Flying to Frankfurt on Condor

Condor Airlines has had its ups and downs over the years, to coin a phrase.

Legally known in Germany, its home country, as Condor Flugdienst, or Condor Flight Service, it’s been in business since 1955.

It became Germany’s major tourism airline in the 1990s, and both Lufthansa and Thomas Cook have held significant investments in it over the years. In 2019 Thomas Cook filed for bankruptcy and a British investment firm acquired a majority share in 2021.

Condor has been an Alaska Airlines partner for quite some years, meaning you can credit your miles flown on DE (Condor) to your AS (Alaska) account.

We’ve flown Condor to Europe a number of times, including three round trips with grandchildren. Once they bought A330s with flatbeds in business class in 2022, we’ve become more enthusiastic about them.

We, like others we know, find them difficult to deal with on the ground, but offering good service in the air.

The flatbed seats are admittedly somewhat crowded and claustrophobic, especially in the footwells, compared to those of some other airlines we’ve flown. The food and drink selections are very competitive, as are the fares.

The crews tend to be friendly and attentive, and we always look forward to our DE flights. Yesterday was no exception.

We flew from Bellingham to Seattle on Alaska, and received complimentary upgrades for our 22 minutes in the air. Whoopee!

We stopped off at the main Alaska Lounge and enjoyed complimentary cocktails, thanks to acquiring the new and expensive ATMOS Visa credit card.

We also ran into an Alaskan FlyerTalk friend, Bob Welch, whom we last saw in Australia in 2024. It’s amazing how many FlyerTalkers we’ve run into over the years in airline and hotel lounges, planes, and once even at a hotel elevator in Bangkok. Meeting Bob seemed like a good omen for our trip.

The flight itself was fine, other than a patch of some of the bumpiest air we’ve experienced in awhile.

Dinner, ravioli for Kathy and beef for Brian, was pretty good.

Brian caught a few hours of sleep, while Kathy, facing a crowded suite, bumpiness, and warm Germanic cabin temperatures, didn’t catch a wink.

That’s okay, as we planned for such contingencies. We’re staying at the airport for two nights.

Breakfast came early.

We landed in Frankfurt (FRA) around noon local time. The timing was perfect, as we breezed through immigration and customs, rollaboards in tow, with no delay.

The airport itself was surprisingly uncrowded.

We had no problem checking in early at the Hilton, located in The Squaire, above the long distance trains.

What a lobby!

Not only was our room ready, but we learned we’d been upgraded to a King Executive Suite. Sometimes being a Hilton Lifetime Diamond pays off.

Nothing beats having a guest bathroom in your hotel room.

As to the rest, it certainly met our needs.

We had scheduled two nights in the Hilton, waiting for Tom and Ellyn to arrive on their circuitous Turkish Airlines routing from Denver to Istanbul to Amsterdam (with an overnight hotel stay) to Frankfurt. That may seem odd, but it’s a sub-$2,000 round trip routing in business class that’s earning a ton of miles.

We napped in the afternoon and found enough to graze on in the Hilton Executive Lounge to keep us happy.

Our night of sleep was interrupted by trying to help Tom and Ellyn with a few wrinkles that had developed on their itineraries, They were details they could no doubt have resolved on their own, but we like to help.

We slept in but were still short of sleep as we set out to explore our surroundings

The Hilton, the Hilton Garden Inn next door, and a nearby Marriott are all part of a massive airport development named The Squaire, sitting above the long distance train station.

Once we figured out a spot to meet Tom and Ellyn after their AMS-FRA Lufthansa flight landed, we sent them the information, complete with photos, We’ll see how it works.

Now it was time for lunch. Next door to our favorite FRA restaurant, the Paulaner, presumably owned by the brewery of the same name and featuring their beers, sits an Italian eatery named Little Italy. We decided to try it. Small mistake.

Little Italy wasn’t awful. It just struck us as mediocre. Our pizzas looked better than they tasted.

There were about twenty pizza varieties on their menu, and we suspect most of them taste about the same, toppings added to premade crusts and heated quickly in the oven. At least we didn’t worry about not finishing our generous portions.

Dinner at the Paulaner was much more satisfying.

We ate inside for the first time and were impressed with the geműtlich atmosphere. It is Germany after all.

Kathy didn’t realize the Oktoberfest special she ordered came with a large mug of Paulaner beer until it arrived.

Between her pork hocks (Schweinshaxen) and Brian’s grilled sausages, we savored (heck, we wolfed down) an abundance of hearty Germanic fare.

Again, we couldn’t finish our meals, difficult as we’re members of the clean plate club, but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and continue to recommend Paulaner to anyone wanting to dine at Flughafen Frankfurt.

And now, as dawn breaks, we’ll know in a few hours whether we can successfully meet up with our traveling companions and catch the first of two trains that will take us to Strasbourg France.