Part IV: Flying Q-Suites home supposedly… Not really… Condor on the rescue… An unexpected flight to Frankfurt on an Excellent German leisure airline on Business Class
I was supposed to fly back to Hong Kong on Qatar Airways from Montreal to Hong Kong via Doha on October 22 Friday. My original plan was to spend October 21 doing two domestic flights on one new airline – Flair Airlines from YUL to YYZ, and then one airline, Porter airlines from Toronto City to Montreal, which has just resumed service. Then I will have a nice afternoon in Toronto before taking Friday easy, given the long layover at Doha and a dreadful 14 days hotel quarantine in Hong Kong. Of course on the Sunday afternoon prior to my return flight, I came across the news that Qatar Airways was once again forced to suspend service for 14 days because more than four passengers arriving on Qatar tested positive on arrival in seven days. I am not going to debate why such a rule is set up to begin with but my issue is with how Qatar (and apparently many airlines) handles the cancelation.
First, Qatar really has a poor IT system and can’t even rebook my cancelled flights properly. The suspension was supposed to last until November 1, but they decide to rebook me for November 7, despite November 1’s DOH-HKG flight was wide-opened with seats on my original booking class. To add insult to the stupid arbitrary date change, they did not realize that QR 818 departs at 2am and there are two days gap between my two connecting flights. So the rebooking was out of sequence with November 7 DOH-HKG showed up first and November 6 YUL-DOH showed up next, as the computer did not know how to reconcile a flight that departs prior to the arrival of a flight that departs the day before.
It should be rebooked Nov 6 QR 763 DOH-YUL 2115 1445+1 (Nov 8 arrival) connect to Nov 8 QR 818 DOH-HKG 0225 1445. Of course, I could not even change the date or ask for a refund online because the ticket was out of sequence. I tried to get a phone number from Qatar’s website and of course, the number was not the correct one listed on the general website. The voicemail I called was poorly recorded so it took me thirty minutes to realize that I needed to go to Qatar’s Canadian website to get the right phone number. Despite being connected to their Indian call center anyway, the phone number did not work on the weekends and only between 9am and 7pm EST on weekdays. Or else you will have to call long distance to Qatar. Since I am connected to India anyway, why don’t the toll-free numbers running 24/7. Updating your main website with the correct phone number is really not much to ask. Twitter is even worse and I did not get a reply from a supposedly 24/7 helpline till 5 days later. I just tweeted back “apology was not accepted”! When I finally called them on Monday morning, I was told that they would not rebook me on any other connecting flight. I proposed a YUL-DOH-ICN-HKG flight, since it was still mostly QR flight with a connection on a CX flight. I would even buy a separate ticket on the ICN-HKG flight if it is permissible. But the agent at Ahmedabad basically told me “no, no and no”. She was not rude but just indifferent. She told me that I either could rebook for a future travel (good for another year) or seek a refund, but she could not tell me how much I could get back. Thankfully I actually have a backup plan for worse cast scenario. I knew that CX has a flight from FRA to HKG on Saturday (only weekly flight now) and getting from YYZ to FRA is easy, as Condor has resumed service and Iceland Air flight has also resumed flight to Toronto. Germany is on Hong Kong’s B list so there will be no change to my quarantine dates. The main problem with rebooking is that I can’t change my quarantine hotel because there are just impossible to change. Qatar Airways is so unhelpful and really leaves you on the dark. If I am not well researched on my option, I will truly be screwed. As of now, I have a return ticket to use for end of March and only hope that Qatar will do better now or Hong Kong government will cancel this illogical “suspend an airline for something that they have little control over with” rule. In the end, the government punished the passengers, not the airlines. Qatar still runs the daily flight, but just carries cargo on the inbound flight to HKG. Most airlines indeed maintain service. They just carry cargo on the flights into HKG. My thought remains the same with Qatar Airways – It excels on the air, but when it comes to ground service and irregular operation, it is the world’s worse with agents no authorized to do anything. I heard that Qatar is stop taking passengers from certain countries now on its DOH-HKG flights but let see if they can avoid being suspended again. For my March 28 return, let keep my fingers crossed. The quarantine will not relax in Hong Kong anytime soon but hopefully that suspension rule will be cancelled after the Winter Olympics is over.
In the end, I settle on Condor’s business class because it is nonstop from Toronto. I had an Air Canada ticket from YVR to YUL with a confirmed upgrade to business class on an A330. If I change that flight to Toronto, I will lose my upgrade and have to pay more. It is just easier to book a new ticket from YUL to YYZ on Air Canada, since I have some old credits that I can use. While Condor’s business class is not the world’s best, I find their business class to be quite good. I know Iceland Air is serving only cold meals now and let’s be honest, they are not great to begin with. Condor at least has a proper lie flat seats (despite old generation of angled lie flat seats) and its onboard service remains good. I am not disappointed in the end, except the arrival experience.
October 21, 2021; Thursday
DE 2403 YYZ-FRA Lv1810 Arr0810+1 Boeing 767-300ER Winglet D-ABUP [Old livery]
Album link: https://photobucket.com/u/Carfield76/a/ ... bcc42238a6
Check-in:
Check-in opened exactly four hours prior to our departure time. Despite being overseas, the staffs were already getting ready when I arrived at the area around 1:45pm. Condor uses desk 501-508 this afternoon and there were three separate lines – one for business, one for premium, and one for economy. The flights were pretty full but I notice that many passengers arrived from various Canadian cities on WestJet. I saw a long queue of passengers requiring a document check at the gate. It is also cute that my boarding pass on Condor is printed on a WestJet boarding pass stock. The agent was very friendly and entry to Germany was fairly straightforward for fully-vaccinated passengers. They just need to check your vaccination card and there is no test requirement from Canada (as of October, 2021). My bags were tagged and my check in bag was also weighed and tagged with an “approved” sticker. It was a very efficient and friendly check in process.
Not a terrible busy day here at Terminal Three, but there are more transatlantic flights operating now.
Security was not terribly busy despite there were a few transatlantic flights operating this afternoon; however, they were slow as many European passengers were not understanding the system here in Canada. Despite flying in and out of so many times, I honestly am still confused at times. I was in the secured area within a short period of time.
In terms of lounges, Condor has a contract with Air France Lounge, and yes, Condor provides a daily list of eligible passengers to the Air France Lounge. I did not take any interior pictures because the lounge was super busy. There was a KLM flight departing around 4pm, and then Air France flight later.
Here is the list of carriers using the Air France lounge as of October 2021:
For those who are curious about the Plaza Premium lounge located next door, it is now reopened but only to British Airways and Cathay Pacific passengers. For WestJet international passengers, you have to use the lounge located at its domestic pier near gate B11, and there are clear signs at the top level.
Like most Canadian lounges, there is no longer a buffet and these poor staffs have to serve passengers both food and drinks. Folks really like to drink here, but at least they have three staffs handling the nonstop queues. Honestly, I felt really bad for the staffs, and given that everyone is fully vaccinated now, we really can go back to semi-buffet style. Even a strict place like Hong Kong has already restarted buffets. Maybe the lounge just offers canned drinks, bottled waters and even small bottled wines for now, so there are less queues taking up spaces. For me, the best part of the lounge is the large window overlook the apron. Toronto Pearson airport is still fairly busy so there are planes to look at.
I was so happy to spot this KLM’s Boeing 787-10 and too bad the sunlight wasn’t working for me when it got pushed back.
This WestJet Boeing 787 had just arrived from Vancouver and would head to London Gatwick later in the evening.
Frankfurt Airport had issues earlier in the day because of high winds and many flights therefore departed late. Our inbound had a two hours delay at Frankfurt and it did not park at gate until 5:28pm.
Condor Boeing 767-300ER D-ABUP
Gate C31 was really not that great in terms of space, especially on a full flight that was delayed with no boarding time listed.
Condor really did a really bad job in keeping passengers informed about delays. The gate was getting more crowded as we had our departure time including the new time listed on the board passed. The crew finally showed up around 6:30pm but then there was the safety check. In the end, boarding finally started at 7pm.
Two flight attendants were welcoming passengers at the door, as well as checking the masks wore by everyone. If you wore a cloth type covering, they would give you a real surgical mask to change to. They were pretty strict with the use of surgical masks and asked passengers to request for a new one if the one that they were using were soiled for whatever reasons. The two F/As serving business class were very professional and I like their serving style. They were attentive without being intrusive. I was impressed with the service during the flight.
The obligated cabin shot – sorry for the imperfect pictures, as someone was already seated in 1AC, so I could not take a better picture capturing the full cabin. However there are plenty of Condor business class pictures around in the Internet. This configuration featured only three rows of business class.
1HK – blocked for crew rest on long haul flights
At each seat, there was already a pillow, blanket and an amenity kit. Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of the amenity kit, which was a travel mug with the usual amenities in the middle. Since I am in the midst of quarantine, the amenity kit was hidden somewhere. I will add pictures of the amenity kit if I can locate it. But honestly, it is a cute amenity kit, which fits Condor’s leisure airline image. Anyway, what impressed me the most is the use of real glasses for the pre-takeoff service. There was a choice of orange juice or champagne, and the F/A was pretty proactive in refiling our glasses.
Menu and wine list
By the time I booked this ticket, there were only two aisle seats – 1G or 2H – left with 1HK blocked for crew rest. Of course I picked 1G, a middle aisle seat. Plus it was a full cabin so I did not take any more pictures of the cabin or seats for the rest of the flight.
Door was closed at 7:35pm and we pushed back at 7:41pm. Before pushing back, the pilot apologized for the delay because of weather situation earlier at Frankfurt, which resulted in the late arrival of the plane. We took off from R/W23 at 7:53pm. Our flying time this evening was seven hours and twenty-nine minutes. Here is a photo of our routing this evening with an initial cruising altitude of 35,000ft and later we climbed to 37,000ft before leaving the Canadian coast.
Another thing that impressed me about Condor was its branding – you really can’t miss the “Condor Business Class” everywhere from the table placemat to the wine glass.
Another aspect that I like was the extensive service throughout the flight that is sort of “old school” but reminds me of a real premium product. Covid-19 did not give them an excuse to cut back, and it truly makes American, Delta and United’s transatlantic premium products bad with their silly one tray meals. I could not believe that the first service that they did was passing out magazines. Yes, they had an extensive selection of German and English magazines. There was a beverage service first with real glasses, but yes, it was served with a bag of packaged almonds (but if I remember correctly, they served packaged mixed nuts too even before Covid-19).
Here is their full wine list:
Champagne
Champagne DUVAL-LEROY, Brut Reserve, France
White Wine
Wine Estate Motzenbäcker
Riesling Royal “Der Löwe,” Germany
NAU MAI
Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand
Red Wine
Tank No. 32
Primitivo, Italy
Monte Da Ravasqueira, Cuvée, Portugal
Full dinner menu:
Starter
Sliced raw tuna with aioli, cucumber and sesame seeds
Turmeric chicken breast with curried chickpea salad and mango yogurt dressing
Seasonal Salad with feta cheese and cranberry raspberry vinaigrette
Main course of your choice
Beef short ribs with yam potato mash, squash and asparagus
Or
Miso style Ling codfish, lemon beurre blanc, carrots and Korean rice
Or
Our Vegetarian specialty
Lasagna, béchamel and tomato sauce, green asparagus
Assorted cheese
Gouda, Blue cheese, Vesper cheese
From the bread basket
Bread Roll Butter
Dessert
Cheesecake
Coffee Tea Digestif
After beverage service, fresh linen was placed on top of each table, and the first course was passed out with duo appetizers, salad, and the cheese plate. Of course, the extensive bread basket featuring various bread rolls, soft pretzels, and sliced brown breads – carrot & pumpkin seed made its rounds during both starter and main course. Beverage trolley always made its appearance after each course was served.
After the starter tray was collected, main course was then served. The beef short ribs were really good. The meat was flavorful and tender, and the portion was generous. The meal was really good.
The meal ended with a dessert service – a strawberry cheesecake was served with tea/coffee/digestive service.
I had a cup of green tea to go with my cheesecake.
After dinner service was completed, bottled waters were passed out. They did a duty-free service, which was sort of rare in Covid-19 time. I was surprised on how much stuff especially cartons of cigarettes passengers bought. Personal TV was available with the usual array of televisions and movies. There is no WIFI service for those who want to know. I just went to sleep.
When I woke up in the middle of the night, I saw a small refreshment counter with bottled waters, juices, potato chips and almonds set up in the galley.
I got a bottle of water and another bag of raw almonds for snacking.
Breakfast was served at 1:50am Toronto/7:50am Frankfurt time, and while there was no choice, the breakfast was nice with a variety of cold dishes and a warmed scrambled egg dish, along with the bread basket featuring croissants and sourdough rolls.
Breakfast
Fresh fruits in season
Salami Ham Cheddar Cheese
Scrambled eggs, grilled tomato, bacon
Bread Roll Croissant
Butter Jam Honey Nutella
Coffee Tea
Freshly Squeezed orange juice
Descent began at 8:45am Frankfurt time, and I asked the purser permission to move to 1K for landing, since the pilot went back to the cockpit for landing. He said yes and I got to snap a few nice pictures on arrival.
We landed on R/W25R at 9:22am and it took us forever to taxi to our remote parking spot at the other end of the airport next to Terminal Two.
I felt really bad for the nervous passengers especially the long taxi and being parked at a remote parking spot V114. The purser tried to make the situation better by asking everyone to stay seated, while she called out passengers heading to a couple destinations with no more flights operating for the rest of the day. Then business class passengers were asked to deplane. Honestly the arrival experience was really horrible. Those passengers with tight connections were still inside the bus when we deplaned. Sadly, Condor felt that it was a good idea in cramping as many people in a bus, just like before. Immigration was an okay experience but the wait for the bags was unpleasant. The first bag did not come out until 10:19am, almost a full hour after we landed at Frankfurt.
In conclusion, I really like Condor Business Class despite the slightly dated business class cabin and the narrow seats. With their new Airbus A330NEO, I hope they will install a more updated version of suite type seats and the wide interior will make their products even more attractive. I really love their onboard service and their meals were delicious. Flight attendants were great and being able to earn Alaska miles (elite qualifying too) made it even better. I can’t wait to step onboard another Condor flight in the future.
Carfield