The past few days have seen the earlier parts of this series being published – Blue/Bronze, Silver and Gold/Gold Guest List.
Today we look at what happens when you pass through Gold Guest List and secure a Concorde Room card.
At 5,000 Tier Points in a year, you receive a second BA card. This card grants access to the Concorde Rooms in JFK and London Heathrow, Terminal 5.
At Washington Dulles there is a Concorde Dining Room which, it is reported, can be accessed by Concorde Room Card holders.
At Singapore there is a Concorde Bar, located within the Lounge. Again, it is reported that this is accessible by Concorde Room Card holders. I hope to try this out in March when I am headed that way.
So what’s so good about the Concorde Rooms?
Well they are usually accessible by passengers Flying First Class, not by oneworld Emerald members – they can use the First Class Lounge. This means that it can be pretty quiet. Concorde Room Cardholders can use the rooms regardless of their class of travel.
At Terminal 5 you can access the room via the special door from South Security, which it is rumoured costs BA £1m per year which it has to pay to avoid its best passengers having to go the long route from Security to the lounge pavilion.
Both JFK and T5, have restaurants and waiter service. This is usually a great time saver. On overnight flights from JFK you can eat before getting on the plane and go to sleep straight away, or at least after a couple of glasses of champagne! The menus change monthly and the staff will try and put anything together that you might feel like from options available.
Is there anything bad about the Concorde Rooms?
They seem to have less electrical outlets than the other lounges in my experience.
There are mixed experiences about the staff although I find them helpful and kind when I use the rooms. The WiFi is strong and uses the standard password of the month.
Both JFK and T5 have bars which are manned and they make a mean coffee in both locations if you don’t want alcohol.
PREMIER
Premier status with BA is an invitation-only tier issued to those responsible to control of significant amounts of travel spending or senior executives of those firms.
What are the advantages of being Premier? I understand they too may use the Concorde Rooms and receive Special Services treatment. Do they receive any Gold Upgrade Certificates or “Jokers” as well? Do they earn higher amounts of Avios per segment? This information would be important to anyone controlling a large travel budget (or someone who is just curious to know what treatment a BA VVIP gets).