Why choose Virgin Atlantic?
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at 20:47 by YellowBelly.
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superchrisParticipantI also used to be gold at the moment and now fly them only when I have to. Reasons :
* Declining service in upper including appalling quality and quantity of food
* Belittled when complaining about a freezing cold cabin when the heating had broken on a 12 hour hop to Joburg. The wouldn’t even give me an extra blanket. Lost 2 days work in bed ill, Virgin loosely apologies and gave me a £20 voucher
* I detest the way they announce the number of passengers on a flight prior to take off; reminds me of the headline in the following morning paper as an accident statistic
* I hate the self congratulatory comments at the end of the flight ‘ thank you to our wonderful cabin crew’. Its not there job to congratulate each other, its the duty of the passengers and frankly I doubt they do this often
They are a shadow of their former self!
16 Jul 2015
at 16:53
Carajillo2SugarParticipanttrident3 – I agree, the outward connection is long. The return, however, shows a stop-over in London (see dates of flights JNB-LON-MXP).
I was simply demonstrating that it offers such a bargain fare on a through ticket, whilst still giving the option of a break in the journey, if required.
16 Jul 2015
at 17:01
MrMichaelParticipantThe only significant thing about Virgin Atlantic to me is that it is part owned by the king of spin. A mediocre airline using a strong brand.
I don’t choose Virgin Atlantic as I get the impression from reviews on various forums that it is all lipstick and no gloss. It rarely has terrible reviews, but rarely has excellent ones either, just mediocre. It rarely shows a profit, it is small, prior to the deal with Delta I thought it may go the way of Laker. I tend to believe the whole Virgin group is a pack of cards close to collapse.
On a long haul flight the most important thing for me is reliability, comfort, price and going to/ from the right airports…..not necessarily in that order. I tend to use BA, SQ & Thai.
I have by the way used Virgin Australia a number of times and find them fine as a LoCo.
16 Jul 2015
at 17:38
Speedbird1994ParticipantI love Virgin Atlantic, and would always choose them where available. Their premium economy is vastly superior to BA in terms of seat comfort and service. I always find the cabin crew to be very friendly, and their planes modern. Having flown United, BA, Cathay Pacific and Oman Air, I would say VS are easily the best. Their Upper Class check in at Heathrow is fantastic, with drive through check in, I can’t think of another airline that offers anything like that. Especially not in business class. Their clubhouses are fantastic, and the onboard bars a nice, if gimmicky touch.
16 Jul 2015
at 17:53
SimonS1Participant@Carajillo2Sugar – if I was going to do that routing I would do BA all the way through Milan-LHR-JNB.
€2,818 (or £2,000) all the way through.
No need for the ridiculous transit times or change of terminals. No need for a travel agent either for that matter, just book it on ba.com.
OK I know it’s BA on the long haul not Virgin but I don’t think there is that much difference especially with BA using the 380.
16 Jul 2015
at 18:09
Carajillo2SugarParticipantSimonS1 – I know that, too, but I based my example on what Lugano Pirate said regarding not being able to get decent prices on a BA/Virgin combo, or through check-in. Also, the BA fare you quote is not fully flexible/refundable.
16 Jul 2015
at 18:55
LuganoPirateParticipantCarajillo, I took the prices from VS website making a dummy booking. But I’m with Simon here, I’d book BA all the way as no terminal change and if I missed the connection I’m sure BA would look after me whereas VS would not.
16 Jul 2015
at 22:13
MartynSinclairParticipantIt’s a very good question but I can’t think of one reason why I would choose Virgin!
17 Jul 2015
at 00:23
NTarrantParticipantWent to Newark once on Virgin in economy many years ago, it was ok. Tried little red to and from Manchester once, not impressed with seat pitch.
Highly unlikely I would use Virgin, they don’t go where I need to go and not a member of an alliance, if I needed to go where they go.
Have some admiration for Branson and what he has achieved
17 Jul 2015
at 03:36
roddersParticipanthaving seen the captain of the VS flight just arrived in Dubai exiting from the arrival duty free with a crate of beers, reinforced the view not to use them….yes I am sure all off duty crew drink/relax (best example of that was the Corsair crew in Martinique enjoying the beach!), but i really don’t want to see the Captain armed with a crate of tinnies.
17 Jul 2015
at 07:12
Carajillo2SugarParticipantSimonS1 – based on today’s exchange rate, the BA/Virgin itinerary below (no stopovers) is just under £1750 inc.taxes:
1. BA 563 20JUL LINLHR 1555 1650
2. VS 601 20JUL LHRJNB 2105 #0905
3. VS 602 27JUL JNBLHR 2010 #0635
4. BA 576 28JUL LHRLIN 0920 1215Flexible/refundable, as before.
Lugano – on a through ticket, it is the responsibility of the delivering carrier to look after you and your onward connections eg if you missed the connection on the way out due to, say, the BA flight arriving late, it would be up to BA to re-arrange the onward journey to JNB. Similarly, if a late-arriving Virgin flight on the return causes you to miss the BA connection to Milan, the onus is on Virgin to sort you out.
EDITED TO ADD: SimonS1 – the BA EUR2818 (EUR2607 if you book it through an agent as no credit-card fee – even if the agent charges a transaction fee of EUR50, you’re still better off by EUR161) fare you mentioned has a 28-day APEX requirement and is completely non-refundable, whereas the BA/Virgin price has no APEX and is both flexible & refundable.
Ya pays yer money and takes yer choice!
17 Jul 2015
at 10:58
sparkyflierParticipantBack to the original post, Virgin does not tempt me so much now as they do not fly to where I need to go, and it is a great shame they have retreated from some markets,
However, I am not a fan of herringbone seating, a big minus, but what would generally help me consider them more would be is if they were in Skyteam.
17 Jul 2015
at 11:17
esselleParticipantI had a truly shocking VS flight about 10 years ago and vowed then to stay away, which is exactly what I have done. It was a J class MAN-MCO. The crew were having a competition to see who could wear the most make up, or so it seemed, and were very vocal about their various partners/ex partners/to be partners during most of the flight. It was so bad on the way out that I was really not looking forward to the return. For once, I found an airline which was consistent. The return was awful too.
17 Jul 2015
at 12:19 -
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