What is the purpose of the BF concierge
 

I flew EWR-ZRH in J last night.

The gray-coated BF concierge hopped around the cabin for a while. In each case where she stopped to talk to a passenger, she was asking them if they were a OP member or if she could sign them up. In the row in front of mine, the passenger said they weren't and the concierge asked if they had status on any other airlines.

In no case did she say "welcome back MR. or Mrs. bla bla" to ANYONE that she wasn't trying to sign up. I'd expect a "welcome aboard Mr. entropy, we appreciate your business, is there anything we can help you with [shower, etc]".

Is the purpose of these concierges to provide service or poach high rev travelers?

Generally I have found the BF concierge offers a showers in your arrival city and sometimes can help when issues arrise but mostly they just bounce around the cabin welcoming people aboard and signing up high revenue pax for the OP program.

Dan

I have found the concierge to be pretty worthless from a consumer standpoint. In my first trip in BF years ago, from reading the literature, I expected the concierge to get the BF pax and walk them through passport control as a group (that is what the literature says). I was surprised when the concierge did absolutely nothing. Seems to me that CO could make more use of the position. Apparently the concierge has quite a bit of power (more ability than GA or TA). I think they are there mostly to solve any problems that may arise.

I had flown BF to europe several times before I ever saw the concierge or someone who introduced himself as such (there may have been one before and I just didn't notice). The first time I saw one and saw him talking to some of the other PAX he clearly he seemed to be arranging airport transportation for them. I sort of said, oh, I didn't know such a service was available. He seemed to be not that forthcoming and either he asked or I volunteered that I had upgraded using miles for the BF seat and that seemed to imply that such services were not available to me. It may be that he didn't say that, but this was the impression I got from the interaction. Are the concierge's just for PAX who are not using miles in some way? I wasn't in a total award seat but had paid the higher coach fare plus miles to upgrade (which I usually do).

Scott is MD of the Customer Experience, or something like that. perhaps he can shed some light on the concierge's official duties. it must be spelled out somewhere. has anyone done a search on CO.O.L? maybe they have something spelled out.

(the same issue arrives with the butler when i stay at the st. regis. what are they supposed to do, officially?)

I think their job is to make you feel that you are getting your $$$ worth. A few times when in BF and they approached aboard, wishing me a safe flight etc and asked if they could help with anything, when I said sure and asked them a few questions , they basically were clueless and tried to tell me where to get an answer.

I had a nice experience with the BF concierge in HKG a couple of months back. The concierge was standing at the BF check-in for my return flight. While I was checking in, he took my business card and laminated it for the luggage tag. But the part that I found more interesting was that he looked at my record and (re-)apologized for the inconvenience I had on my incoming flight (no IFE for the BF cabin). In addition, he told me that CO had already deposited some miles in my account for the inconvenience.

Nothing earth-shattering, but just a couple of nice little things that I appreciated.

I know what I like the BF Concierge for . . .
 

I am a BIG BF Concierge fan . . . since it is he (she) who is the guardian of the beloved, elusive, joyous Op-Up (when they bump Plats from Y to BF if Y is oversold and BF is not). I have sweet talked many of them to make sure they knew I was Plat, available, and ready to accept their most generous offer if it became necessary to do so.

And have many Op-Up experiences to remember. Especially ones where I was able to drag my traveling colleague into BF with me - those are especially satisfying. One time, my colleague (who is definitely "seat challenged" when sitting in a tight coach seat) thought we had not been so lucky so she boarded (2nd row in 757 (yuk!) to EU somewhere). Minutes later, they handed me BF boarding passes for me and my friend. So I played with her . . . boarded the plane, made eye contact with her, shook my head "NO" with a sad face, then suddenly smiled ear to ear with a "YES!", waving her new boarding pass. She was so confused - but once she realized we were movin' on up, she was grateful beyond words. There's no better feelin'.

I have to agree with divrdrew - I haven't seen much use for the concierge on any of my BusinessFirst flights (beyond the time we got an OpUp to CDG!). I too would be curious to know what kind of services that they can offer besides damage control during irregular ops and asking if you want access to the arrivals lounge.

I certainly havent seen the customs assistance as noted on this page:

http://www.continental.com/web/en-US...concierge.aspx

ahhh...memories. i almost want to break into tune but, alas, i am at work. :)

I've had several positive experiences with the concierges. On every IAH-LGW flight I've taken (always in BusinessFirst) the concierge has always offered to make a call to the LGW BusinessFirst arrivals lounge to let them know I was requesting a shower upon arrival. Each time I've arrived at the LGW lounge they knew I was coming. Granted that's not a big deal, but on one flight we were about an hour late landing at LGW, and then the wait for passport control was over 90 minutes. This put me past the normal closing time for the LGW BusinessFirst arrivals lounge. However, because the concierge in Houston had let them know which passengers they should be expecting from CO 4, they stayed open for us. When I arrived at the lounge they explained that it was after their normal closing time, but because the concierge had made reservations for those of us on that flight, they had waited for us.

I've also had a concierge escort the BusinessFirst passengers to passport control at CDG last September. However, I really didn't consider that much of a service. Basically she just led the way, but we would had made it there just fine without that minimal amount of assistance. However, this same concierge was very helpful in providing directions to the RER/TGV station at CDG.

The ones in IAH are hit or miss. The HKG concierge is always helpful. The concierge in CDG usually just walks around scowling and looking generally annoyed.

^@:-)Too keep passengers out of BusinessFirst..The BF Concierge is at All flights with a BF Cabin to ensure there are no comp. ugrades..they go thru the upgrade list for every flight and lets say an agent in ATL upgraded you because your a Platinum traveling on a high fare from EWR to FCO as a goodwill gesture..The Concierge would Downgrade you and notify you at the gate since CO does not allow "comp" upgrades on flight with BusinessFirst..I have seen this happen several times and its due to outstation agents mis-understanding of the BusinessFirst Upgrade preocedure..or basically they dont understand that there is NO upgrade on those flights (except in case of oversell..and then the concierge will descide who to upgrade)so..this is the agent who makes sure nobody gets an unpaid upgrade or a comp upgrade..They even check the passengers onboard the aircraft to make sure nobody has snuck into BF..by going to each passenger and saying goodbye (by name) right before gate departure..All in all..this makes it fair for the BF paying passengers and ensures there are no free Upgrades to BF...CO allready has the most generous domestic upgrade programs in the industry..Im glad CO insists on keeping BF special.

Same here. Very nice to have the personal attention. I even got a card in the mail signed by the concierge. Yowser!

I equate the concierge to a "table captain" at a 5 star restaurant. They're there basically to make sure everything flows smoothly during the boarding process, and insure every guest is treated well and remembers the experience. On my trip to LGW in Jan, I was offered a shower, and they knew who I was when I walked in the door at the PC( I was the last one to arrive). On the way back, I don't recall one being offered.

I wouldn't be surprised if they are the final person to assure all necessary service items are on the plane. (or at least sign that they are)

And I'm sure maintaining the integrity of the cabin is a part of making the experience memorable :D

<raised eyebrow>

One way of looking at it I suppose.

Are we talking about the tall blonde gentleman who always seems like "he is late for a very important date?" Maybe I should nickname him the white rabbit and his counterpart should be Alice!!

Oh, go ahead.

I am surprised that a concierge wouldn't know if the passenger was a member of the OP program.

I have found that they always say hello to people by name; they offer to explain how the video system works, etc. My issue is that they seldom greet flights in EWR. I think that the FA's need to stop announcing that they will.

FWIW, the best concierge service I have received were at the following airports: BFS, BRS, DUB and STN. The service at Stansted (now discontinued) was really excellent. I find the best concierge service is to be found at smaller airports. I guess it's easier when you have only one flight and sixteen passengers!

I overslept for a flight from Dublin once because of my crappy alarm clock and was accommodated on the flight the next day. About a week later the BF concierge sent me a clock with a cute note. That was years ago, so I have no idea if they still do things like that, but the personal attention was phenomenal.

I can tell you about two amazing experiences with a BF concierge - one at EWR, the other at GRU.

I was flying CLE-EWR-FRA, and the CLE flight was delayed and arrived at the EWR gate as the FRA flight was taking off. The BF Concierge was waiting for me at the gate, boarded the CLE flight and escorted me to a gate, where she had already booked me on other airlines to get to FRA. I declined, as I would rather fly CO - even though it meant staying a day at EWR (I was able to go see some clients and make the next day's flight). She graciously rebooked me for the next day out of EWR, arranged for me to stay at the hotel Marriott, had my luggage pulled, and then walked with me and waited in baggage claim until my luggage came out.

It was her last flight of the day, and she was heading home after that... but still... it was above and beyond what was expected, and a very memorable experience.

I wrote to CO about her, and when I see her at EWR, she still remembers assisting me with that flight.

At GRU - my bags were incorrectly handled at CLE and not checked through to Buenos Aires. I would have had to exit the secure area in Sao Paulo, collect my luggage, take it to the next airline and check it in there. Unfortunately, I did not have a visa to enter Brazil - so that wasn't an option. The BF concierge who met the flight understood the problem and she personally went and found my luggage and rerouted it to Buenos Aires. It arrived with me.

This is why I fly BF on CO... it is the little things that make all the difference. And in both instances, I sent an email off to CO thanking them for the service and the experience. ^ :-:

I've only had the BF concierge help out once. It was more or less her keeping an eye on my reservation, seeing that I would miss an international BF connection from EWR-MPX. She was waiting for me just outside of the plane and had an electric cart waiting to take me to the PC.

It wasn't really all that necessary, but it was a nice gesture. She was re-assuring (and ended up sending me through FRA to MPX).

The silver lining in all of that was CO's mileage promo from EWR-FRA, snagging me another 3K miles on top of the bonus. Always good :)



BN

after last week, I know one thing the concierge doesn't do..

Knowing as I do that HNL is BF-lite I shouldn't have expected too much. But after forgetting to ask the MCO agents to check my bags all the way through to KOA (via Aloha), I thought that I could arrange through the concierge to pick up my bags left on the conveyor and properly forward them to AQ. From the response I got, one would have thought that it was one of the most outlandish requests they had ever received, with a stern 'no'.

Hello Just to let you know there is no longer Concierge service on flights to Honolulu. :p

In simplest terms, our dedicated BusinessFirst Concierge service is designed to give our BusinessFirst customers peace of mind before and after their flight experience. This service is also designed to acquaint our new customers with Continental and our BusinessFirst product (which is why you’ll sometimes see them spending extra time with some customers during the boarding process). Our Concierges are often engaged in various interactions in front and behind the scenes to address their customers’ needs, and most importantly, they have the resources to work through some of the more complicated issues when they arise. So, although you may not directly interact with a Concierge every time you fly BusinessFirst, we do hope you know they are there if you need them.

The BusinessFirst Concierge has arranged for arrival shower in advance - as indicated.

The BusinessFirst Concierge also stands at the baggage claim to help if needed. Once on a flight from GRU-EWR-DCA - the baggage took a long time to come out (even though tagged for priority). The connection was then real tight. The Concierge called from the baggage claim to the gate to let them know I was here and was rushing to the gate. The Concierge rushed over with me - calling ahead to let the gate know we were on the way. We arrived 2 minutes before departure time - but the agent ignored the Concierge and had closed the gate. Plane still at the gate. Bascially the Concierge had no clout.

Having missed the 7am - rebooked on the 9am - which it turns out sat loaded at the gate for 3 hours - departing at noon and getting to DCA at 1:30pm. Oh well, at least the Concierge tried.

Did that gate agent said "I'm not holding up anything for you", or maybe "You will not board MY plane."? :D
Sounds like EWR GAs have ultimate power... :mad:

Seriously, perhaps this is the very moment when customers need Concierge's help, rather than arranging shower at PC, if it work as advertised.
CO should give BF Concierge more power/privillege/authority over GA, IMO.

Well I wish that British Airways had this sort of institution. I have to say to me - being of French background a Concierge meant someone who minded the mail door and delivered the post (She (as they always were she) also minded the business of the entire apartment block.

However, my experience of them to and fro LGW-EWR was of kind solicitous people who actually were there to solve problems and make things happen. One lady came and intorduced herself at LGW outbound, and another moved heaven and earth when we were snowed in at EWR in March. I cannot speak too highly of that lady. She was helpful beyond belief (she was not alone the staff in the PC were oustanding) and I for one will never forget her. Due to the nonsense, we were put on the next flight a night later and I was put into Y as BF was full. We actually were paid BF and the Concierge at the gate to LGW the next night sorted everything out. She came aboard and moved people so that we could sit together - in a word no one - no one could have done more and no more could have been reasonably expected.

I think that the Concierge service is yet another reason that CO has overtaken all other US competition at this point in time. When you have a problem a friendly competetent person is worth their weight in gold.

thanks, scott.

No the Concierge ran to the gate with me. And she tried to get the gate agent to open and let me on - since the flight was still there. The agent knew we were coming - and did not wait until 7am. So here I have the Concierge with me standing at the gate. The Concierge then went behind the counter and the Concierge rebooked me on the next flight at 9am. The Concierge was very helpful and went out of her way - just that the gate agent ignored her. I could see if we were going to be 5 minutes late - but the Concierge keep calling the gate as we ran.

This was a couple of years ago - not recent. But they are very helpful when you need them.

Do they have concierge at PEK, I am about to take PEK-EWR-DCA in BF.

I believe they have concierges in all BF markets...except Hawaii (which is strange because I can almost swear they treat it, and charge it, like a BF market :rolleyes: )

On two of my last three BF flights, the concierges greeted me by name and provided information regarding arrivals lounges. On a LGW-IAH flight, the concierge asked if I needed instructions on how to clear immigration and customs, and then reclear security to access the Terminal E P Club. On another BF flight into IAH a few weeks ago, the concierge did nothing except help check me in at the ticket counter - she did not approach anyone individually on the aircraft.

I have to agree with a previous poster a say they do nothing much other than deny upgrades as far as I can tell. Never saw one on a flt. to BFS.... On delayed return from GLA, no reaccommodation of missed connection at EWR as promised when we left...I mean I know she only had 7 hours to do it but......when we arrived in EWR, a concierge was half asleep behind a computer in the baggage claim and refused to do anything saying we'd have to run for our original flt. - or sort it out upstairs. After a nice run, sorting it out upstairs meant riding in Y to MCO on the next flt. while we were at the gate 15 min. before our original flt. left....they had given our F seats away and would not board us....thanks for the help BF concierge...

On EWR-EDI flt. misconnected from MCO and no accommodation made on my behalf at EWR -had to find the concierge for the flt. to CDG myself and suggest that he put me on it connecting to AF so not to waste a day. He said he would make a call and get my bags on the flt. to CDG with me...did not happen in the 90 min. prior to our departure. Bags arrived in EDI via CO the next day taking another day to reach my hotel from the airport. On arrival in CDG - nothing said or done by the concierge on our very late arrival.

Pretty much a worthless marketing tool that has no tangible benefit to the PAX 99% of the time. For my money, the FA can wish me a nice flt. before we leave the gate.

I've never come across a concierge on flights leaving the United States. I guess they're around, but I've never seen one. On flights TO the USA, they are usually there at the security interview, check-in, and at the gate. Tatiana, the concierge at GIG was incredibly nice.

So, how do people thing the concierge service compares today with what it was like, say, ten years ago--1997. In that year, IIRC, DUB and SNN were added as destinations. I recall Moscow made a brief appearance as a destination in the inflight magazine--it never materialized. Do you see any difference in the level or service?

Uhm, no they don't. NW does, followed closely by AA for their EXP pax.

Just because CO's ads say that there are free upgrades for elites, that doesn't necessarily make it so. Ask anyone here.

On an EWR-MAN flight last fall we wanted to get showers upon arrival. After arrival we waited a bit for the concierge. After a few minutes we gave up and just went to the ticket counter where they assisted us. For the most part I don't need anything from the concierge. I can see that they are useful if you do.

My only experience with BF Concierge is:

After boarding and settled into the seats, one lady approached us with manifest on her hands, "Mr. PforPlatinum and Mr. PforPlatinum Jr.? Thank you for flying with us today. Do you have connection at NRT? Are there anything we can help at arrival?"
I thought we were greeted because both were Elite (Gold at that time), but now I think it must be a Concierge.

As I usually fly between IAH and NRT without connection, and hotel is always reserved at Tokyo (or as coming back home in Houston) I don't need to take shower at the airport. So I don't feel I can take much advantage of having BF Concierge, but PAX with connection would be different.

I have been on 4 BF flights in the past 3 months and I have only seen or heard from the concierge once and found him completely useless. On this occasion, I had just settled into my BF seat on a CO flight from MXP-EWR and asked the FA about my wife possibly switching seats with me because she was seated in front of Y. The FA didn't think it was possible but he asked the concierge to confirm. The concierge rudely stated that we could only switch seats while the aircraft was still at the gate due to federal regulations. So, he was both rude and ignorant of CO's policy on this. I did not push the issue since they both said no. During the flight, the FAs acted as if I was bothering them whenever I asked them for anything. Upon landing in EWR, the concierge was nowhere to be found and neither was my primary suitcase. I am now sad to say that I am considering other alternatives when I have business overseas :(