I thought I had posted this before, but I can't find the thread now...

To keep it short, in the late 1990s, I was working in M&A for a company that was being bought by a US company based in NYC. Contracts were agreed but needed to be signed in person. For some reason, neither the relevant NY people, nor the London senior partners, could travel before the set closing date. So I volunteered to go to NY to take the plain contracts to have them signed by the buyers at the lawyers' office, to take them back to London so that they could be signed there the same day. The only way to do this was on Concorde.

I was picked up at my flat in Chelsea around 900 on the Thursday morning and was taken to LHR T4 where I arrived at about 935. I was checked in within about a minute and was in the Concorde Room by gate 14(?) a few minutes later. It was a really nice room, in my opinion much nicer than T5 CCR. I don't remember more than 15 people there at the time. Since I really didn't have very much to do other than be 'bag-boy' I had a few nice glasses of Champagne (I honestly don't remember what it was). We boarded at shortly after 1000, directly from the lounge, and taxied a few minutes later. I'd guess the flight was about 40% full.

Others have reported on the take-off experience, but it really is quite something. You feel as though you're on a rocket, with an almost vertical take-off feeling. The 3h20m flight was extremely pleasant. A few glasses of Champagne, a delicious breakfast which I remember featuring plenty of salmon, and just gazing out the window at the puffy clouds below and the black sky above.

We landed around 930 at JFK and were off within minutes. I had no checked luggage so just went through immigration (at that time of day a two minute breeze) and was then escorted to the helicopter connection to Manhattan. We landed on the LES where a limo collected me to take me to the law firm's office, where we arrived at about 1030. I walked into a boardroom full of people eager to close the deal, so out came the contracts (which I carried in an old LL Bean tote bag) which were duly signed and notarised. The lawyers, who earned a lot of money on this, decided that it would be appropriate to celebrate, so we were taken to the Knickerbocker Club for a few rounds of Champagne. I had to take BA4 back to London (departure 1430 I think) so arranged to be picked up at the club at 1215. Back to the helipad, then to JFK, where I checked back in at 1340. I remember quite a bit of Krug on the return flight and a very nice discussion with CC member Zoe. We landed shortly after 2200, and I handed off the contracts to our CEO at T4. They were signed there on the spot.

I was home shortly after 2300, when my wife asked me how my day was.