In March Alaska Airlines added Germany’s Condor as new MileagePlan partner. Immediately MileagePlan members were able to earn Alaska miles when flying Condor. Starting this week, members will be able to redeem Alaska miles on Condor to Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Redeem Alaska miles on Condor to Europe
Condor flies nonstop from Frankfurt to 11 cities in the U.S. including Seattle, Anchorage, Austin, Baltimore, Fairbanks, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Portland, and San Diego, and 5 cities in Canada including Toronto; Vancouver, Calgary, Halifax and Whitehorse. Condor will be adding new nonstop service from Munich to Las Vegas in May and Seattle in June.
There is no definition of when economy low, medium and high seasons are. 25,000 miles one-way in economy to Europe is a pretty decent deal. However, 55,000 miles in business class might be a little too expensive considering Condor does not have fully lie-flat seats in their business class.
I did a quick search for a family of four from Seattle to Frankfurt this summer. As you can see, award availability is actually quite good. Outbound flight is priced at low level of 25,000 miles, while return flight is being priced at high lever of 40,000 miles.
Both directions are non-stop flights. The cost per person for July 4-21 is 65,000 miles round trip plus $140.36 in taxes and fees. According to Google flights, the round trip flight would cost $1,280 per person, giving your miles a value of just below 2 cents per mile.
Redeem Alaska miles on Condor to Middle East & Africa
For additional 10,000 miles, you can travel to the Middle East via Europe. Alaska allows a free stopover even on an one-way redemption. So whether you are flying to Middle East or Africa, you should be able to stop in Frankfurt for as long as you like!
Redemption rates to North Africa is essentially the same as to Middle East. But South Africa will cost 5,000 more miles.
Conclusion
It is always great to have another option to redeem miles. One-way to Europe for only 25,000 miles is great, especially in busy summer month. However, because Condor’s fare is often not too expensive, you should always look up the cash fare to see if it make sense to redeem your valuable Alaska miles.
Condor has an angled business class, so personally I am not sure if I would redeem 55,000 miles on Condor if I can use just 50,000 miles on American Airline to Europe in a lie-flat seat. I much prefer to use my Alaska miles to fly JAL first class or JAL business class to Asia, or with Cathay Pacific.
What do you think of Alaska’s new redemption chart on Condor? Do you plan to redeem Alaska miles on Condor to Europe and beyond?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
The rates are rather disappointing. What’s interesting is that the MSY-FRA flights do not seem to be loaded into the system yet. As a MSY-based flyer, I hope that happens.
I agree that the rates are rather disappointing. MSY to FRA is seasonal, perhaps the dates you were checking weren’t within the seasonal schedule.
I’m quite surprised anyone would underestimate the value of using Alaska miles on Condor.
Here’s my profile:
Bunch of Alaska miles
High desire to see Munich and other areas of Europe that branch off Frankfurt
Bunch of American miles
No desire to see the far east as I’ve been there a zillion times
STRONG desire to fly nonstop
Live in Seattle
Given American is making almost zero award space available in saver, lie flat or not, 110K RT nonstop at convenient times is a DEAL! 50K econ, as long as it’s nonstop and availability is good (convenient times for connections within europe, convenient depart/arrive times) is also a bonus.
I’m trying to get to Ireland in Oct and this is very interesting for me since I live in SEA. Wondering how hard it would be to get from Frankfurt to Ireland, and if it would be worth it. Would need to look up the Condor Biz cabins to see what they look like.
Looking at Google Flights FRA-DUB flights can be had for under $50 depending on how flexible your dates are
Their business class seats aren’t flat bed. Here’s a recent review I found: http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2017/05/10/condor-business-class-review/