I plan to visit London in January. Cost $20/person more to fly Virgin over British Air, which one is better? Thanks

All other things being equal, I prefer Virgin because the in seat video screens are more likely to work on Virgin than on BA. The little freebies come in better colors too. Otherwise, from coach the two are the same. Crowded and lousy food.

I've flown both-more recently BA because their prices seem to be better. I think these days they're about equal. If you go to the airlines message board here, you'll see lots of opinions. Bottom line, in transatlantic coach, no airline excels.

One thing to consider, if you're accumulating ff miles, one post says BA only allows you to get BA miles (not an affiliate) on transatlantic flights. I don't know if this is accurate.

It is definitely accurate, at least from London to US. I flew them last year London to Baltimore and did not get any AA FF miles even though they are partners or whatever. It wasn't a mistake, as I called AA to complain and they told me you don't get them.

Depends on where you are flying FROM...and your patience level with young children on flights! From Orlando and Disneyworld..Virgin is FULL of tour groups with multiple kiddies..BA less so!These kids are all tired, over-excited ,and don't want to go home..makes for a great flight...NOT!!!

Otherwise there is not that much difference.

Virgin gives each kid a backpack full of stuff to keep them occupied. They have kid DVDs and other perks to keep them happy. Virgin is more kid friendly, has less flights to choose from since they are smaller. otherwise I think they are about the same.

The difference is very marginal.

VS has a new entertainment system which I used for the first time a couple of weeks ago and it was awesome. There were something like 25 movies and when announcements came on, the movie stopped and you went back to the point you were at. Also if you had to use the little boy's (or girl's) room, you could stop the movie and come back to where you were just like a video tape or DVD. It is not yet on all their planes however.

Food is the same, pretty good but miniscule portions in coach. No charge for booze on either of these two which is much more than you can say about rip off airlines such as AA or DL or CO (although CO often codeshares with VS) which now want $4 for booze in coach on transatlantic flights! However, VS now when they give you wine no longer give the bottles of wine but rather pours the wine into small glasses with dinner (not a complaint mind you but an observation which perhaps is more important now that they have discovered that red wine is very good for you and your heart). However, if you are not into wine note that VS serves its very foul tasting own colas and diet colas (particularly revolting) while BA serves real coke and diet coke (but not yet vanilla coke or vanilla diet coke which is now available in the UK as well as the US).

So what am I trying to say? There is not really all that much difference between BA and VS but they are clearly superior to the American carriers.

I still think the entertainment options on Virgin are far superior to BA.

I prefer the service on Virgin. I have found the cabin staff are mostly more friendly and accomodating than on BA. BA certainly isn't bad but VS is just that little bit better. And the amenity kits are great.

If only either VS or BA had the leg room of AA (or AA had decent service)

I've flown on BA and regret not flying on Virgin Atlantic. In my opinion BA's quality has slipped alot over the years. Seats are so narrow and legroom even less than before. For an extra $20/pp I'd choose Virgin. I am going by what comments I've read here but it seems to me that Virgin comes out alot better than BA.

We have never flown Virgin so can't compare. We have flown to Europe on BA for several years and overall can't complain. We've always been treated well by the cabin crew, food is so-so for airline food, like the individual screens and usually OD on movies enroute.

Re FF miles, coach passengers only get half miles since last spring. When we went to Prague in May we got full miles going over and half coming back (the new rules went into effect while we were there). Protested by e-mail and surprisingly got a letter back sometime later. The usual "we care about you, etc." but the new system is "what passengers wanted" blah, blah, blah. I doubt that unless you are able to fly at a higher level and apparently get more percs now.

I have flown on both BA and Virgin many times over the years and I would always recommend Virgin. Overall I prefer their entertainment and their staff, for me it would be $20 well spent.

After traveling with my hubby (who is over 6' tall) & after talking with my sister-in-law who also went to London - I prefer United!!! My sister-in-law, her hubby and her mother (who has to move around every hour) said that BA (the one they recently took in July) was not good at all - bad food & no leg room to speak of!!! We (Hubby & I) went on United from SF and were better off. My Hubby had an aisle seat and had enough room (better than Alaska or Air Canada!), we had better food & plenty of movies and snacks. You may not have the option of United, but we would fly with them again (at least they were on time!!!)

I flew BA in November and the seats were small, I am 5'3" and weigh under 120 and did not feel I had a lot of room in my seat. Their service was excellent.

I've flown both and I would always, given the choice, fly Virgin - beside they are the only ones that EVER upgraded me...

I had a horrible experience with Virgin in February. I had a man seated next to me who had clearly taken some type of sedative, perhaps for a fear of flying. He also had his own supply of liquor in his carry-on. He proceeded to fall all over me, drooling and comatose. He occasionally awoke enough to get up and go to the bathroom with his bag of liquor. He got lost a couple of times on his return, but unfortunately managed to find his way back, reeking of liquor and completely out of it. When I told the stewardess about it she told me that they carefully monitored alcohol intake. I explained that he was drugged and had his own liquor. She said, sorry, we are very full and I can't move anyone. When I complained to the airline on return, I never heard from them. I could have pursued it, but why. I just will choose to fly another airline in the future.