-
I’m sure this has been asked a million times, but things keep changing and I’m only going to do this once, so want to get it right.
I’ve spent the best part of 20 years saving 400,000 BA miles mainly on credit cards, because I a) want to visit the Concorde lounge, and b) want to experience BA first. I know there are better 1sts out there, but I’m fixated on the Concorde lounge!
I’ve identified a trip mate and we’ve decided on Mar 23 for the adventure. Now I have until Mar to make a plan, before we try to book. We’re allocating seven days to the trip, start to finish.
Questions I have:
1. On what routes do I maximise the chances of getting two reward flights in 1st, from LHR?
2. Should I forget the idea of returning 1st and accept this will be Club?
3. Is there anything else I ought to be aware of?We’ll go to JFK (which I have heard anecdotally has more availability), but have both been multiple times and would prefer somewhere else, or an onward trip.
The same applies to SFO, LA, Vancouver and Las Vegas – but we’re trying to be realistic given the aim is to maximise the 1st experience.
All advice greatly appreciated. I don’t want to screw this up!
- This topic was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .
BA does not guarentee to release any F rewards so that is your first hurdle.
If they do it won’t necessarily be right from the opening up of the 355 day booking window.
Even if they do release F rewards they may only be one seat available on one leg (with no guarentee this will be on the ex-LHR legs)
Given the changes to the BA fleet the number of planes with F has reduced and with that the number of routes F is offered on which reduced your options even more.
If Alibongo wasn’t fixated on the Concorde room then I’d say get yourself to Terminal 3 and go on Qatar. Or on Cathay if we are lucky enough for them to cone back in full.
Personally I simply cant compare a massproduced scone in the Concorde Room in T5 even if it is with Champagne, with using my avios to go to Japan in First from T3 on Jaoan Air Lines. But I do understand the ambition.
First has been taken off many planes and routes by BA. I guess it’s still on Barbados but not sure what cost
You can do very well with 400,000 miles but I think you are wasting them if you try to travel so soon. I doubt Concorde Room will have returned to full service by then. Nor will cabin service most probably. For this kind of trip especially wantibg seats in First, booking a year ahead – literally – is not unusual.
I’d fly the shortest route that would give me access to Concorde Room then switch onto another airline’s well researched route and plane for tbe rest of ny trip to Buenos Aires or Hawaii or wherever. Do you have a 241 voucher? If not you should maybe get one in the tine it will take you to plan to travel at a later date I think you are unlikely to be able to plan the experience you want travelling so soon. Especially as even if covid’s gone tomorrow things wont be back to full service by March.
However while I would advise you to hold back on date so as to plan and get the best experience these avios have taken you a longvtime to save up so don’t hold back too long. I have a feeling the value of your avios could suffer a devaluation if you leave it too long. So you should be planning now and aim to use when you’ve found what you want.
OP is planning to travel March 23 so hopefully CCL will be back open, unless BA decides to “enhance” it away along with the spa treatments!
As pointed out, F seats may or may not appear. On some routes they appear a couple of months after the usual award seats are released – PHL seems to be a case in point. I’ve seen F on JFK, ORD and IAD as well (I have IAD booked for next Xmas). There always seem to be plenty of F award seats to BDA but this is a relatively short flight for long haul so you might not feel you were getting enough value.
My view is that F isn’t worth it on the return if you’re intending to just sleep. There are early morning flights back from NYC and BOS, though I’ve never seen F available (possibly no F cabin on the service), so if you’d like to enjoy CW fully coming back, either of those would be an option. It would be perfecty possible to fly into one and out of the other as well.
Even without a 241, if you choose off-peak dates, out to east coast US in F and back in J will only cost 236k avios so you’d still have some left over for another trip.
There’s a thread on Flyertalk about the current CCL offering, looks like it’s back to the full menu now.
Well according to Seatspy, if you want to travel on the 23rd of March, you have a choice of Nigeria (Abuja or Lagos) or Atlanta. Both have two seats in First on the way out.
Well according to Seatspy, if you want to travel on the 23rd of March, you have a choice of Nigeria (Abuja or Lagos) or Atlanta. Both have two seats in First on the way out.
OP is looking at 2023
Mexico City is a good route for First availability, as well as a great place to visit.
It’s called the Concorde Room, not the Concorde lounge.
It’s called the Concorde Room, not the Concorde lounge.
Don’t worry, Andrew, or Alibongo, it hasn’t stopped me (or presumably anyone else) getting in!
- This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .
I’d say get yourself to Terminal 3 and go on Qatar.
Qatar also fly form T5 now, previously T4, so not sure where T3 comes in. Possibly if you’re flying QR in F on the newly reintroduced A380 service then access to the CCR could be given.
Hi there Alibongo,
I have flown BA first on two trips and I do understand the thrill of anticipation.
First trip was pre Covid in 2019 to Washington DC and second was last week to JFK.My thoughts for what they are worth:
Book an afternoon/early flight to fully enjoy the Concorde Room. We did that for our IAD trip. Then enjoyed lunch in the CCR and dinner on the plane. For JFK it was the 9.50 flight so we had breakfast in their which was nice but not the same feeling.Be as flexible as you can on dates – the first availability seems to fluctuate. Also The JFK seats opened up after I had booked CW so I just called to upgrade.
Book as long a flight as you can to savour the experience. I do agree that the return leg from JFK is so short that First is hardly worth it. Our return flight last week was 5.5 hours! I had booked WTP which is hard when you have flown first outbound but it was the 8.05 flight and even Club seemed a waste of points. I did miss a lounge at JFK and had to made do with a Dunkin coffee !!
Good luck in the planning – have you thought of going to Austin or Houston ?
Edit:
My thoughts for what they are worth:
Book an afternoon/early evening flight.Investing in a Seatspy subscription for a few months will make it easier to spot the opportunities.
There’s also a good article on BA First availability at TPG entitled: “Which British Airways routes have first class Avios award availability?” You can search for it on Google. Unfortunately forums won’t allow me to link to it.
- This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .
I completely understand why you’d want to do this, so don’t be discouraged by anyone whose aspirations are different from yours. You will have an amazing time. Good luck!
Be realistic with your expectations, though. The Concorde Room is an absolutely lovely place to start a trip and will make you feel very, very special, but it is still an airport lounge run by a massive corporation. I have several local restaurants and bars where I would prefer to spend time, if only they were transported to Heathrow, because they ooze more character and individuality. Having said that, my experience in the air has consistently been fabulous in First as I have always been blessed with great cabin crews who have added the personal touch that can be missing in the Concorde Room.
Allow yourself lots of time in the Concorde Room. Eat in the restaurant, as the food is very good, but don’t eat too much as you’ll also want to enjoy the food on your flight. Be prepared to move around to soak up the atmosphere – the terrace has a very different feel from the tables by the bar, for example. A good strategy might be skip breakfast, take brunch in the Concorde Room and eat another meal on an early afternoon flight.
If you go to JFK, don’t forget that it has its own Concorde Room, which is just as good, albeit smaller and quieter; also, the F check-in area in JFK is a good experience with its own drop-off area for taxis. For that reason, I would recommend returning in F from there despite the short flight.
My biggest advice on planning is to do your best to be flexible on dates if at all possible. Reward flights on F have very patchy availability and you may not get the route you want on the dates you prefer. Subscribe to Seatspy, set up some alerts, and bite as soon as something turns up.
On final thing: if you see a coffee stain on you Concorde Room sofa, I apologise…I did clean up to the best of my abilities but the spillage was large!
Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences and advice. It all helps a lot, and now I’m even more excited!
Mick Fleetwood was playing the piano in the Concorde Room last time we were there (we guessed he was en route home to Maui!) I love my breakfasts so being able to have scrambled eggs and smoked salmon on a day bed washed down with LPGS was absolute heaven. This was followed by a relaxing eye treatment, which of course won’t be on offer any more!
While we’re on the topic – next Xmas OH and I will be in F to IAD and our 17 year old is taking one for the team and slumming it in J. Would we be able to guest him into the CCR or F lounge or is this a status thing (highest we have is Bronze)? It’s not a huge deal as he’ll be perfectly happy in the business lounge but I’m just interested to know.
The first time my partner and I flew BA F 6-7 years ago, we arrived at the airport at noon for 7pm flight. First had lunch in the Concorde Room. Really took our time. Then spent 2-3 hours on the terrace sipping on champagne followed by massage (they still offered it then), then went over to F lounge and had afternoon tea and more champagne. Then dinner on board. I think we overdid the champagne and food and as a result I couldn’t sleep for most of the flight to Hong Kong. My advice is therefore don’t eat too much on the ground. We shouldn’t have done afternoon tea!
In any case, you also need to watch out that your flight doesn’t leave from Terminal 3 if you really want to visit Concorde Room. However, if Cathay First class lounge opens by then, it’s much better than Concorde Room.
While we’re on the topic – next Xmas OH and I will be in F to IAD and our 17 year old is taking one for the team and slumming it in J. Would we be able to guest him into the CCR or F lounge or is this a status thing (highest we have is Bronze)? It’s not a huge deal as he’ll be perfectly happy in the business lounge but I’m just interested to know.
Your F tickets would allow each a +1 into CCR (we did 2 random guests from the old flyertalk lounge meet-up thread a while back). I will also be guesting a Y passenger in in June to LAX.
Thanks @Sean MC, I will file that info away. Son would no doubt be fine but it’s just more convenient if we’re all together, also he’d never check the departure board so we’d have to go in and extract him at boarding time!
+1 for Mexico City.
We travelled in First for our honeymoon in 2019 (using Avios and 2for1).
It’s a daytime departure with two full meal services and a flight time of 11+ hours which really maximises the F experience (as well as an excellent amount of time in CCR pre-departure).
Flight is operated by 787-9, so it’s a smaller F cabin but historically they were quite good at releasing F seats on this route.
We then paid cash to get to Costa Rica after 5 days in MEX, flying back from San José (CR) to LGW in Club (unfortunately on a rather tired 777-200ER). F was well worth it for the outbound, nice BA PJs and plenty of LPGS 🥂🍾✈️
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
