Hi,
After a very nice holiday it was time to head back home. In the evening I arrived outside the old fashioned looking terminal of Rhodes Airport.
Luckily the check in hall was not too cramped this time of the day and the separate Condor Business Class check in counter meant no queuing at all and a speedy drop off for the luggage.
Priority security control was included and soon I was airside. Unfortunately Condor does not offer Lounge access for its Business Class guests here at Rhodes while it does at most other European airports.
Therefore I did some shopping at enjoyed the views of the apron.
Soon the Condor plane taking me to Munich landed and passed by.
It was soon time to board the bus bringing us to the plane. Boarding process is strange here at Rhodes: Your boarding pass is checked and then passengers wait for ca. 15 minutes outside until the bus is ready for boarding. At least this helped to get some nice views of the planes.
We reached our Condor A321 in the old design - unfortunately this plane has not been repainted to the new striped design. Still it looked very beautiful in the evening sun.
Climbing up the stairs is always a great moment!
The Business Class cabin consisted of 3 rows on this flight and there was no curtain or any separation to Economy. The middle seat stays empty in Business Class though.
Seat pitch is rather cramped and the same as in Economy.
On the middle seat cheap pillows were placed and some souvenir of travel organizer - a nice gesture.
The seat pocket only had some menu & shopping catalogue.
No pre-departure service was offered and next to us a nice looking Luxair Boeing was serviced.
With a slight delay we pushed back and a manual safety demonstration was done - no overhead monitors were used on the whole flight/I guess Condor has deactivated them from earlier days.
We departed for a flight of ca. 2 hours 30 minutes and passed a nice Edelweiss Airbus also heading for take off.
Banking out of Rhodes island.
Theoretically an entertainment and airshow streaming portal for your personal device was offered on this Condor flight - but it was obviously not working on this plane today.
The cabin crew was ok but not super friendly or very welcoming which was somehow sad as Condor crews in the past typically tended to be very good. Inflight service in Business Class started ca. 20 minutes after take off with a welcome drink of sparkling wine or orange juice offered from a tray. I had the bubbly. Unfortunately Condor Business Class does use plastic glasses on the European flights.
Views outside were nice during sunset hours.
Next meal trays were served - Condor Business Class includes a warm main dish and some dessert. You can pre-order you preferred main dish in advance I had decided for the chicken Thai curry which was served correctly to me. Just this July Condor has upgraded European Business Class and now serves the meal on porcelain and with real cutlery which is nice.
The meal tasted good but I think for a proper Business Class service it definitely missed some bread, butter and a small starter.
More drink orders were taken and I had some wine and water (again in plastic cups).
More nice views outside.
Drinks were offered several times again which was nice and I ended my meal with a cup of coffee in a paper cup.
After the meal service the crew offered some more chocolates to Business Class guests. In general this is a very nice gesture. But why does Condor served a small chocolate focused dessert on the meal tray and then again more chocolates? Maybe adding a small starter would make more sense!?
I enjoyed the quiet flight looking out of the window.
We landed on time at Munich and parked at Terminal 1.
The flight in general was totally ok but now the worst part was still to follow: Because of staff shortage all guests from this and other Condor flights arriving this evening had to wait more than 2 hours until the first luggage arrived at the belt - simply a desaster without any more explanations or excuses from ground staff..
Thanks for reading,
FlyAlex
An interesting product here on their narrowbodies--everyone talks about their new A330neos, but the vast majority of Condor's fleet is narrowbodies so it's interesting to compare. Aside from the lack of appetiser/bread and the use of plastic cups, the experience is very typical of intra-European J. The pillows and little amenity kit/organiser are something you wouldn't get with most legacy carriers on intra-European routes. Too bad the streaming IFE wasn't working, as that too would have been yet another amenity most legacy carriers don't offer on intra-European flights.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks. I totally agree that they offer some very good and rare Business Class features for European flights. If they only would sligthly improve Meal service and add real glasses, they would have a real good overall experience.