Virgin Atlantic -- anything special?
 

We're heading for London in May/June....I seem to recall hearing some good things about Virgin Atlantic airlines, but can't really recall. Is it any more comfortable than your typical chicken coop-coach seaating? I'm tall and mildly claustrophic....and dreading the flight! Any input/suggestions greatly appreciated!

Flying Virgin Atlantic is a more pleasant than the experience offered by other airlines. Coach seats probably are not any more comfortable but the service is friendlier, higher quality, the food is even better and it just doesn't feel as awful as steerage in other airlines. BUT, the BIG BREAK with Virgin is its 'premium economy fare' which gives you a business-class seat in a separate section of the plane (if you are tall you may consider this worth the bucks) with more leg room, seat pitch. I fly to London once a year and always pop for this fare (from California it's an 11-hour flight!). From San Francisco this summer the fare is $3K round trip which, while pricey, is exceedingly reasonable when you recall round-trip business class on British, United or American costs $7K! Of course, if you're flying from the east coast, fares are much less expensive.

Thanks Kat for the comeback! An 11-hour flight -- I admire your fortitude, tho that upgrade class sounds like the berries. The 6-7 hour flight from the Midwest near does me in. Anywya, thanks very much for the input.

I flew VA from NYC to London coach & it wasn't
particularly comfortable.Some seats incline& some
don"t. Check this out! On the return flight, for no
reason, I was upgraded to first class & the width
and pitch of the seats were excellent. It was also poosible to move around without much problem which is not true incoach. Maybe business class would be worth the difference financially.! BTY, make sure
you are not assigned seats near the galley as this
compounds all the problems.

I flew VA from NYC to London coach & it wasn't
particularly comfortable.Some seats incline& some
don"t. Check this out! On the return flight, for no
reason, I was upgraded to first class & the width
and pitch of the seats were excellent. It was also poosible to move around without much problem which is not true incoach. Maybe business class would be worth the difference financially.! BTY, make sure
you are not assigned seats near the galley as this
compounds all the problems.

hi there
we've done a lot of transatlantic flights, quite a few with the family, and I have to say that virgin was head and shoulders above the rest - friendly -
almost caring (!) and certainly much better than
BA. I work for a large multi-national and all the
upper management will go for virgin. have a good
flight.
bob

I've flown Virgin twice from LA to London. First time was OK, second time I was so squashed I was miserable (I'm 5'4, 130 pounds). My son, 7, loved it because of the video monitor in the seatback. On the return from London, we had an emergency stop on an arctic island for a medical problem. The pilot bashed the wing and we were stranded for about 18 hours. The local people were great, but Virgin really let us down--poor communication, poor arrangements all the way. Even the upper class passengers were about to riot. Based on the sardine-like conditions and my experience in dealing with them in a bad situation, I wouldn't fly Virgin again.

I heartily recommend Virgin. To strech your legs and still pay coach fare, reserve a bulkhead seat in the first row of a section--there's no one in front of you and there's lots of room--and you still have the individual video monitors!

I heartily recommend Virgin. To strech your legs and still pay coach fare, reserve a seat in the first row of a section--there's no one in front of you and there's lots of room--and you still have the individual video monitors!

Hi, I answer questions in the "Cheap Flight Forum" for Eurotrip, www.eurotrip.com. Go into the travelboards and you will see the icon of the airplane. We play the website game and try to find the best fares. Recently found a website that rated the airlines on a personal basis. The winners were not the American airlines for the translatlantic flights. KLM, Lufthansa, Siongapore Airlines and British Air. Airlines to avoid are Northwest, American, Sabena and Air France. Another good airline is Icelandair and they have great specials to London and will even fly you free to Rejavak for 2 nights. Virgin Atlantic was voted the airline w/best on board entertainment. They also add one seat per row. Their website is www.fly.virgin.com/atlantic. Click on specials for info on fares to London. We have a "Don" in our forum who has flown VAA and can tell you more about the "free" upgrading " like the above poster mentioned that can happen at the airport.

We traveled on V.A. last Oct. from Orlando to London. By far, V.A. is one of the best airlines. The seats in economy are not anything special. If you need more room, you will not find it here. Try business class.

My experiences with VA - Economy was crowded and made trying to get any sleep hard. My six foot tall son moved forward to an empty economy bulkhead seat once the flight was in the air and was comfortable. I should have done the same. Premier seats are much nicer and Upper Class fabulous. We really enjoyed our flight in UC. I found all of the crew to be lovely on each flight no matter the class.

Any particular reason you topped a 7+ year old thread????

Of course - now I'm doing the same thing. But I am curious why folks go to the trouble of searching for old threads to bring up. Seems to happen more over on the Europe Board