This is my first trip report on FlyerTalk, so please be patient and bear with me. Due to time constraints and testing to see whether or not I can write a good trip report, this will be written in multiple parts. I apologize in advance if this causes any inconvenience. I hope you enjoy this report and that it is helpful in some way to you for your future travel plans.

Before The Trip

Sometime back in March 2003 — I am not exactly sure when — I decided that I wanted to fly on Concorde. Something (call it intuition) told me that Concorde was not going to be around much longer and, while it was not a lifelong dream, flying Concorde quickly became a high travel priority for me.

Planning this trip became different for me for two reasons:

1) I usually plan the itinerary of a trip based on one or more of the following criteria:

• The desire to visit a destination, such as the case when I went to Australia several years ago;
• Convenience, such as a non-stop flight or lodging that is close to where I want to be;
• Low cost, such as a special sale with a rare low airfare, or
• Maximizing the usage of my points and/or miles, such as using as few miles and/or points as possible.

2) Also, this is the first trip where I decided to actively solicit the support and assistance of fellow FlyerTalkers, as I normally take pride in researching and designing exceptional trips all by myself.

After investigating that I can indeed use my miles to fly Concorde, I not only decided to solely plan my entire trip around the availability of flying on Concorde, but also that I wanted a to go on a trip where I can go to a destination not usually travelled to by Americans. Due to its rich history yet not be overwhelmed by having too much to do with not enough time, I decided upon Malta. Because there was no easy way to reach Malta from Paris later that night after arriving on Concorde, I would have to depart the next morning. I also decided that since I was so close to Italy, I would visit southern Italy — more specifically, Sicily, the Amalfi Coast and Rome — before returning home to the Atlanta area.

After negotiating my flexibility for dates to fly on Concorde, I was able to book Concorde outbound on May 25. My return trip was scheduled for June 5. My original schedule was as follows:

• 24 May DL 1992 ATL - JFK
• 25 May AF 1 JFK - CDG
• 26 May AZ 303 CDG - MXP
• 26 May AZ 884 MXP - MLA
• 5 June AF 2305 FCO - CDG
• 5 June AF 2 CDG - JFK
• 5 June DL JFK - ATL

All flights other than Concorde were either First or Business class.

To get from Malta to Italy, I decided to take to the sea for overnight transportation. I was quite uncomfortable with the fact that the company that owned the vessel would not take any payment other than cash or a wire transfer, which normally would have been a major clue for me to avoid them and seek alternate transportation, but I wired the money over against my better judgment. Once again, trust your intuition. I will provide the details of the money transfer and the actual trip in a future entry in this thread.

It was not easy booking lodging for my trip. Virtually every hotel was sold out, but due to my Hilton HHonors Diamond status, I was able to get most of the lodging that I wanted. I was also able to get rooms at a couple of Marriotts and a Westin. Again, I did not plan, book or confirm anything until I was definitely confirmed on Concorde.

Shortly after booking my trip and confirming some (but not all) of the lodging for my trip, the first piece of bad news came: Air France will not fly Concorde after 31 May 2003. I knew that the blinking red light on my answering machine two weeks before my trip contained the confirmation of this news: my Concorde flight for 5 June 2003 was definitely cancelled and I needed to call back and book an alternative flight. This news was momentarily devastating. All of the hard work, money, time, miles and points that I invested into this trip initially seemed like a waste of time. However, the alternative was to take a 777 from Rome non-stop back to Atlanta. I had never been in a 777 before, and I would get to leave Rome later and be home earlier since I would not have to connect in Paris and New York. Plus, I would be in the Business Class cabin, and I will have already flown Concorde once. Cool! If I had to choose an alternative for flying Concorde — and I did — this would be it. I was excited again.

That excitement would not last long. Not only did I find out that Air France was going on strike on the day of my Concorde flight, but also that the air traffic controllers in France were to go on strike the very next day, which would affect my flights from Paris to Malta.

My return flight on Concorde was already cancelled. If my flight to Paris on Concorde is affected by the strike, I would not have another chance to fly on Concorde because Air France will not fly Concorde after 31 May 2003, nor would I be able to re-book on another Concorde flight due to limited time and confirmations of other portions of my travel plan, not to mention the fact that Concorde award seats were virtually gone.

Usually before a trip, I have everything all set and confirmed. However, it was only days before departure and I still had unanswered questions to my travel itinerary, such as:

• Will I be able to leave Paris the next day, assuming I were able to fly Concorde?
• Will I even get to fly on Concorde at all?
• Do I need an international driver’s license and buy additional insurance to drive a car in Malta?
• How will I leave Malta, as it is not easy to leave Malta due to the fact that many schedules resemble weekly rather than daily departures?
• How am I going to get from Salerno to Sorrento, as I virtually exhausted all the options available to me?

Please “stay tuned” for my next entry to this thread for the answers to these and other questions...