This is a story contributed by reader Dr Bob Nadel from The Nadel Consulting Group, Inc
The story actually began when I read that New York’s Mayor Ed Koch had upgraded his first class ticket on Concorde from JFK to London for $300.
Wow, I thought, $300, I can do that. I was working for the Hay Group, a major worldwide management consulting firm. I had consulting assignments a few weeks hence in London to visit two clients along with another partner of the firm. I checked with her first, then checked with our in-house travel guru.
A regular first class British Airways round trip ticket was $900 to the best of my recollection.
And, just like Ed Koch, a one way up grade was $300. The only problem was that we would have to wait until Saturday morning, as the Friday afternoon flight was sold out. It was OK with me, OK with my partner, so we booked it.
On that Saturday morning, March 9, 1980, I felt great anticipation. What was it like going to be like to fly at Mach 2? Did you feel the speed? Did you feel the take off? The sonic boom?
When we got to the airport, we could see Concorde. Wait. Two Concordes?! I walked the hallway and took some pictures. The first Concorde was liveried British Airways, and just down the hall, the second was liveried Singapore Airlines.
I must admit, I loved to fly, but the United States and Europe was my territory. What was the significance of Singapore Airlines? I didn’t even take its picture. I kept walking back and forth, never thinking it was the same aircraft.
Finally, time to check-in. We were not yet paying $12,000 a ticket, so the lounge and check-in was not extraordinary. Our seats were in the first cabin (Concorde’s interior was divided into two cabins) so it felt a bit more like first class even though all 100 seats were a single class. I’m six-foot-three and I remember having to duck. Later I remember the lavatory had a very low ceiling. The seats were not much wider than a DC-9 but they were posh leather and there was a lot of leg room. In the seat pocket was a faux-leather gift folder with some stationery, and a certificate of flight. (I took another one from a passenger’s vacated seat as we de-planed. I guess he was already so jaded that he didn’t need such a souvenir.)
On the bulk head was a lighted panel. It was a Mach speed indicator, and on the panel were two logos, one for British Airways and the other for Singapore Airlines.
I later learned I was on Concorde G-BOAD, the only Concorde painted with Singapore Airlines livery on the right side and BA livery on the left. There were not two aircraft at Heathrow, just one aircraft, two liveries. I was fooled.
As we were settling in, the captain came by and as if magic, one of the flight attendants was at my seat at the exact moment. I asked the captain what was it like to fly this beautiful bird. He generously replied, come see for yourself, and said to the flight attendant, bring this gentleman to the flight deck after Mach 2.
The tug pushed us back, we rolled to the runway, and took off. It was normal at first, then fast, and then a steep take off. Steeper than I remember on any other aircraft. (But not rollercoaster stomach dropping time.) We reached Mach 1 and no BOOM was audible in the cabin. And suddenly it was Mach 2 and the flight attendant remembered as if it was maritime law. She came to escort me to the fight deck with my camera in hand. I missed the hors d’oeuvres, the meal service and the champagne.
My partner told me later that I had missed the best caviar, wine and meal service, but she had saved my dessert and the place setting, which I promptly stole, along with some glasses and flatware.
She enjoyed the ceremony of the meal and I enjoyed sitting on a small jump seat and talking to the flight crew.
We were at 56,500 feet and flying at Mach 2.04.
While I was on the flight-deck she said looking out the small window and seeing the curvature of the earth was like being in a space ship. The sky was very dark above.
There was also a great management lesson from this as well. I asked the pilots if they flew together as a team all the time and knew each other. The response surprised me. “We have seen each other before, but we don’t fly with each other all the time. We don’t depend on each other’s habits. That’s why we have checklists and checkpoints. We need each other to check each other.”
We landed at JFK three hours and 26 minutes after we took off. I was one hour and 35 minutes younger than when I left Heathrow.
The beautiful bird rolled to its gate and we deplaned. At customs and immigration we were handled in a special line. But then we waited one and a half hours for the baggage, because it seems the baggage door had frozen. But it didn’t matter, because I had just had a ride on Concorde, G-BOAD.
This is a story contributed by reader Dr Bob Nadel from The Nadel Consulting Group, Inc
Have you flown on a Concorde? We’d love to hear from your story in the comment section below.
For all of you who flew British Concorde November 23, 1977 until December of 1979, I fed you. Yes, I was a cook for the Concorde under the guidance of my French Chef. I love reading everyone’s experience with Concorde albeit traveler or working on Concorde. All the stories told keeps Concorde alive, as it should be. What a great part of history.
Cheers,
John
May 1980, I upgraded my BA economy ticket Dhahran to London and took the BA/Singapore Concorde from Bahrain to London. Cost £200.00.
Fantastic experience. Mach 2 across Saudi, the Red Sea and on up the Adriatic at an altitude of 58,000 ft to then go subsonic over Europe to Heathrow. Three hours, a brilliant experience.
Working in Saudi at the time Concorde was a regular sight and sound. Beautiful aircraft.
In 1985, whilst installing an elevator at Colombo international airport’s control tower, Concorde, on a world tour, arrived. The interest from the Sri Lankan’s who turned up at the airport to see this wonder arrive was quite something. Upon departure, after take off, the captain looped Concorde around the airport, swooped in and performed a very low altitude flyover, flying along the length of the runway to then soar away on its next leg of the journey. Witnessing that from the control tower was nearly as good as being on board the flight itself.
PS I can confirm that the Concorde operated to Paya Lebar. Changi (commercial) was a long way off.
Best regards
Gerry Stevens
Hello All,
The one way fare London-Bahrain-Singapore was GBP 1330. Quite a lot for that time. Must say I was more than fortunate to get a free ticket for myself and wife (one-way) due to my involvement in the SQ/BA negotiations.
Best regards
Gerry Stevens
MSA/SIA 1971 to 2004
Wow! I have always keen to know how much it cost for the ticket to fly from SIN to LHR in concorde plane with its half livery BA-SIA back then? I have been searching for info but I could not find. Was it at Singapore International Airport at Paya Lebar? Thank you. 🙂
How long do you think it would take to fly concorde on the Singapore-Newark leg?
Concorde do not have the range for ultra long haul.
To Sam, just stop at Bahrain, then go to Heathrow, then go to Newark. easy
Thank you. Most enjoyable memories. It may interest readers to know that I despatched the first joint Concorde British Airways/Singapore Airlines flight London-Bahrain-Singapore on 9 December 1977. When I say despatched I mean I was the SIA official in charge as Asst Station Manager Heathrow SIA whilst, of course, the aircraft (flown by BA Flight Deck Crew) was despatched by a BA Despatcher. The Cabin Crew were half BA and half SIA. Passengers used to tell us they preferred being served by the SIA crew !!! But of course, I would say that !! The proncipal guests on board were the UK Minister of Transport and the UK gnereal Manager for SIA plus various BA senior officials. After only a few flights, countries such as India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia etc discovered ‘environmental concerns’ and promptly banned the Concorde from their airspace. They forgot their reservations from 24 January 1979 when services resumed. However, they finally ceased from 01 November 1980 as Australia refused permission to extend the service to Sydney (clearly to protect Qantas).BA, of course, blamed SIA !! I had the good fortune to fly London-Bahrain-Singapore on the aircraft and also once again from Glasgow to Heathrow (albeit at subsonic speed !).
Happy Days !!
Thanks Gerry for sharing your memory with us!
Hi Gerry thanks to you and also the others for these great pots. I am an ex flyer LHR to JFK on BA001 aircraft Alpha Echo for the last Saturday service to NY on Sat 18 Oct 2003. It was an amazing trip.
I am intrigued about the LHR To Singapore and eventual Sydney plans. I realise about all the politics,against it but have the following Qs. – How long would it have taken To Sydney incl stops. Also would the comfort levels have been acceptable on such a long service in the smaller seats and cabin. I guess the only comparable service was the Barbados service they used to run. Thanks fir any info and keep up the great reporting chaps. Trev S
I flew on an AF Concorde in 1989. The whole time in the Cockpit (special favor). An amazing experience, including taking off from JFK and making a sharp left to avoid the southern tip of manhattan. Fortunately, the flight attendants saved me some of the amazing food.
Thanks for the article. Really enjoy this stuff. There was a documentary in the 1970s that had great footage of the LHR-BAH-SIN route, including lots of background and complications. I shared a bit of that (it’s super-niche) this weekend in the (only) BAEC Gold+/GGL FB group that I curate and admin. My personal “niche” is TWA Royal Ambassador in the 1980s, including my beloved L1011.
Just an irony….
Hay,
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Much like the above story, I first flew Concorde on an upgrade from F (actually Y) back in the late 70s. I had business in Washington DC and a conference in Dallas a few days later. I also knew that Braniff was flying it’s dinner flight between the two cities with BA and AF Concordes (on alternate evenings) so I paid the difference (not much more than $50) between Y my employer would pay for and this Uber-F fare Braniff sold this flight for. Of course, given the flight was over land, we never broke 0.9 on the Mach Meter.
It would be a couple of decades later that I flew Concorde again, this time across the Atlantic at Mach 2, thanks to a QF award ticket. Celebs sitting in front and behind me on the flights include British theatre director Sir Peter Hall, broadcaster Barbara Walters and singer Michael Jackson (and his entourage of NJ mafioso type body guards carrying Disney Store shopping bags stuffed with Mickey Mouse dolls!).
My personal Concorde is BOAG which took me across the Atlantic in both directions, did it’s final world tour with a stop at YYZ where I was able to renew our acquaintance and now resides in Seattle at the Boeing Field aviation museum (where I visited her once more).
Who cares if it takes 1 hr and 30 mins for your bags to arrive, if you just took off 4 hours off your travel time.