Concorde Is it worth the price?
 

My travel agent has booked Concorde tickets fro us, I have until tomorrow to cancel without penality. I would like to know from people who have travelled on the Concorde what it is like. Is it worth the money? Besides speed how is it different from a regular flight? Thanks.

Didn't the final flight of the Concorde take place last week, and it broke down?

Here is a link that might help you:

www.britishairways.com/baconcorde

I've never flown it myself, but know people who have. Apparently, if you're tall, you're going to suffer because you can't stand up fully. The plane is curved so you walk around with your head tilted. There are only 100 seats on the plane.

If you're in a rush for a meeting or have money to burn it might be worth it.

I find the prices startling. $7,999 US, not including tax, ONE WAY, in Business Class, from London to Boston or Washington, or $8,999 in First Class.

And there are 33 days left until the final flight...

I thought the Concorde flights had stopped, but if you are booked to take one of the last I would go for it. My late mother and stepfather took the Concorde over and a cruise ship back a couple of years ago and totally enjoyed the experience It is like totally first class.

Since when, did the Concorde start flying again?

They stop flying at the end of October.

My relatives have flown from France to New York a couple times and said outside of speed, it was a crummy flight. Sure they give you nice champagne, but the seats are small and very cramped. It all depends on what you're looking for, I guess.

Hmm. I always thought spending that kind of dough for semi useful purposes was ostentacious, conspicuous consumption.
Sort of like flaunting an 8 carat diamond ring.
At least you can let people know that you have (had)money to burn.

Concorde is about to pass into history so if you have the chance to do it I would say go for it. This will probably be the last time in our lifetimes that passenger plane travel will fly at those speeds and at that height.

The reason Corcorde is being taken out of service is the extremely high cost of flying and maintaining the planes.

If I could, I would.

Oh and PLEASE give us a full report when you get home.

"...last time in our lifetimes that passeneger plane travel will fly at those speeds and at that height"

I'd be very surprised if 40 years pass and aeronautical engineers fail to come up with a way to transport people at rates beyond Mach 1 in a more economical way than the Concorde offers.
The Concorde will likely be looked back upon as a revolutionary step toward much faster and more efficient air travel.

Look for the September issue of Vanity Fair magazine (George Clooney on the cover) for an excellent, in-depth article about the Concorde.
We have a friend who flew the Concorde six times in three consecutive days in November, 1998 and he enjoyed it (this is a true story about the reason he flew: a German car company was in a major panic over stories that were being shown on one of the US networks breakfast shows about the company's use of slave labor during WW II. He and a friend were flown to NY to watch the show, tape it, transcribe the segment, then catch the Concorde to London to deliver the tape, then fly back. This was costing the company about $15,000 each day, or whatever the RT rate was for Concorde then, but management wanted the transcrips to prepare a response. The huge joke of it all is that complete transcripts of the segments were available FREE each day on the tv show's web site!! LOL, so much for German efficiency.)

Well I have flown Concorde and I thought it was worth it. One of the top 10 things you must do before you die (according to a recent UK poll). There is no other aircraft like it. Don't go if you are looking for first class pampering - you do get that but its cheaper to go first class on ant other transalantic plane. Taking off is like being catapulted into the sky and you can see the curvature of the earth, the plane grows in length during flight and the walls of the aircraft feel warm (all this is normal and is something to do with the engineering). It took under 3 hours to get from JFK to London and twice as long as that to get from London to Manchester by car. Thats what you pay for. If I see Concorde now, I always think, I've been on that it still makes me shiver. Go, go go.....never again will we see the like in our lifetime.

Are you kidding? Go. Get on that plane and fly the concorde. For most people, it is only something they will dream about. After the end of October, the choice will be taken out of your hands.

I agree with getting this months Vanity Fair. It is a great article about the Concorde and those who flew transatlantic.

It was my understanding that all of the remaining flights are sold out.

The closest I ever got to the Concorde was seeing one land at JFK a couple months ago.

I disagree that we will be flying at those speeds again for a very long time. The technology does not exsist now to make the plane viable in the market. That's why the VERY high price tag on a ticket.

When the technology does exsist in say 10 years or maybe less, then it will take another 10 years to get the plane developed, built and in service.

The new plane coming into service the 787 was more than 10 years in the development, design and in building and it takes hundreds of millions of dollars, so it is a HUGE investment. If the payoff is not large enough and right now it is not, that is why the planes are being taken out of service, the technology will take even longer to happen.

So GO and tell us all about it.