BA or Virgin Atlantic, SFO to London?
 

Looking to book soon for July, Both airlines offer similar nonstop routes and price, any recommendations? Also, Continental offers the same Virgin flight at about $75 less per ticket, why is that? Thanks!

Coach, Premium Economy, or Business/First?

The conventional wisdom, I would say, is as follows:

- BA Coach and Virgin Coach are pretty similar. Virgin has a reputation for better entertainment, but BA has improved. BA has better food.

- Virgin Premium Economy is (much?) better than BA Premium Economy.

- Business class is something of a preference thing. Many claim Virgin is great, and they do have some amazing lounges and a nice seat. Others say that service and food can be awful and that BA is much more consistent. Both are nice.

- BA First class is better than Virgin business class, but I don't think it is worth the $10k+ that it costs.

Do you collect miles? In what programs?

Most BA coach fares only earn 25% mileage. Virgin offers more better rates, for the most part, and you can bank to Continental's program.

As to the question about the Continental vs Virgin ticket, this is just one of the quirks of codesharing. Notwithstanding FF mileage concerns, I would feel comfortable booking the cheapest option in either case. If I was earning in Continental's program, I would book the Continental ticket.

Doesn't Virgin have 32 pitch, while BA has 31 pitch in economy?

To answer travelgourmet's question, we are talking about Economy class. Also, We do have Continental mileage but (unfortunately) we do not travel enough for mileage to be a deciding factor.

CO buys seats on the VS flight to sell on their own, but they are free to set their own price.

Go to www.seatguru.com and check out the various airlines.

Once your check your airline and equipment, you can see not only seat pitch and width, but which seats are better to be in.

It's only 10 hours or so to LHR, so it will be a relatively quick trip with an overnigther, so you can sort of get some sleep.

Read the links on overcoming jet lag, as that is very very important to your first few days abroad.

<i>Doesn't Virgin have 32 pitch, while BA has 31 pitch in economy?</i>

This is true. I will offer, though, that the BA seats are actually very comfortable for coach seats.

Personally, if it saved me $75 (and I weren't a mileage nut), I would just book the Continental ticket. There isn't enough of a difference between the carriers to make me choose one or the other if I could save even that amount of money.

Virgin does have some good deals to Europe for Summer. British Airways does connect to more cities in Europe than Virgin, but this seems to be decreasing as the budget airlines are taking over.