Goal to fly the Concorde, Help
 

My travel goal for 2003 is to fly the Concorde, any route, with minimal $$ and/or FF miles. Ideas on how I can accomplish?

I am NW Platinum, have over 500K miles, 200K marriott points.
Thanks!
TCflygirl

I'm not sure Community is the right place for this, and I'm no BA expert, but I do think I have an answer for you.

A round-trip award on the Concorde is 125,000 BA miles. Alternatively, for 95,000 BA miles, you can fly one-way on the Concorde and return in economy on a traditional jet.

Marriott points can be exchanged for BA miles, but this is where an exact calculation of your Marriott points is required. To get 125k BA miles, you would need 2 566 awards (125k Marriott = 50k BA * 2 = 100k) and 1 565 award (75k Marriott = 25k BA) for a total of 325k Marriott Points. Similarly, the 95k BA miles would require 2 566's (250k Marriott total = 100k BA total) for a total of 250k Marriott points.

In reading the BA board, someone implied if you book your award directly through the BA executive club desk, you may be able to redeem just a one-way Concorde award JFK-LHR for 80k BA miles, which would require a 566, a 565, and a 789, where 215k Marriott points would get you 80k BA miles. Then you could get a NW award for the return and any domestic connections.

All of this is convoluted, and it would certainly make it easier if there were a way to transfer miles out of NW to a program that could get you a BA award, but unfortunately that doesn't appear to be the case.

Note that this answer only applies to a solution strictly within the terms and conditions of the programs. I'm sure others may offer alternatives that may or may not be technically permitted but would still work.

You could try e mailing Americana vacations plc at [email protected] they have special fares one way on a Concorde and economy/ club/first the other way. Not cheap but might be worth a shot.

Nigel

Delta has a round-trip award on the Air France Concorde to Paris for 160,000 miles. I've gotten four of these in the last 3 years.

Bruce

I've never taken a flight on BA but I just transferred 140K miles into my account from Diner's Club double miles promotion. BA usually runs this in the summer.

I originally planned on a couple of W+ tix but now I'm saving for at least biz class. If I keep putting miles in (hotel hopping, etc.) I'll wind up with enough for a Concorde out/biz back or something like that.

Not sure if I'll make it in 2003, but at least it's a do-able goal to shoot for.

Priority Club (Holiday Inns. etc.) is running a double miles promo in January. A bit of hopping there could get you 5-10K miles in a short time.

Lots of ways to get the miles needed. If you're bound and determined to pay ($12,000 R/T?)...well, God bless you.

I would try and go to coupon connection and make a trade for some Qantas miles. 125,000 will get you Concorde both ways or one way on BA up to 10K miles.

I am not in favor of DL/NW/CO codesharing. However if it does get approved (maybe late this month), I hope NW offers an AF Concorde award for 160,000 mi. If so, save me a seat!

I don't care for DL so I am 80,000 mi short. I should not have wasted a DL award on NZ a few years ago and saved it for Concorde.

If you have 100,000 Starwood points you can move them over to Qantas now and get enough miles for two BA Concorde flights. An amazing deal. Won't last long.

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ff

Thanks for all the great ideas! I do have some Starwood points and can cetainly utilize some of the other avenues. I'll get researching and I'll see you on the Concorde!

TC Fly Girl, former APN guy here... good luck with the Concorde award, I recently got mine booked for next summer, using the SPG>Qantas>BA route. Also, if you have AMEX rewards points, you can convert those to SPG points and into Qantas miles, but hurry, SPG is going to a 1:1 from a 1:2 Qantas miles ration at the end of the year. Good Luck!

The real thing that we need to do is get our crappy protectionist government to open up our skies, and in the process allow AA and BA miles to be earned and used interchangibly across the Atlantic.

d

Major bummer on changing the conversion from 1:2 to 1:1 (sure enough, its noted on the Starwood site). This already was a great deal yet I was lucky enough to also convert AMEX MR points at 2:1 (special promotional conversion rate - normally it is 3:1) to Starwood then Starwood to Qantas at 1:2 which when combined with the 25% bonus given by Starwood for every 20,000 points transferred yielded (2) BA 1st Class awards N. America - Europe (each limited to 10,000 total miles flown including any open jaw) thru Qantas which are usable for Concorde on the JFK-LHR portion of the trip, the rest in Europe is in business class. All of this for a mere 100,000 AMEX MR points !!!

As they always say, anything that's too good can't last forever.

YGM :-)

Check out the footnote here:

http://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/dyn/...s/pointsTables

Correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I can tell you can no longer get BA Concorde awards through the Quantas FF program. This was also posted somewhere on the Starwood forum.

Another option is to look and see if there is a BA consumer credit card available. Like you - I'm also aiming for a concorde flight (although likely not until 2004). Our corporate card gives BA miles at 1 per dollar - in addition to charging all of my travel expenses, I typically use it for gas, groceries, etc. and then pay off the bill every month in order to bump up my miles.

Yes, this is what the rules do say... but some people have had luck getting flights booked on Condcorde recently, without any problems http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif - See the threads on this subject in the Qantas Forum

People seem very Anglofile here talking almost exclusively about BA, forgetting that AF also flies Concorde. And as one of you has already noted, DL's program has an award on this service. However, as a NW WorldPerks member, you will have to wait a while until it formally joins the SKYTEAM alliance in the new year. Then you will be able to use your points from NW's program for awards on AF.

Having now flown Concorde round trip twice -- once through the aforementioned SPG-->QF conversion deal, another on a purchased ticket -- I am sure you will enjoy the experience that I personally believe anyone considering him or her self a true FFer, needs to have. While many complain about how cramped Concorde is, or how the meal didn't live up to their expectations, it is a unique experience and that is the reason for flying it. Good luck, tc fly girl, your patience should be rewarded by WorldPerks some time in 2003. Save your Marriott points for a nice stay at one of their Paris luxury properties to heighten the overall effect of the trip.

Thanks for the ideas. I like the BA credit
card suggestion. I called BA and I have about 10K miles with them so that's a start.
Doesn't look like I'll make it in 2003 but it's still my goal, and I WILL do it.
TC FLY Girl

Always worth keeping a lookout for special offers. BA often runs specials to or from Eastern Europe via London, with one leg on Concorde. Right now, you can fly SVO-LHR-JFK-LHR-JFK for $3999. It's C/J all the way, with one leg on Concorde (which, incidentally, would in itself earn you nearly half the BA miles you would need for a one-way redemption flight on Concorde via the UK EC program).

[This message has been edited by Dr. Zhivago (edited 12-15-2002).]

Don't know if you are still interested ... but ...

Posted 8:40 a.m. ET - Monday
NEWS, DEALS: Fly to London on British Airways' Concorde and return on business class for $2,003. Depart Dec. 26-27 or Dec. 29-31 from New York; return to any of British Airways' U.S. gateways Dec. 30 through Jan. 3. Sale begins at 7 a.m. ET today. Seats are limited. Fare does not include taxes and fees.

Tempting.

I think it's smart to try concorde one way and first class the other, if you just wanted to try it before it is retired.

Nearly everyone I know who does this though, wishes they had just done first class the whole way. They all rave fondly about BA first class on regular planes, but say the concorde was a spartan let down. If you want a premier flying experience, concorde really isn't it, but it's handy if the shortest flying time is critical.

I'm another one of those who took advantage of the incredible deal via InsideFlyer subscriptions this past summer (and BTW QF confirmed for me on 12/17/02 that we can still use QF points for Concorde travel).

I highly recommend it and suggest plotting your travel for low loads (I flew JFK/LHR on Sept. 11, 2002 and there were only 27 of us onboard, including Pierce Brosnan). On the way back (October 7, 2002) the plane was packed because of BA's offer to upgrade anyone who paid Club Class fare - and a packed Concorde is nowhere near as much fun! Instead of enjoying every second, I actually found myself just wanting to get out into the "fresh" air of JFK.

Remember to ask for any freebies - they no longer give out presents like Concorde playing cards, leather portfolio, etc., but you should be able to at least get a Smythson stationery kit that includes your Concorde certificate (with a nice pen you can ask the captain to sign your cert with).

Be sure to get to LHR early enough to enjoy the lounge (a bar that serves cocktails AND smoothies and remember you're also welcome in the First and Club Class lounges so feel free to check those out too) and don't miss the spa downstairs where you can get a free facial or massage.

Basically tc fly girl
- get there any way you can and enjoy it!!!!

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Remember the BA AMEX Credit Card guys....with a £120 fee (free if you are a Platinum or Centurion) per annum you get to earn BA miles at 1.5 per £1 (GBP) spent and at 3 per £1 spent on BA products (fares, on board gifts etc).

The big present is when you have spent £15,000 on the card, you get a certificate entitling you to a companion ticket for tickets given for points encashment. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

This is a UK product but I understand that the BA Visa is available in the USA.

Therefore, you cash points for a BA concorde ticket and get a second one free ! Can't say fairer than that....

I too want to go on Concorde this year - sometime during October....any new ideas about offers we can take advatage of for this year (teh *Wood IF one is obviously in the past now !



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Bond Boy