We flew VA from ORD to LHR in September. On the flight over, the people in front of us put their seats back as soon as we hit altitude and left them there the entire time despite the fact that they were in exit seats and had enough leg room to put their gnarly bare feet up on the window sill. But the FAs were fine, if not super attentive, the food and booze were good, the TVs excellent and the amenities kit made you feel like you were starting an adventure (all sense of adventure vanished in the nearly 3 hour Heathrow passport line).
I always book the seat behind the exit row seats now because, while they would not move us up for free at the check-in counter, on the trip home the plane was half empty. After boarding I moved up and had two seats in the exit row,
my daughter kept our two seats behind me and it was a lovely experience.

Well, we arrived in London about nine hours ago...haven't slept in 30 hours, so thinking about turning in soon! The flight wasn't bad, husband made it through just fine. I'll post a report when we get home next week! :)

Most international flights are all about the same, in my opinion, if you are in coach -- at least in times of comfort. I mainly care about reliability, delays, things like that and do prefer VA to BA for various reasons. But their coach seats have about the smallest distance between them as exists in international flights, so it was not really any more comfortable than any other flight, really can't be (about 17.5 inch seat width). I think they may have about one more inch than BA, United and some of the really cheap airlines between seats. A lot of them are at that very small space now (seat width and between seats). They did have good entertainment systems, but most flights I've been on in the last decade or so have had those seatback screens.

Just don't expect anything from an economy coach seat on any airline, or any wonderful experience. It's just something to endure for some time to get you there.