I am traveling to London from Orlando in May with my husband and two kids. The airfares between Virgin Atlantic and British Airways are very comparable. I have read that Virgin Atlantic seems to have better in-flight entertainment for the kids, but British Airways seems to have better service and a more pleasant experience. What have you all experienced, and what do you recommend? Thank you so much for your help!

I've had good service on both lately; I think the Virgin entertainment system is better.

You might want to look on airlinequality.com for opinions there, too

I like both but prefer Virgin.

Thank you so much to both of you. I booked our flights on Virgin--can't wait for our trip!

We love Virgin. Haven't flow BA to compare...

Did Virgin manage to leave Heathrow in the recent fog?? I am not sure.
If they did that would answer the question for me.
I digress somewhat but..
I can't believe what happened to a friend.
He got held up by BA at LHR luckily switched his ticket to Air France quickly and got away within 1 hour, lucky maybe but BA's committment to its customers is constantly being challenged.

Muck

"Did Virgin manage to leave Heathrow in the recent fog??"

BA kept its long-haul operations moving pretty much as normal. It was short-haul and domestic flights that were culled, and Virgin simply doesn't operate any of those.

Make sure you sign up for the virgin FF program. They have a really good feature where you can buy down the price of a ticket for 2,000 miles.

Last year my husband flew virgin LGW to Orlando and got about 8,000 miles. This year I will use 6,000 of the miles to knock off about $300 each (I think) from 3 tickets from London to SF. Not bad.

BA has the same feature and discounts the flights more, but at a cost of 35,000 miles each!!!

If I remember correctly, you can collect US and CO FFP mileage on VS. Unfortunately no AA mileage on transatlantic BA flights.

Both BA and VS using LGW for MCO flights--BA from North Terminal, VS from South Terminal, so not much difference on this point.

At the end of the day, there's not much drastic difference if you're flying the coach class. I've done transatlantic on both carriers--BA good esp if you're travelling with young children (found VS FAs younger and not quite mature enough), though VS better entertainment (less important for red-eye?)

Both were good, I think I preferred Virgin though for the entertainment system.

Oh - and I thought they were just a little friendlier. But I've flown just once round trip on both carriers now.

FYI - If you are into a little more comfort, both airlines offer Premium Economy. http://www.seatguru.com/charts/premium_economy.php

Owain, whilst I think your not wrong, I think you are also not entirely correct

If this was the case then why did my friend have a cancelled flight to USA and needed to take Air France. He tells me many long haul flights were cancelled, although they were indeed the priority over domestic flights.

Muck

Jed--we did decide to splurge a bit and go for premium economy. I hope it's worth it!

Where2--we did sign up for the ff program, but i didn't know about those great benefits! Thanks!

I flew Virgin once to London, and while the service was nice and the entertainment great, I never felt so cramped in my life (I had a window seat). Coming back in an aisle seat wasn't as bad. Now I always fly American, which is roomier.

Virgin...hands down...for me!!

I am not sure what your experience has been with British Air but I love flying with Virgin Atlantic. I usually fly premium economy which is something less than first class but more than economy but their economy seats and service are great too. Love the socks they give you in the goody bag too, they last forever. Plan to fly virgin to london in june.

I've done both and preferred BA -- but my Virgin flight was tainted by the fact that it was two hours late, the in-flight entertainment remote that came with my seat was broken, so I couldn't change channels. And I couldn't change seats because the flight was full. And I thought the food was abysmal, the service average, and it required a stop in New Jersey.

BA direct from Denver was much more pleasant. We flew on a Boeing 777, brand spanking new, so nothing was broken...yet anyway. The service was better. The food was very good, for airline food, and we arrived 1/2 hour early. I think the non-stop part of it also helped me arrive less tired, as we actually got to sleep instead of stop in New Jersey and hang out for a few hours waiting for the Virgin flight the second time.

BA also involved my first trip to Europe. I guess anything that follows "the first" suffers by comparison afterwards.

Honestly, whatever gets you there is adequate, especially if it's not a rickety bus in Mexico with a case a Montezuma's Revenge.

Jules

mee too.. BA was fine, but preferred Virgin. The FAs were so much more personable. and much better food IMO. Just check seatguru to make sure you have comfy seating. enjoy!