I flew CO 115 yesterday (21 November) from LGW to EWR in BF. Despite a broken AVOD (it literally fell over (wires exposed) when I opened it (thankfully there were plenty of open seats for me to move to)), I had an excellent flight. The BF FA was great--very attentive, friendly, etc. Nothing spectacular, but enough to make the flight good.

So why am I posting this here . . . well I saw someone resurrected the what's the purpose of the concierge thread and I had some of my own observations from this flight I thought worth adding.

Our flight yesterday was delayed about 2 hours due to incoming aircraft. We spent enough time at the Emirates lounge and decided to head over to the gate to sit there for a while. We had no real need for the concierge, but when we got to the gate, we sat right next to the desk agents and the concierge. What we observed was the concierge and a non-rev (turned out to be an FA (when my AVOD broke I ended up sitting next to him) discussing whether he could sit in BF or not. They talked for well over a half-hour. All the while, BF and other customers came up and she basically ignored them. On the flight, she greeted one passenger--a gentleman that connected on VS from somewhere in Africa. Everyone else was completely ignored. With him, she was very helfpul, offering him directions to the PC at EWR and trying to get him to switch his VS number to a CO number lol. Truthfully, no harm done to me, I had no need to talk to her, but given the thread, and what I saw, I thought it worth sharing.

Like I said though, otherwise, and despite the broken AVOD, the flight was actually very good.

At OSL, my home airport at the moment, the BF concierge (employed by the handling agent servisair) stands at check-in. He usually put a laminated tag with "BusinessFirst" on the bags I check, hand me the lounge vouchers and wish me a pleasant flight. At the gate, he is pretty much not doing any thing "special" - if he is there. He will usually go thru the BF cabin before take-off and ask about showers at EWR. When arriving at OSL, he is in the jetway and if asked, I guess he could help you. I believe there is two "trained" Concierges at OSL. As there is only one flight arriving, not even daily in the winter - they work as gate coordinators or dispatchers the rest of the time. The FA usually ask for the concierge when opening the door on arrival, and if no ones there - one of the other servisair guys will say they will be "working it out" if problems should occur.

I have never been assisted thru customs or passport control on any destination...

:td: to that. That said, I have received good, unsolicited service from concierges at LGW in the past.

I could be totally wrong, but wasn't it discussed on this forum that one of the main focuses of the concierges is to convert paid J passengers who do not use CO OnePass numbers over to CO?

The Concierge is there, when necessary!
 

But I have never needed a Concierge to arrange a number of showers over many years!
:D:D:D

What you're describing isn't what Continental is offering. The Concierge Service simply doesn't deliver as advertised.

But I have met a few concierges I wouldn't mind arranging a shower with!:D

Speaking on behalf of one of the smaller UK stations..

We do try our best to ensure that a concierge meets every flight arrival. The problem is that we only have 1 concierge on a day, so it can be a real struggle to have a concierge meet the flight and be available for checking in customers as this kinda happens at the same time.

Being a relatively small airport though helps.

I only saw one at BRS last year, but two at BFS in 05, which surprised me. I recall that STN (2001) had two also. Has CO reduced the service from two to one concierge?

MAD has three. As long as CO had two flights per day (just ended for the winter :td:) two were on duty each day. Although they do greet some BF passengers, and come on board the aircraft before takeoff, I think most of their duties are with arriving passengers.

One is particularly assiduous about hectoring the baggage handlers (civil servants!) to meet CO standards for luggage on the carrousel within a certain time of landing. A thankless job. I know CO has shower arrangements at an airport hotel, so I imagine the concierges take care of those logistics.

Good in CGN - entirely absent in EWR
 

The concierge in CGN was very helpful: met the flight, on return walked around the lounge letting us all know, individually, that because the flight was a bit late, we should wait in the lounge, and then again, individually, let us know it was time to go through customs.

At EWR, when I really needed one, there were none to be found. No one met the plane, nor were any in customs. I'd planned a 4 hour layover in case the flight had to stop in Gander, and wanted to switch to an earlier flight. No concierge there to help - that would have been a great service.

No surprise there.

I wouldnt even know what a Concierge would look like in EWR their was one time I could have really used one when connecting to a flight 15 min after landing (no baggage) so I asked and they said no such thing. I think they are only used when there is an oversell and they hold the power to do whatever they want to make the bumped BF passenger happy.

Maybe it's my after shave
 

Working in a service profession in which we do many things that are invisible to the public (unless they don't get done!), I may have a bit of a bias. I have had repeated great service from the concierge at CDG (cannot recall her name at the moment) including help when my teen niece who was supposed to be on our flight missed her connection and had to fly solo on a later flight; EWR concierge for the PKG flight (Walter, IIRC) was incredibly efficient and helpful; HKK not only did the laminating thing with a business card but actually followed up with a greeting card on my next birthday. Have seen Concierge on other routes (most recently EZE) help resolve things like travel companions in scattered seats, handling things in a calm, professional manner.
Given the gazillion things that can go wrong and affect service quality on any given flight, I'm glad they are there and suspect they do a lot behind the scenes as well as in the aisles before takeoff.

I found something. After 5 weeks, I actually got a laminated luggage tag in the mail that was promised to me by the Concierge at GLA. For other trips, they have always been pretty much absent - when present - pretty much useless.

in my experience the one fun thing they did is that the concierge in HKG or the manager of the station actually contacted the offices of continental in SJO and asked me if everything was fine and how did I rate the service etc. the email address they used was the one from the business card they kept

I thought it was a nice touch.