VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS   Customer Reviews and Passenger Trip Reports

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VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  21 November 2009 by D Hobbs   (UK)

LGW-MCO-LGW. Not been moved to comment on this website before, but never had such an appalling journey. Outbound delayed by 2.5 hours with no advance notification. Lounge at Gatwick closed; alternative (the holiday lounge) has no internet connectivity. Stale sandwiches offered to keep us going until lunch onboard. Inflight entertainment comes from very tired old VHS players with the worst headphones ever. Not much in the way of apology. Return flight I was at least notified by phone of a two hour delay (it was actually 2.5 hours). Lounge full to bursting, and the only food available was shrink-wrapped gouda. Boarding completely chaotic. Food largely inedible. Woken 90 minutes prior to landing whether you wanted to be or not. Breakfast one tepid cup of tea. 10 minutes after the doors were opened Upper Class passengers were still being kept on board while wheelchairs were organised. Completely unacceptable as a business product in every single respect

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  19 November 2009 by Robert Geddes   (UK)

Travelled recently to Barbados Upper Class - outward trip excellent, good cabin crew and food. Trip back was a nightmare - crew awful, food even worse, service worse still. Soup served with no spoon and cold main meal - chicken tough, cheese and biscuits never did arrive. Breakfast of cornflakes served in a bowl with no milk - milk arrived, no sugar, no spoon. Then made a big mistake ordered a bacon roll - this was two great big slices of Gammon in a stale roll. What a shame that one trip could destroy ones opinion of an airline.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  18 November 2009 by Margaret Corless   (UK)

MCO-MAN Premium Economy. A terrible experience. Downstairs section of PE in old 747 layout - economy with a bit more room. One hour late in take off, cabin freezing cold for first two hours, no priority baggage as advertised by Virgin, a roll wrapped in paper and cardboard cup of coffee for breakfast. Terrible service from economy cabin FAs. Complained and Virgin not interested. They seem quite happy that if you are seated in this section of PE in old aircraft you do not get all the PE advertised services even though you pay for them. Very poor value and Virgin Customer Service has gone right downhill. Likely to use BA for this route in the future even though I am a Virgin silver card holder.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  15 November 2009 by J O'Dowd   (Ireland)

Shanghai to Heathrow. Flight attendants not helpful, at back of plane and meals served to us was what was left over, and no excuse given - this would not be a problem only for the bad manners of the staff. Travelled with British Airways and they give better service. Virgin need to teach stewards about customer service.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  15 November 2009 by Dave Wayne   (UK)

Manchester to Orlando in Upper Class. Outbound flight, staff doing their best - thoroughly enjoyable 9 hours - plenty of good food and drink. Two weeks later the inbound flight was a different story. Average lounge facilities at Orlando - no food available. Onboard one member of staff was simply rude, ill suited to the job in our view. Flat bed didn't go flat and table was prone to jamming. Complained officially and received no joy from Virgin.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  15 November 2009 by M Simons   (UK)

LHR-JNB Upper class. Boarded after most other pax and seated on upper deck in seat 2K. Overhead not big enough to store a computer case. Slightly odd seats do not allow you to see out of window. Cabin crew friendly and professional. Good choice of food, good choice of films. Was offered sleeper suit but declined. Only problem with 2K is that it is by the toilets at the front of the upper deck so for the final hour of the flight a queue of passengers all waiting to change out of the sleep suits right in front of the seat. As the seats are arranged in the fishbone layout spend the entire time facing people in pyjamas! The mattress for the bed was pretty thin and the single pillow is laid on to a metal grille so not overly comfortable. Landed half an hour early and bags off quick.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  15 November 2009 by Paul Reynolds   (UK)

LGW-MBJ. We upgraded to Premium Economy and impressed with service and the crew friendly and chatty. A lot of food available and frequent drinks runs. IFE was a bit of a let down as it was the older Odyssey system and not on-demand. The overall experience was very good.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  8 November 2009 by P Chandler   (UK)

Miami from London on A340-600 on time, professional and organised crew, food was pretty good for economy. Vport entertainment system good when working but did need a re-boot during the flight - let down by the seat allocation request that was made when using the online check-in service not being retained by the system. Return flight was not to the usual standard with booked seat allocation once again being changed from window +2 next to a row of 3 in the middle. Considering the booking was made in January with confirmed seat this did not get this flight off to a good start. The crew were generally disorganised. Inedible food - this was a night flight and crew did little to quieten down a drunk passenger who managed to keep most of the rear cabin awake until others complained and they stopped serving her alcohol. If this was my first flight with Virgin I doubt I would be coming back - but I hope it was a just a off day.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  5 November 2009 by B Andrews   (UK)

Booked LHR to Newark for wife's 40th. Arrived at airport to be told plane had "gone sick" so smaller plane meant we could not go. Found out later this was rubbish as they had overbooked on purpose. Put on Washington connecting flight next day. Very disappointed in the staff at airport as we were told we had to get boarding passes next day and no guarantee of flight, but fellow passengers as different desk were given them! Got compensation and hotel at LHR, but Virgin need to understand the emotional stress of this - we lost a day of our short break, had to cancel or re-book activities I had planned, some fellow passengers in tears as they only ended up with 1 day in NYC. Basically I was sold 2 seats on aircraft that didn't exist!

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  5 November 2009 by Phil Gwin   (Australia)

LHR to SYD. Not the airline I used to travel within in the past. I just returned from the UK in Premium Economy. Seats now seem older some appeared to require fixing one was stuck together with tape. The crew are there usual happy selves. Virgin Atlantic promote Premium Economy has its own staff, I doubt that to be true as the service is not quite as good. Dinner served was good but breakfast left a lot to be desired. Not sure if I will use them again even though I have over 130k flying points still with them.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  4 November 2009 by Louise Brant   (UK)

LGW-LAS-LGW. Checked in online, bag drop fairly quick. I travelled with 3 friends and we sat in the middle 4 in row 35. No major problems apart from the running out of booze fairly early due to everybody drinking as much as they could. Staff ok, entertainment system good. Return flight awful. We arrived at the airport and were told there was an hour delay. By the time we boarded we were 2 hours late. At no point during the flight was there any kind of apology or explanation. Food ok but they didn't clear up for 1.5 hours. During the entire flight drinks were only offered once. My companions screen kept freezing and after 4.5 hours he was given a dvd player but only one dvd to watch. Will be looking elsewhere for flights to the US from now on.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  4 November 2009 by O Dehinbo   (UK)

LHR-Dubai flight was good, crew polite, food above average and entertainment was good. However the leg room was almost non existent and very uncomfortable. The return flight was not exceptional. One of the crew was rude, toilet was out of service resulting in a long queue and people trying to use the other toilet in premium economy being told off, as if they were in primary school.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  4 November 2009 by B Baltezore   (USA)

LAX-LHR return Premium Economy. Outbound flight left at 21:00 and dinner served right away. Food OK but had difficulty getting a second glass of wine after dinner. I asked twice, eventually just pulled the curtain open and interrupted the FA's. Right after dinner the lights were turned off and FA's disappeared until 2 hours before landing. When I awoke from my sleep my dirty glassware was still on the tray! Overall an OK experience but the additional fare was just for a little more space, service no better than economy. Return to LAX was a daytime flight and better overall. It was Halloween and the crew dressed up, a fun touch.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  4 November 2009 by N Jones   (UK)

LHR-JFK return. We checked in using the online service 24hrs prior to the flight which I can highly recommend. Past experience when pre-allocating seats does not guarantee seats on arrival at check in. Fast bag drop but we were one of the first flights out for the day, fast track security excellent and in 5 mins were in the main lounge. Once the clubhouse opened at 7pm we took advantage of the pre-booked Cowshed facilities. Food even in upper class was not great, crew fantastic. Vport system needed to be rebooted a few times on return flight which from reading other reviews is becoming increasingly common for Virgin. I suggest bringing a good book or magazines just in case.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  26 October 2009 by Beverly Neale   (UK)

Outbound to SFO we struggled with the automated check in machines at Heathrow but assistance from Virgin ground staff excellent . Onboard the aircraft, we were pleased with our seating (admittedly, had we been one of the unfortunate customers seated in the middle 2 seats of the 4 row, we may have thought differently). The cabin crew worked hard and were pleasant & helpful. Food/drinks plentiful and no problems with the onboard entertainment. Our return journey from New York, so the flight time was only about 6.5 hours, and we couldn't fault anything.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  24 October 2009 by G Workman   (UK)

Customer care standards very much declined. Have travelled several times in the past with Virgin and always been happy - professional friendly crew. Not this year, online check in a complete waste of time at Heathrow. Got to bag drop, a huge queue with an hour wait - we were told that all online check in does is allocate a seat which they can change again? Very, very cramped seats, entertainment units breaking down, awful food, dirty loos. On return flight from Las Vegas, we were told no after dinner drinks as they were expecting turbulence! If it happened we hardly felt it - 12 hours when we were next offered a drink, at breakfast! We expected better from Virgin, very disappointed.