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Experience Review: Concorde
I was sad to hear about the impending end to one of the greatest customer experiences I know of: Concorde. The New York Times reported [1] last month that British Airways and Air France will both halt their Concorde flights later this year, leaving time for only a few more lucky travelers to have the best travel experience in the world.
Last August I was lucky enough to fly Concorde from London to New York. It was easily the best plane flight I've ever taken. More to the point, it's among the top five *coolest* experiences I've ever had.
The view from the lounge, awaiting departure, was tantalizing.
In-flight displays, flush with the bulkhead, showed speed, altitude, and outside temperature. It's not every day that you see a four-digit speed reading.
Here are some aspects of the Concorde experience to consider:
- We flew at 57,000 feet at a speed of 1,350 miles an hour, or Mach 2.0 (double the speed of sound). The temperature outside was -80 F (-62 C).
- Flying time from London to NYC was 3 hours, 19 minutes - less than 30 minutes away from the fastest transatlantic crossing ever recorded in a passenger aircraft. We arrived in New York (9:30am) an hour before we left London (10:30am). The flight was shorter than my frequent direct flights to Dallas. On night flights you can see a reverse sunset, as the sun rises in the west.
- The flight, number 001, leaves the gate on time every day.
- The food was fantastic.
- The reclining seats included raising the knees higher than the hips - a crucial design tactic missed by most chairs in the world.
- There are two sonic booms heard on the ground (we broke the sound barrier about 50 miles outside London - people in the suburbs don't like getting boomed). In the plane, they feel like two gentle bumps. of course we didn't hear the boom - we outran the sound. (Some residents of Long Island, near New York's JFK airport, are reportedly delighted to hear of Concorde's demise. No more irritating booms coming from Concorde.)
- The crew and pilots who work on the plane are clearly happy to have the job... they refer to the plane as a "she" and in general call it just "Concorde," never "the Concorde." I've only heard of that practice elsewhere from the original Mac team, which always called their product "Macintosh," never "the Macintosh." I got the sense that the love and pride in the product is similar on the Concorde team.
- Other than New York and London, the only other (British Airways) Concorde destination is Barbados. Air France also flies to Paris.
Needless to say, I'm sorry that I'll likely not get a chance to ride on it again. Ironically, I find myself thinking that the whole experience went by too quickly! :)
