[canucklad]

I’m in agreement with quite a few others….thoroughly enjoyed ITV ‘s effort. More down to earth with real people, rather than Aunty Beeb’s advertorial effort for BA’s premium product. And to cross topics. Both programs reflected their respective brands in the way I perceive them.

To answer your questions Mheely…….
What is significant about Virgin Atlantic?……
——Ii now see the airline as letting me down and Scotland down….They promised so much with Little Red, but it turns out, it was nothing more than another PR opportunity for Sir Richard to dress up and display his transvestite tendencies…..albeit in a kilt !! And in retrospect, proved so many fellow forum posters correct…….VS where just slot sitting …….I call that Hypocrisy.
They also made a big deal about flying to YVR, but then, couldn’t even make a go of that. Needing an influx of cash the easy management option is to prostitute themselves to Delta. An airline that has been so badly run in the past, it and its subsidiaries have been in and out of Chapter 11 more times than an octogenarian gets up and goes for a pee .

Why would you choose Virgin Atlantic? If, you don’t why not?
——Price, Price and price……feedback from people I know, who have flown with them suggests that you need to set your expectations accordingly ! And why I wouldn’t…they no longer serve my most popular destinations…..apart from HKG, so to answer your last question…..

What do you consider to be valuable on a long-haul flight?
——-Service, Service and service….and if I’m paying VS prices, I’d rather fly CX !!

Finally……They should feel ashamed of themselves…….If they had been serious about Little Red I think they could have made a go of it….

[WillieWelsh]

For my two penny worth:

What is significant about Virgin Atlantic?
They have a name at the top of the Virgin tree who makes a lot of noise and who generates a lot of publicity, in my view much of it in bad taste. He is an expert at putting down other people’s efforts while delivering nothing himself.

Why would you choose to fly Virgin Atlantic?
I wouldn’t consider it. Over time I’ve had various dealings with parts of the Virgin empire and the one thing I find about them consistently is the trait of over promise and under delivery which is the opposite of my view of how business should be run. One of the biggest complaints I hear is that the crew on board never live up to the expectations the adverts generate – and how could they? I find the whole company rather tacky and Branson is on the list of people I would rather not meet.

What do you consider to be valuable on a long haul flight?
Space, the possibility of sleep and a decent meal.

[BugAdvisor]

I’m still a fan of Virgin Atlantic. It should be remembered that many of the facilities we take for granted now when flying, were originally Virgin innovations; seat back on-demand video in economy, amenity kits in economy, premium economy as a product, a humorous safety video, limo service – and they still have the best lounges – and yes I use the BA First Lounge all the time and it isn’t as good.

There is also the fight to survive against BA that, without the sale of the record company, would have meant less choice for flyers.

But it isn’t all good news:
The frequent flyer scheme isn’t that useful as a reward ticket costs almost as much in fees and taxes as a regular ticket – and the regular ticket gives you points. Upgrade with points only applies to full-fare and so is also useless. Virgin is the only ff scheme where I transfer points out to Hilton.
The upper deck was ruined when it was changed from all premium economy to a mix of economy and premium economy – why would they do that?

[CXDiamond]

WillieWelsh – 17/07/2015 15:11 BST +1

I wouldn’t fly Virgin either and you’ve summed up my views on them rather well!

[MrMichael]

WillieWelsh. In defence of Virgin, the vodka was good and they did bring us the sex pistols.

[SimonS1]

@Carajillo2Sugar – must say, that’s a decent fare for business class.

[747foreverforus]

Travelled once in Upper Class – it was ok but nothing special, cabin very hot during the night which meant sleeping was nigh on impossible, food ok, but again nothing special. Never travelled premium with them, but cannot understand the logic behind mixing premium and economy on the upper deck – perhaps it’s just Virgin being cutting edge!

[AspirationalFlyer2]

Hello everyone

Taking each of those questions in turn:

1. What is significant about Virgin Atlantic?
Not much in my honest opinion. Two things that two help differentiate them from the competition are: (a) a strong brand; and (b) the ground facilities, in particular, the Terminal 3 Clubhouse at LHR.

2. Why would you choose to fly Virgin Atlantic?
I have done a number of U.S. flights with VS in the last few years. My experiences have been rather mixed. As a general statement:
– I’d rather fly with BA in economy – I find the quality and quantity of food on Virgin awful. On a flight to Los Angeles in 2012, I spent most of my time very hungry and would happily have paid extra for better and more food. An overnight flight in economy from SFO to LHR last year was more bearable, but that’s primarily because I had a large pizza and a beer before boarding and slept for at least six hours of the flight!
– I’d rather fly Virgin in PE, in particular, when compared to the old WTP product on BA. I flew EWR – LHR a few years ago and thought the PE product was miles ahead of their economy product and was well worth the extra £130 I had paid.
– I have an upper class ticket booked on VS to SFO I’m early September; I personally prefer Upper Class to Club World.
– I have a Virgin American Express card; any future premium travel with VS is likely to be a redemption – I will probably put flights I’m paying for thorough BA as I value the tier points, avios and the fact that they are a One World alliance member.

3. What do you value on a long haul flights?
I would reiterate much of what other posters have already written. In summary:
Decent quality and quantity of food and drink;
Good inflight entertainment system;
Polite and efficient service; and
Space and the ability to sleep.

[Andrew66]

I have used them once a few years ago , flew out in PE which I thought was very good ( service and food) but the flight back in economy was awful , perhaps the poorest flight I’ve ever had , I just can’t think of any worse ones than that one .
Not greatly impressed with the mini doc currently showing , they are struggling financially yet no one seems to know the cost of anything ? Lots of people faffing around HQ about stuff that doesn’t matter , they seem more worried about the style than the substance ? And from a few posts here it looks like travellers have become a bit fed up with service and food issues up in the air in recent times , the only positive comments I’ve read are that the lounge / clubhouse is really good , which is not enough for me to decide to purchase an UC ticket

[MrMichael]

Going by a lot of the comments on this thread maybe time for Virgin to give up operating aircraft, and just run lounges. “Stick to what your good at” has always been my motto.

[Bullfrog]

I’ve only flown Upper Class & prefer it over BA Club. I prefer the VS herringbone seat layout to the BA reverse sardine style. I’m 6’2″ tall, and the VS bed is far more comfortable for a night sleep.

The drive through check in is a bonus, likewise the ClubHouse at LHR, but they are not deal breakers. The hard product for a long flight is the key choice for me.

The VS crew are a little over familiar & less polished than BA, and likewise, the Orlando & holiday destination flights are more less focused on Upper Class.

[KSHaggag]

I frankly have never flown with VS but did fly Virgin America ( in First and Main Cabin select ) on coast-to-coast US flights and found them quite innovative and offering very high standards of service except that their crew members were indifferent on most occasions .I did fly Virgin Australia as well on domestic Aussie legs in business and economy and was only inspired a bit by their Sydney lounge ( not bad ) .In summary ,Virgin brands are innovative and fun to fly .
Back to VS ,friends of mine did fly them in PE and confirmed to me that their PE product is by far superior to the BA WT + one ,which i flew several times a few years ago and found it totally uninspiring and a waste of money since it was offering NOTHINGGGGGGGGG extra except the 7 inches extra of legroom ;the whole product otherwise is indeed Economy ,overpriced !..Have not tried it lately on the new 787-8 s and A380s but BA never said that the new WT+ was an upgrade on the former one .
I am in spite of not having flown VS a member of their VS Flying Club and have managed to accrue tons of miles in my account as I have been flying Virgin America plus a bunch of other carriers I am not regular with or I don t need their FFP card : Gulf Air ,Malaysia ,Jet Airways ,etc…The best thing about having a VS Flying Club account is that your miles NEVER expire .I almost always on the other hand lose expiring miles in my Skywards Emirates account for example ;which is frustrating .
Yes ,I agree ..I did ck the miles requirement for upgrades using my miles and can tell that you need to fork out a bit more than the lowest fare on offer to be able to redeem your miles for an upgrade .
I am indeed enthusiastic about giving VS a try soon especially in PE to sample it on a short long haul ( 7-8 hours ) .
I checked their fares to Asia and was happy to come across a GBP650 fare RT LHR/HKG/LHR !…in PE .
I did sample their Flying Club at LHR T3 a few years ago when I was flying on QR as a Gold member then and found the lounge quite nice but not as fantastic as CX s lounges in HKG for example ..

[Harbord1]

If we assume comparison is vs BA here are some reasons for choosing Virgin Atlantic for business class travel.
1) Virgin is 8th most punctual airline at LHR and the most punctual longhaul airline. 84.7% of its flights Jan-Mar 2015 departed within 15 minutes and only 3.3% were delayed over 1 hour. On the other hand BA is the 27th most punctual airline at LHR with only 79.3% of its flights departing within 15 minutes and 4.7% being delayed over 1 hour.
2) Virgin provides 4 x limos included within corporate fare. BA does not provide any car service,
3) Virgin provides a slick drive through service at LHR – BA does not.
4) Virgin offers a private security channel at LHR – which really works whereas BA depends on T5 Fasttrack which is often not so fast.
5) Virgin Clubhouse is best lounge at LHR – exceeds any BA facility.
6) Onboard every Virgin seat offers direct aisle access – not for BA.
7) Most Virgin crews are still enthusiastic about their jobs and are fun, friendly and engaging.
8) Virgin bed is better for sleeping than Club World as flatter, wider and longer.
I travel frequently on Virgin Atlantic as well as many other carriers, especially to and from Hong Kong (company has a corporate deal with Virgin). Virgin Atlantic offers a fantastic business class experience as is testified by the very full flights and seemingly happy passengers. Quite an achievement when you consider it lacks any of BA’s network power.

[StephenLondon]

Anyone can play fast and loose with stats about on-time performance, especially when comparing a carrier with 293 aircraft with one that operates 39 aircraft.
Many people go on and on about the VS Clubhouse. But with considerably fewer pax than BA, it is like comparing apples and oranges. Imagine what the Clubhouse would look like if they had 60,000 pax pass through on the same day (last Friday) that BA did? It would be a rather different proposition.
The Virgin bed may still be wider at the top, but getting up out of the seat to flip it over into a bed still is a big disappointment for me.

And whatever has happened to the original poster who asked for our feedback…has it been useful?

[KSHaggag]

Hello Hardbord1,

Thank you for a comprehensive ,detailed report about the USPs of VS vs other carriers for biz travel out of LHR .
It all sounds encouraging indeed ;the drawback for me personally would still be the herringbone seating ,which makes me dizzy .
Just a question please : have you managed to fly on their new 787-9 ? do they compare favorably with the 744,A333, A346 in Upper Class ?
Thank you .

[Author]

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