BA Concorde 004, October 3, 2003
Oct 6, 2003, 12:14 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 1999
Programs: AA EXP, SPG PLT, Hyatt DIA, Hilton GLD
Posts: 974
BA Concorde 004, October 3, 2003
Apologies as this is my first ever Trip Report.
Thanks to Flyertalk I was able to snag 3 free seats on BA 004 October 3 JFK to LHR. I had been checking the BA website for weeks, and finally found availability. I used this for a "Daddy's weekend" with my two daughters ages 7 and 11. Mom had to work and had been on Concorde twice before. This was my third time and I wanted to share the excitement and "once in a lifetime" thrill with my daughters. I originally could only get 3 seats together in row 24 upon booking. A week later I moved us up to row 16. On checking in for our connecting AA flights, they issued us boarding passes in row 2. Interesting enough, my AA EXP number was noted on the boarding pass, not my BA Silver number. Regardless, these were excellent seats, given the entire flight was full except for 1a and 1d.
Upon arriving at JFK from LGA on our connecting flights, we checked in at the Concorde check in desk and were informed they have been out of Concorde baggage tags and ticket jackets for weeks. They were a little suprised to see a 7 and 11 year old with me, but understood the experience for them. Security was like going to a spa. No line at all and a level of TSA courtesy and politeness I have never seen before in the US. It took all of 20 seconds.
Next to the Concorde room. Upon entering, they took our tickets and tore the boarding cards, leaving us the stubs. I had hoped to save the entire boarding card for my kids with the Concorde logo, so the gentlemen was kind enough to print duplicates of all three and bring them to us in the lounge. The lounge itself was somewhat of a letdown compared to the Concorde room at LHR. It was quite crowded and loud. Those arriving after us had difficulty finding a place to sit. There was a long line for food (pretty awful looking scrambled eggs, baked beans, etc..). We passed. The kids had soft drinks and I enjoyed the champagne. Even the bar selection at LHR was much better. They actually ran out of food and made several announcements apologizing for this.
The plane is very visible sitting outside and many people were taking photos and admiring it before boarding. My kids were especially interested in how small the windows appeared from the outside. My seven year old said it looked as if they were "drawn" on with a pencil. It was a very lively atmosphere in the lounge. I spoke with a couple of people sitting nearby who mentioned that they had all paid for this flight with the sole purpose of flying her before retirement. I was greatful that all I had to pay was about $98.00 USD for the taxes on my free tickets.
Boarding went fast. Most of the seatbacks were virtually empty of the magazines and even the duty free catalogs. The captain made an announcement that this was a particularly notable flight for BA, as this was the first flight of BA 004 since July, 2000. Our plane actually carried two captains, one who had flown the plane in from Toronto and the regular captain.
The meal service started out with canapes of goat cheese, salmon with caviar and I think grilled plantains with chicken. I liked these, the kids took a pass.
The wine list was as follows:
Champagne
Pol Roger 1986 Cuvee Sir Winston Churchill
White Wine
Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Vergers 1997 Chartron et Trebuchet
Red Wine
Chateau La Lagune 1995 Grand Cru Classe Haut-Medoc
Port
Warre's 1982 Colheita Port
The champagne and red were great.
Lunch
Appetiser
Caviar. This was a full blown separate caviar service with an individual large jar of Petrossian caviar for each person. Along with this was a beautiful, artistic arrangement of the caviar accrutements arranged by color in a pattern. (Egg whites, green onions, red onions, egg yolks, etc..) It was almost too beautiful to eat. Each person received about 6 blinis.
Lunch choices:
1. Lamb fillet with mustard and herb crust, spinach and sea salt roasted new potatoes.
2. Free-range chicken breast with black truffle, foie gras, savoy cabbage and fondante potato.
3. Lobster and saffron crushed potato cakes with spinach and Bloody Mary relish.
4. Fennel and orange salad with goats cheese and pinenuts.
I had the chicken, and while it was good, it didn't have the presentation of the caviar course.
Dessert
1. Chocolate pear tart
or
2. Cheese course of Stilton, Chevre and Pecorino with balsamic vinegar.
As an alternative to the full menu, they also offered a selection of freshly made sandwiches including chicken, egg and bacon and rocket with goats cheese. (This was perfect for my daughters).
With the desert course they also presented each person with a ribbon wrapped box of Concorde chocolate truffles.
The flight itself was fairly fast at 3 hours 20 minutes. We had a slight ground delay leaving JFK and arriving LHR, but overall, it seemed to fly by. We reached 1,350 miles per hour and 56,000 feet. The kids were facinated by the fact of the windows being hot to the touch (opposite conventional windows), when the inflight display said it was -74 degrees Celcius outside.
I felt a little sorry for the two guys in row 1, as almost the entire flight, people were coming up to the display to take their photographs. After lunch the Captain from the Toronto leg came in to the cabin to stretch and started signing people's menus. Not just his signature, but each one personalized with a short note and the date. A nice touch.
The captain also announced that this flight was the final one for one of the senior attendents, and it almost took on a bittersweet approach.
Duty free was quite caotic. My 11 year old was seated next to a gentlemen in his late 50's, impecibly dressed. She told me afterwards, he asked the flight attendent for "one of everything" with the Concorde logo on it. I already had the cufflinks, clock, etc.. from a flight in May, so we passed on duty free.
The landing was amazing. I fly over 100k a year and this had to be one of the most smooth, unnoticable landings I have ever had. However, the braking afterwards was also amazing in its strength.
One unique feature of this flight (with two captains), was the fact that we had very comprehensive announcements and commentary through the entire take off, through the entire flight and actually through the entire landing about everything you wanted to know about Concorde. While one was doing the flying, the other was describing what he was doing.
Upon landing at LHR, we were given the signed certificates in very nice blue envelopes and the commenmorative Smythson diary of Concorde just after getting off the plane on the jetway.
Overall, a memorable, experience for my kids and me. I am glad we had a chance to do this with only 21 days left. We took a 777 in Club World home on Sunday and the kids just couldn't get over the fact that it took over 8 hours to get back, compared to just over 3 on our way to London.
Thanks to Flyertalk I was able to snag 3 free seats on BA 004 October 3 JFK to LHR. I had been checking the BA website for weeks, and finally found availability. I used this for a "Daddy's weekend" with my two daughters ages 7 and 11. Mom had to work and had been on Concorde twice before. This was my third time and I wanted to share the excitement and "once in a lifetime" thrill with my daughters. I originally could only get 3 seats together in row 24 upon booking. A week later I moved us up to row 16. On checking in for our connecting AA flights, they issued us boarding passes in row 2. Interesting enough, my AA EXP number was noted on the boarding pass, not my BA Silver number. Regardless, these were excellent seats, given the entire flight was full except for 1a and 1d.
Upon arriving at JFK from LGA on our connecting flights, we checked in at the Concorde check in desk and were informed they have been out of Concorde baggage tags and ticket jackets for weeks. They were a little suprised to see a 7 and 11 year old with me, but understood the experience for them. Security was like going to a spa. No line at all and a level of TSA courtesy and politeness I have never seen before in the US. It took all of 20 seconds.
Next to the Concorde room. Upon entering, they took our tickets and tore the boarding cards, leaving us the stubs. I had hoped to save the entire boarding card for my kids with the Concorde logo, so the gentlemen was kind enough to print duplicates of all three and bring them to us in the lounge. The lounge itself was somewhat of a letdown compared to the Concorde room at LHR. It was quite crowded and loud. Those arriving after us had difficulty finding a place to sit. There was a long line for food (pretty awful looking scrambled eggs, baked beans, etc..). We passed. The kids had soft drinks and I enjoyed the champagne. Even the bar selection at LHR was much better. They actually ran out of food and made several announcements apologizing for this.
The plane is very visible sitting outside and many people were taking photos and admiring it before boarding. My kids were especially interested in how small the windows appeared from the outside. My seven year old said it looked as if they were "drawn" on with a pencil. It was a very lively atmosphere in the lounge. I spoke with a couple of people sitting nearby who mentioned that they had all paid for this flight with the sole purpose of flying her before retirement. I was greatful that all I had to pay was about $98.00 USD for the taxes on my free tickets.
Boarding went fast. Most of the seatbacks were virtually empty of the magazines and even the duty free catalogs. The captain made an announcement that this was a particularly notable flight for BA, as this was the first flight of BA 004 since July, 2000. Our plane actually carried two captains, one who had flown the plane in from Toronto and the regular captain.
The meal service started out with canapes of goat cheese, salmon with caviar and I think grilled plantains with chicken. I liked these, the kids took a pass.
The wine list was as follows:
Champagne
Pol Roger 1986 Cuvee Sir Winston Churchill
White Wine
Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Vergers 1997 Chartron et Trebuchet
Red Wine
Chateau La Lagune 1995 Grand Cru Classe Haut-Medoc
Port
Warre's 1982 Colheita Port
The champagne and red were great.
Lunch
Appetiser
Caviar. This was a full blown separate caviar service with an individual large jar of Petrossian caviar for each person. Along with this was a beautiful, artistic arrangement of the caviar accrutements arranged by color in a pattern. (Egg whites, green onions, red onions, egg yolks, etc..) It was almost too beautiful to eat. Each person received about 6 blinis.
Lunch choices:
1. Lamb fillet with mustard and herb crust, spinach and sea salt roasted new potatoes.
2. Free-range chicken breast with black truffle, foie gras, savoy cabbage and fondante potato.
3. Lobster and saffron crushed potato cakes with spinach and Bloody Mary relish.
4. Fennel and orange salad with goats cheese and pinenuts.
I had the chicken, and while it was good, it didn't have the presentation of the caviar course.
Dessert
1. Chocolate pear tart
or
2. Cheese course of Stilton, Chevre and Pecorino with balsamic vinegar.
As an alternative to the full menu, they also offered a selection of freshly made sandwiches including chicken, egg and bacon and rocket with goats cheese. (This was perfect for my daughters).
With the desert course they also presented each person with a ribbon wrapped box of Concorde chocolate truffles.
The flight itself was fairly fast at 3 hours 20 minutes. We had a slight ground delay leaving JFK and arriving LHR, but overall, it seemed to fly by. We reached 1,350 miles per hour and 56,000 feet. The kids were facinated by the fact of the windows being hot to the touch (opposite conventional windows), when the inflight display said it was -74 degrees Celcius outside.
I felt a little sorry for the two guys in row 1, as almost the entire flight, people were coming up to the display to take their photographs. After lunch the Captain from the Toronto leg came in to the cabin to stretch and started signing people's menus. Not just his signature, but each one personalized with a short note and the date. A nice touch.
The captain also announced that this flight was the final one for one of the senior attendents, and it almost took on a bittersweet approach.
Duty free was quite caotic. My 11 year old was seated next to a gentlemen in his late 50's, impecibly dressed. She told me afterwards, he asked the flight attendent for "one of everything" with the Concorde logo on it. I already had the cufflinks, clock, etc.. from a flight in May, so we passed on duty free.
The landing was amazing. I fly over 100k a year and this had to be one of the most smooth, unnoticable landings I have ever had. However, the braking afterwards was also amazing in its strength.
One unique feature of this flight (with two captains), was the fact that we had very comprehensive announcements and commentary through the entire take off, through the entire flight and actually through the entire landing about everything you wanted to know about Concorde. While one was doing the flying, the other was describing what he was doing.
Upon landing at LHR, we were given the signed certificates in very nice blue envelopes and the commenmorative Smythson diary of Concorde just after getting off the plane on the jetway.
Overall, a memorable, experience for my kids and me. I am glad we had a chance to do this with only 21 days left. We took a 777 in Club World home on Sunday and the kids just couldn't get over the fact that it took over 8 hours to get back, compared to just over 3 on our way to London.
Oct 7, 2003, 2:20 am
#5
Suspended
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Canada, USA, Europe
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 31,452
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by GB:
I used this for a "Daddy's weekend" with my two daughters ages 7 and 11.</font>
I used this for a "Daddy's weekend" with my two daughters ages 7 and 11.</font>
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">the entire flight was full except for 1a and 1d.</font>
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">We took a 777 in Club World home on Sunday and the kids just couldn't get over the fact that it took over 8 hours to get back, compared to just over 3 on our way to London.</font>
Oct 7, 2003, 5:20 pm
#6
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: TXL
Posts: 827
Sat 3 rows behind you and the Mrs. was admiring you for taking the kids for that awsome experience. Nothing else to add to your great report than that they ran out of cooled champagne in the lounge and out of the delicious Cuvee Churchill after 1 hour into the flight. The C room at jfk was such a mess because ba002 had left late (11am).
This was my third ride on Concorde and the party mood in the smoking room at jfk and the constant announcements of the captain made it very special.
BTW. Here is a photo of that beautiful caviar serving you mentioned. Really a step up from what LH serves you ...
http://www.newchannels.de/paulusst/g...2&id=Bild_113j
[This message has been edited by paulusst (edited 10-07-2003).]
This was my third ride on Concorde and the party mood in the smoking room at jfk and the constant announcements of the captain made it very special.
BTW. Here is a photo of that beautiful caviar serving you mentioned. Really a step up from what LH serves you ...
http://www.newchannels.de/paulusst/g...2&id=Bild_113j
[This message has been edited by paulusst (edited 10-07-2003).]
