Anyone ever lucky enough to fly with BA or AF on Concorde?
I have flown twice on Concorde and both times it was a real occasion which I greatly enjoyed.
Once from LHR - JFK and once from JFK - LHR on BA and were business expenses.
Air France flew from Paris to Rio.
From the moment you check in you are treated like royalty and the staff were trained way beyond the norm in customer satisfaction.
The passenger cabin in the plane is surprisingly small and you are discouraged from leaving your seat as it was such a pain trying to squeeze by the flight attendants trolleys in the cramped aisles, and there was always at least 3 trolleys being used at any one time.
The seats on board were perfectly comfortable and the leg room, although less than in first class on a 747, was superb.
The flights were unremarkable apart from the steep angle of departure and as you go through the sound barrier there is a gentle push in the back to remind you that you are flying supersonic.
Flying at twice the height of a regular trans-Atlantic flight (60k feet rather than 35k feet) means that you don't get to see much of what's happening at sea level below, however seeing the curvature of the Earth reminds you that you are flying in something special.
Both of my flights took around 3hours 15 mins and the experience was over so quickly.
Although the speeds are far apart, there is far more sensation doing 185mph in a Japanese bullet train than going 7 times that speed on Concorde.
I very much regret the passing of Concorde and compare her demise with the loss of the great ocean liners which we won't see again. (Not to be confused with the filing cabinets for people, also known as 'cruise ships').
