Ndebele From Germany, joined Apr 2001, 2893 posts, RR: 34 Posted (4 years 2 months 6 days 11 hours ago) and read 7726 times:
After longer time without any flights, it was time again for a short break in the sunny south - as some of you know, I hate the German winter. So I booked a flight on Condor STR-MUC-TFS (or so I thought...), two nights on Tenerife, and the return flight TFS-STR on TUIfly.I paid 59 Euro all-inclusive on Condor, and 149 Euro all-inclusive for the return on TUIfly. You simply don't get any 19EUR tickets to the Canarys...
STR-MUC
DE 1006
03 December 2007
STD: 06:20 ATD: 06:20/06:30
STA: 07:10 ATA: 07:07/07:10
A320-200
Seat: 31A
Number of passengers: about 150
D-AICI
Built and delivered to Condor Berlin: January 2001
As I had luggage to check, I decided to use the late-night check-in the evening before departure. Two agents arrived on-time at 18:00, and after five minutes it was my turn to check in. A friendly male agent asked me for my seat preferrences, and I got my boarding passes. But wait, what's that? STR-MUC and MUC-FUE? I was confused, thought the agent had made a mistake. But no... errrm... well... you know.... believe it or not, I had really mixed up those Canary Islands when I booked the flights. Stupid, I know, but what could I do? I found myself with a reservation to Fuerteventura, but a hotel on Tenerife as well as a return flight from Tenerife. Quite unfavourable combination. I asked if I could get my luggage back, as I would search for any alternatives, be it a re-booking STR-TFS, or an island-hopper ticket FUE-TFS.
Back at home, I found out that Binter only serves FUE-TFN, and even this flight was quite expensive. TUIfly's website was down, Air Berlin didn't have any flights available, IB and JK via MAD were even more expensive. So all I could do was booking a new ticket MUC-TFS, booked 8 hours before departure on Condor's website - 179 Euro, this was certainly hard for me, but more or less the only alternative.
The next morning I arrived at the airport at 05:15 and proceeded again to the Condor check-in counters, where four agents were waiting for passengers - STR-MUC was apparently the only Condor departure that morning. I informed them about my new travel plans (I had my baggage reduced to a carry-on item). As my reservation had been made only hours before, they couldn't find my name for the MUC-TFS flight, I would have get this boarding card at MUC, which was fine for me. So I went to my gate 337, where boarding started as indicated 30 minutes before departure.
It was still dark outside, so that's the explanation why I didn't take any photos on the first flight.
This flight was quite full, I would guess about 150 passengers, maybe more. The seats were quite comfortable:
Doors were closed, and as we were pushing back, we could follow it on the screens, filmed by Condor's nosegear camera. One of the four female flight attendants made a welcome announcement, followed by a welcome from the cockpit: "Weather in Munich is just about the same as here in Stuttgart - it's dark, cold, stormy and raining. But you don't have to worry about that, as all of you have connections to some sunnier places." Very true.
Inside the seat pocket, there were not only inflight-magazine, safety card and airsicknessbag, but also a leaflet about how environmentally-friendly aircraft have become over the years, and that flying is not the big clima killer as the media try to make us believe...
Soon we took off from runway 25, made a 180 degree turn to the left and off we were on our way to MUC. The flights attendants came around with a very basic drink service, the choice was between water and orange juice. I had an orange juice. This basic drinks service was fine for this very short flight. Soon we approached and landed on MUC's runway 26R, parked on a remote parking position and were bussed to the terminal building.
MUC-TFS
03 December 2007
STD: 08:35 ATD: 08:35/08:48
STA: 12:30 ATA: 12:03/12:07
A320-200
Seat: 18D (changed myself to 31A)
D-AICJ
Built and delivered to Condor Berlin in February 2001
The Condor hub consisted of, let me guess, about 10 aircraft, A320s and B757s. As I didn't have a boarding card yet for my connection, and all Condor departures were located in the same part of the terminal, I expected that I wouldn't have to leave the gate area. I asked the next-best employee if there's a Condor transfer desk. "No", she replied, "you'll have to go to the check-in and get your boarding card there!". A moment later I found the Condor transfer desk
"Yeah, Beavis, Lexware rules, errm... errrm....!" The Lexware recycling center, and in the background the Condor transfer desk:
Two friendly AHS agents, one of them checked me in. Unfortunately there were no more window seats available, so I got 18D. As I had about 20 minutes until the indicated boarding time, I walked a bit around.
D-ABLA, newly-delivered Air Berlin B737-700:
Gate A34, where my flight would be boarding anytime soon:
Boarding started on-time, we were welcomed by the four female f/as. Free newspapers and magazines were available at the aircraft door, quite a huge selection. I took my seat 18D. A passenger asked me if I would change my seat, in order to allow him to sit next to his travel mate. Fine for me, I took 22D. This flight was quite full again, but when boarding was completed, I noticed that the whole last row had remained empty (about the only empty seats on the whole aircraft). I asked the crew if I could take one of those seats. This row is normally kept empty for the crew, but as they didn't mind, I took seat 31A again, with the two seats next to me empty. Great.
Taxiing for take-off:
Take-off from runway 26L:
Soon after take-off, the pilots informed us about our routing, which was MUC - FDH - GVA - LYS - TLS - MAD - SVQ - ACE - LPA - TFS. Flight time would be about 4:30 hours. It amazes me each time I fly to the Canary islands, a 4.5 hours flight, yet this is still EU.
The Ammersee:
The cabin crew informed us about the service on this flight. They would soon serve a hot breakfast. Then they'd sell headphoned, 3EUR IIRC. The main movie today would be the Simpsons movie. Later they'd come around with duty-free items.
As promised, a hot breakfast was served, consisting of scremled eggs with paprika, sausage, a roll, butter, ham, cheese, jam, a yoghurt and some chocolate.
All in all very tasty. Condor's whole onboard service is still outstanding: a tasty hot meal, and four drink services throughout the flight. Not bad, definitely more than I had expected.
The entertainment system was started. Unfortunately, the radio channels didn't seem to work - not only on my seat, but in the whole aircraft. But at least channels 1 and 2 for the movie (German and English) worked. After some music videos (Avril Lavigne, Justin Timberlake), they showed one episode "King of Queens". Then back to the airshow, then some Pink Panther. The "Simpsons" movie was started only about 2.5 hours after take-off. Again a big thumbs-up for the selection of the onboard program, as I enjoy watching both The Simpsons and King of Queens.
Unfortunately it was overcast throughout most of the flight. Message to myself: Don't wear white T-Shirts when flying, they reflect in the window when taking photos. Anyway, some shots during approach.
A very small island north of Lanzarote:
Lanzarote:
Approaching TFS:
From left to right: TUIfly, Air Greenland, MyTravel Denmark:
Our aircraft after landing:
Air Berlin opb Belair:
The end of a very nice flight on Condor. As long as they're not delayed (I have heard several stories of *long* delays late), they're still my favourite German holiday airline. I just hope they won't become part of Air Berlin!
I took the taxi to my hotel and spent two very nice days on this beutiful, sunny island!
TFS-STR
05 December 2007
STD: 10:30 ATD: 10:30/10:35
STA: 15:50 ATA: 15:35/15:40
B737-800
Seat: 28F (as pre-reserved, cost me 8 Euros, I think)
Number of passengers: about 180
D-AHFO
Built and delivered to Hapag-Lloyd in April 2000
Aircraft was in HLX livery:
I arrived at the airport by taxi by 8:10am. Counters were supposed to open at 08:30, and they did. Five(!) counters for all TUIfly departures, however the next TUIfly departure after our flight was a flight to FRA by noon. So it didn't take long until one of the agents in Iberia-uniform checked me in and assigned me my pre-reserved seat 28F.
After buying some cigarettes for a friend (which are much cheaper in Spain), I went through security. The gate area was really empty:
Our gate to STR:
We saw D-AHFO landing at 09:25. On-time at 10:00, boarding via the jetway was started. At the aircraft door, we were welcomed by the cabin crew, consisting of three males and one female. Some newspapers and magazines were offered, yet the selection didn't come anywhere close to what was offered by Condor. I took my seat 28F and waited for the cabin to fill up. This time all seats in my row were taken, so the space was very limited. The new, quite uncomfortable Recaro seats didn't help either. As there was no such thing as a seat pocket, I had to take my camera into my hands. Later after take-off, I placed it on the floor.
We were pushed back and took off:
Soon after take-off, meals were served. Consisting of scrambled eggs with tomato and ham, potatoes. Some pieces of orange. A roll and a piece of chocolate desert. The hot meal and the fruits were okay. But when serving a roll, how about at least serving some butter - leave alone ham, cheese or jam? Not on TUIfly. Also the desert didn't taste very well.
The quantity of drinks on this flight was far below Condor. They came around twice throughout the whole flight. But at least they were busy selling duty-free items, they sold very much on this flight. I guess the duty-free sale is always more popular on the return flight.
Our routing:
The cabin crew made ann announcement that soon the inflight entertainment system would be started. Headphones were offered for 2.50 EUR. Fortunaltely, I had borrowed my brother's TUIfly headphones which he had bought on his recent trip to Egypt. If I had spent any money in this annoying entertainment offered on thsi flight, I would have gone mad. As for the main movie, there was a movie with Antonio Banderas ("Dance! Jeder Traum beginnt mit dem ersten Schritt"). Come on, TUIfly, what were you thinking?! Additional video entertainment was offered in form of a making-of of Justin Timberlake's new video, which was so interesting. NOT! An outstanding selection of three(!) audio channels, one of them kids' program, one channel with unfunny comedy ("Der kleine Nils"), and the "TUIfly Schlagerradio" on the third channel. This onboard entertainment was simply bad! At least the view outside was stunning.
Portugal:
The Pyrenees:
Please help my identifying this unknown airport. It was somewhere southwest of Geneva. Could it be LYS? I don't know:
The Alps:
Lake Constance:
The Schwaebische Alb near Muensingen:
The city of Esslingen:
We landed on runway 25 and parked on a remote parking postition. We were bussed to Terminal 1 (which is unusual for TUIfly arrivals), and I headed straight to the train station to get my next train home. The end of a short trip to warmer climates.
Conclusion
All flights were on-time. Even though checking the holiday airlines' websites frequently, I had to find out that there were no 29EUR tickets available. Condor's 57EUR offer was a real bargain - and I can't blame Condor if I'm too stupid to book my flight properly, resulting in a 179EUR re-booking. TUIfly's 149 Euro fare was about the cheapest return flight I could get for this date. All in all, no cheaper flights available, I guess those are the routes were our holiday airlines still earn money.
Condor's whole on-board product was just excellent. TUIfly was on-time and friendly - but that's it. They just didn't come close to Condor when it comes to meals, drinks, entertainment etc. TUIfly was still okay, but whenever I have the choice, I would always prefer flying on Condor. Let's just hope this airlines keeps flying and won't become another "Air Berlin - operated by..." carrier.
Hope you enjoyed my report, and if you did, feel free to reply. I'm looking forward to reading was you think about it. Regards, Alex.
PlaneHunter From Germany, joined Mar 2006, 5122 posts, RR: 80 Reply 1, posted (4 years 2 months 6 days 10 hours ago) and read 7678 times:
Servus Alex,
good to see you back here again! Very entertaining report with great pics!
Quoting Ndebele (Thread starter): The flights attendants came around with a very basic drink service, the choice was between water and orange juice.
Interesting that they serve any drinks on such a short flight.
Quoting Ndebele (Thread starter): I asked the next-best employee if there's a Condor transfer desk. "No", she replied, "you'll have to go to the check-in and get your boarding card there!". A moment later I found the Condor transfer desk
Quoting Ndebele (Thread starter): All in all very tasty. Condor's whole onboard service is still outstanding: a tasty hot meal, and four drink services throughout the flight. Not bad, definitely more than I had expected.
That meals looks really good. What a difference between DE and X3.
Airbuseric From Netherlands, joined Jan 2005, 3551 posts, RR: 51 Reply 2, posted (4 years 2 months 6 days 9 hours ago) and read 7637 times:
Hi there ,
what a great report. Indeed not very smart to book a wrong flight but OK, when the TFS-FUE flight wasn't an expensive option, it would've turned out OK and interesting for you. Now you didn't have much else to do
I see DE is indeed a good airline. I might try them someday, as the B753 is still very high on my to do list, and DE is by far the only easy option for me.
X3. Yes about the Recaro seats, they're not the best on the market, but in general I like the TUIfly interiour on the aircraft. I see your pics and no 'TUI-smile' on the winglet ? Usually such a smile is visible from inside the cabin too, IIRC.
Interesting to see the meals too, for free. So on longer flights, X3 still offeres a different product then on the short city-flights in Germany and Europe?
Thanks for sharing, well done!
Gruß
Eric
"The whole world steps aside for the man who knows where he is going"
DALCE From Netherlands, joined Feb 2007, 1462 posts, RR: 13 Reply 3, posted (4 years 2 months 6 days 8 hours ago) and read 7575 times:
Hi Alex,
Good to see you back flying and writing!
I fully agree with you that DE offers a very good service, I have flown them FRA-PMI-FRA on the 753 and it was a very good trip. Have had worse flights with carriers like KL or LH.
Although you made a costly mistake, I hope you enjoyed your stay anyway.
Hope to read more about your flying-adventures soon.
Gruss.
Joost ( D-ALCE )
flown on : F50,F70,CR1,CR2,CR9,E75,143,AR8,AR1,733,735,736,73G,738,753,744,319,320,321,AB6. Next flights AMS-ZRH-AMS on
Contact Air From Germany, joined Apr 2001, 1154 posts, RR: 16 Reply 5, posted (4 years 2 months 5 days 23 hours ago) and read 7241 times:
Hi Alex,
really entertaining report and great pics. I especially liked the one when crossing the Pyrenees. Also Tenerife looks nice with its interesting landscape and the high mountains.
Quoting Ndebele (Thread starter): Two friendly AHS agents, one of them checked me in.
This is interesting: I had expected that DE is still handled by their "mother" LH.
Quoting Ndebele (Thread starter): Let's just hope this airlines keeps flying and won't become another "Air Berlin - operated by..." carrier.
I totally agree. For me, DE is still by far the best holiday airline in Germany, and your experiences have once again proved this. Their on-board service is fantastic and the meal on MUC-TFS looks really good.
Interesting. Never heard of this island before, but I think you have been travelling to the Canaries frequently, so I guess you know the islands. And you wouldn't mix them up
Quoting Airbuseric (Reply 2): see your pics and no 'TUI-smile' on the winglet ? Usually such a smile is visible from inside the cabin too, IIRC.
That's right, but my aircraft was still in HLX livery, so that's why the winglets haven't been repainted yet either.
Quoting DALCE (Reply 3): I have flown them FRA-PMI-FRA on the 753
Yes, they're a popular airline for those wishing to fly on the 753. Which is a great aircraft, I'm sure you agree.
Quoting FLIEGER67 (Reply 4): No online check-in at DE, that´s quite annoying
I guess I wouldn't have done online check-in anyway. I always prefer to use the staffed counters for check-in.
Quoting Contact Air (Reply 5): This is interesting: I had expected that DE is still handled by their "mother" LH.
Now that you mention it, I'm surprised about the choice of handling agent, too.
DALCE From Netherlands, joined Feb 2007, 1462 posts, RR: 13 Reply 7, posted (4 years 2 months 5 days 5 hours ago) and read 7018 times:
Quoting Ndebele (Reply 6): Yes, they're a popular airline for those wishing to fly on the 753. Which is a great aircraft, I'm sure you agree.
I surely do, although back then I was less aviation minded than now. Main purpose was transport to and from my holiday destination. But a very nice addition for the log.
Now I still have to secure the 752 which is not yet covered in my log.
Gruss,
Joost ( D-ALCE )
flown on : F50,F70,CR1,CR2,CR9,E75,143,AR8,AR1,733,735,736,73G,738,753,744,319,320,321,AB6. Next flights AMS-ZRH-AMS on
BA319-131 From United Kingdom, joined Jan 2001, 7749 posts, RR: 57 Reply 9, posted (4 years 2 months 3 days 12 hours ago) and read 6832 times:
Hi Alex, nice report and good to see you flying again
Quoting Ndebele (Thread starter): I paid 59 Euro all-inclusive on Condor, and 149 Euro all-inclusive for the return on TUIfly.
-Wow, the Condor fare is very good.
Quoting Ndebele (Thread starter): But wait, what's that? STR-MUC and MUC-FUE? I was confused, thought the agent had made a mistake. But no... errrm... well... you know.... believe it or not, I had really mixed up those Canary Islands when I booked the flights. Stupid, I know
- How, in all your years of travelling?
Quoting Ndebele (Thread starter): All in all very tasty. Condor's whole onboard service is still outstanding: a tasty hot meal, and four drink services throughout the flight. Not bad, definitely more than I had expected.
- That actually looks pretty good.
Quoting Ndebele (Thread starter): Message to myself: Don't wear white T-Shirts when flying, they reflect in the window when taking photos.
- Ah, I don't wear white when travelling just in case I spill something.
Quoting Ndebele (Thread starter): Soon after take-off, meals were served. Consisting of scrambled eggs with tomato and ham, potatoes. Some pieces of orange. A roll and a piece of chocolate desert. The hot meal and the fruits were okay. But when serving a roll, how about at least serving some butter - leave alone ham, cheese or jam? Not on TUIfly. Also the desert didn't taste very well
TriStar500 From Germany, joined Nov 1999, 4672 posts, RR: 52 Reply 10, posted (4 years 2 months 3 days 8 hours ago) and read 6797 times:
A very interesting and - dare I say - highly entertainment read, even if the entertainment value might be in part because of the wrong reasons.
It was interesting to read about your comparison of two of our few remaining leisure carriers and I have to agree with your assessment that DE beats X3 hands down when it comes to the travel experience. When flying DE, their product still seems to be a bit more quality-minded than the one of their main competitors AB and X3, be it the availability of newspapers, inflight audio and video or catering. The only let-down with DE is the total lack of internet check-in options, but I don't expect that to change in the near future since the airline will unfortunately most likely be merged into the AB borg.
Homer: Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!
Quoting BA319-131 (Reply 9): How, in all your years of travelling?
And it comes even better: I just tried to ask for a refund of the taxes for the unused ticket, but had to realize that I already deleted the eMail with the reservation code. Let's see what Condor does when I'm asking for a refund of a STR-MUC-FUE ticket where the STR-MUC flight is flown and the reservation code is lost...
Quoting TriStar500 (Reply 10): When flying DE, their product still seems to be a bit more quality-minded than the one of their main competitors AB and X3,
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but OK, when the TFS-FUE flight wasn't an expensive option, it would've turned out OK and interesting for you. Now you didn't have much else to do 
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