if you are a male adult, right?). TV shows: 1 episode of Tintin and 1 episode of 1997 The Nanny. Entertainment upgrade can be bought after takeoff for €8,00. It is not so bothersome as you can upload something to your smartphone and watch, as there is an USB port available for recharging it.
They won't offer you a headphone on economy, but they'll sell you one for €3,50. Just bring your own.
Contras: 5) Meals as you can imagine are different. Premium meals involve a 3 dish menu (starter, main and dessert). On economy it is a regular plane meal with a twist, no animal protein. Economy meals are pretty much a whole bunch of carbs, mostly simple starch, and that may be so because it is surely cheaper, but also (and I do hope it is not the case for that would be amazingly vile) starches are digest much faster and create a insulin peak, what really matters is that you start feeling hungry a lot earlier and, guess what, they sell snacks on bord.
Once again, you can buy a meal upgrade for economy class up to 24h before the flight, on their website, which means that you can't, as your reservation number won't work anyway. Should you have any restrictions the best advice I can think of is bringing your own food.
6) Staff politeness was almost not an issue except for this one flight attendant that felt free enough to mess with my objects. For instance, instead of simply asking me to disconnect my headphone from the screen for landing, she just pull it of the socket and threw it on my lap without saying any word, even though I'm pretty able to speak/understand English and some German as well. Surely one can't blame individual attitude on a corporation, but corporations may be blamed for keeping such individuals on their staff. Information regarding passport control/immigration and customs in Brazil was confusing and some non-German and non-English speaking passengers were left in the dark.
Curious fact was this flight attendant being extremely courteous to this guy, saying that she used to date a Brazilian man and how she believes that thay can't be trusted as they are too seductive.
Conclusion: this is a matter of maths. In order to have a minimally comfortable flight just ad €180,00 (arround R$650,00) to your tickets price. If any airline offers you a price within this range, don't hesitate, buy it from the other airline. Avoid Condor airlines at all costs.
I hope that this comprehensive review helps you on your decision. What I do hope (as I'm pro market person) is that it's prices force other companies to lower their fares, that's the only good we can get from Condor and I mean it, I'll be happy to pay extra €180,00, maybe €200,00 and fly with ANY other airline, but Condor.
