I was lucky enough to fly Concorde once in early 2000, I think I was either 17 or 18 at the time. If I remember correctly BA were running a competition/promotion of some kind where BAEC members received a variety of "prizes" (half price fares etc.) and where the "top prize" was a Concorde flight LHR-JFK (with a J return) for £40! My Dad, the lucky so-and-so got this and was kind enough to offer it to my Sister and I on the grounds that he had flown it before several times and wanted us to try it before it went out of comission - and how grateful I am to him that he did!

I don't honestly remember that much of the flight itself but I remember being amazed by the whole experience from boarding direct from the lounge to the free gifts (a cross pen I still have somewhere and a pair of headphones that packed it in about 2 years ago) and Johnnie Walker Blue (even at that tender age I had a taste for the finer things) onboard. Especially remember eagerly watching the speedometer at the front of the cabin as it ticked up over Mach 1.

Seats certainly weren't that comfortable but frankly I didn't care with the short flight time and the pure giddy excitement of seeing the top half of the window turn that dark blue/almost black hue due to the altitude when you would imaginine that you were almost in space (I suspect someone will tell me I've remembered this wrong and it actually flew at the same altitude as a 747!).

Long weekend in NYC (including a spectacular performance of Amadeus with David Suchet) and then back on the 747 on the Sunday red-eye - an amazing experience at the time and maybe a driver of my love of the somewhat ridiculous international travel I do these days