VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS   Customer Reviews and Passenger Trip Reports

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VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  24 October 2009 by Richard McCartney   (Estonia)

LHR-SFO. Check in great, bit of a queue for security but nothing major and in the lounge in no time. Great looking lounge but whilst sat down not a single staff member enquired if we would like anything whilst serving those around us. Guess you have to go to the bar and order. Boarding good with priority for Upper Class and sepArate gangway. Food was ok but I'd not been expecting much having read previous reviews but getting a glass of wine was a different story. I eventually rang the call button but not what you expect to have to do in business. Entertainment was good, but overall not the Upper Class of old.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  22 October 2009 by Rita Byrne   (Germany)

We travelled return from Heathrow to New York in September - one of many transatlantic flights, but the first with Virgin. I reserved seats online for both legs of the journey, but these reservations were changed without notice and instead of window and aisle seats, we were left sitting in the middle 2 seats of a 4-seat row. Extremely uncomfortable, narrow, no leg room and no room to put anything under the seat in front. Once the seat in front was reclined, eating was impossible and I had to ask the cabin crew to request the person in front to put their seat into the upright position in order to eat my food. Inflight entertainment broke down completely on the return leg, which made for a very boring flight. It also broke down once on the outward leg, but was rebooted by the cabin crew and functioned after that. Food was only OK, but to be honest, I didn't expect any more in economy class. Check-in was fast in both airports and the crew were fine - not up to BA standards, but not as bad as Ryanair.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  19 October 2009 by Tristan Collins   (UK)

LGW-LAS-LGW. Check-in at Gatwick - arrived more than three hours prior flight, asked to use the automated check-in machines. People were having difficulty as you need to have hotel postcode at hand. One attendant manning all the machines was inundated with questions advised us to go into check-in line instead. Long queue. At this point we were approached by lady selling V-lounge and seat upgrades. We decided to spend £75 a-head one-way on exit row seats, this purchase helped take us out the long check-in queue too a shorter, priority queue. It still took us nearly two hours to get through security though! We purchased seats 49J and H which were fine although just outside the galley and busy. Plus, this can be a bit of a meeting place for people queuing for drinks and stretching their legs but would consider the seats worth the money as legroom is at a premium. Flight going out was a real party flight and staff were customer friendly and worked hard - a hot meal, snacks, ice cream and a sandwich along with usual drinks. However as previous reviews have mentioned alcohol seems to run out 3 hours into the flight. The flight crew informed us this always happens and they try to preserve stocks for the return flight. Return flight was quite different with regards to service and meal served. Apparently there was staff shortages on the flight and they lacked the friendliness of previous crew. All in all our outbound journey hits the top end of our rating only because we had the exit row seats and the crew were customer focused. However because overall the experience was far from perfect next time we fly to Vegas we may try BA's new service from Heathrow.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  19 October 2009 by Graham Hayes   (UK)

London-Orlando. Outbound flight 3hrs late. FA good but the food was very bad even by Virgin Atlantic's own very low standard. Return on time, good service from crew and food very poor. Virgins food service is by far the worst food on offer.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  19 October 2009 by S Brindley   (UK)

Manchester to Barbados - out Premium Economy & back Economy (but paid for extra leg room). Premium Economy quite good, larger seats/extra leg room etc and food reasonable, but the drinks service was practically non-existant after the meal. Entertainment system was very good. On the return extra leg room seats were small and uncomfortable. Had to ask for blankets and pillows and after the meal we did not see any drinks until a small carton of water just before the joke they call breakfast.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  19 October 2009 by C Haworth   (UK)

LGW to Barbados return - outward upgraded to upper class : very nice although not sure it is worth the additional costs. Return premium economy as booked and overall a good experience. FA's, AVOD, even food excellent. Very busy and toilet facilities shared with economy was a problem at times. The one major gripe is whoever designed the seats and their reline needs shooting. When the seat is front of you is fully reclined (and some selfish people insist on doing this as soon as flight takes off, even if food is being served) it invades your space tremendously and difficult to watch tv monitor or in fact do anything.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  18 October 2009 by H Raynor   (USA)

MCO-LGW, return LHR-MIA. MCO-LGW planes do not have the AVOD system - a little frustrating. Cabin crew were polite, addressed by name and meal service fast to allow time to sleep. Food generally good and drinks service frequent. Like the lie flat beds and PJ's but didn't sleep as soundly as on previous VS flights. Big let down for Upper class passengers is the awful Delta crown room in MCO that has seen no upgrading in the 6 or 7 years since I have used it. Return through LHR was a breeze. Check in fast and upstairs through private security to lounge - minor glitch was no one told us where the lounge was! LHR lounge amazing, great service and food, had a manicure and hubby got a hair cut. Same senior cabin crew on this flight as outbound - very polite and friendly. Sat at the bar, drinks forthcoming and food OK. Much better AVOD as on demand on these planes.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  16 October 2009 by M Davies   (New Zealand)

Not impressed with Virgin Atlantic premium economy. Very little extra leg room, dirty food tray (from previous flight meal), when seat in front put back even less room and couldn't see TV screen. Toilet facilities poor, only hand wash no moisturiser etc. At 7.15pm were told to have an early night and lights turned off! Breakfast was a roll with a bit of ham, piece of cheese, wrapped in paper and dumped on tray! A cup of coffee was served in a cardboard cup and then were offered a small fruit bar. That was the premium economy breakfast! The evening meal was okay, the staff were pleasant but I certainly would not recommend or fly Virgin Atlantic again - feel cheated after paying for premium economy.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  13 October 2009 by M Heather   (UK)

LHR-IAD / EWR-LHR in Premium Economy. In a packed Premium Economy cabin the service from crew was excellent, food average (good outbound, not so good inbound from the USA), and entertainment system (not on demand on the aircraft used) more than adequate for the flight length. Particular mention must go to the senior male flight attendant who served me on the way to Dulles: I was told two of the three choices of food had run out, with only fish remaining, by the attendant who served me. I hate fish, so said - very nicely indeed - something along the lines of 'not what I expect in premium economy, but I'll take the economy meal you're offering, and can you send the cabin service director to see me please'. The senior flight attendant arrived, I explained the issue, he indicated that the attendant who served me was mistaken and produced the chicken premium meal I'd originally wanted. So two meals was a good start. Then he came back later with a full-size bottle of wine to take away, as an apology for the poor service. Fabulous service recovery, and the gentleman should be recognised for that. Two minor gripes - Premium Economy really does need its own toilets, but the plane layout doesn't allow for it. So why not allow Premium Economy passengers to use the business class toilets, rather than forcing them to use the economy ones. Newark airport in- flight catering is not good. Heathrow T3 was also good both ways, although on the way out you were not allowed through security until 1.5 hours before the flight. I (sadly) know why they were doing this - BAA have service standards on time waiting to be screened, and if they don't hit them it costs them money. So they were stopping people from joining the queue so that they could say no one was waiting longer than 10 minutes. Not acceptable, and the CAA as their regulator should sort that out. But on the way back, from wheels-on-the-runway to walking out the airport took 25 minutes, thanks to IRIS immigration system and the baggage handlers respecting the premium labels on the baggage.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  8 October 2009 by J Blown   (UK)

LHR-SYD. Seat width, leg room and pitch were awful -. aisle width so small I was nudged by FA all the time and by trollies. Positioned at first in row 61 next to the toilets - noise of the door, flushing, smell, nudging meant no sleep or rest. Never again with Virgin.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  8 October 2009 by G Moore   (UK)

LHR-HKG-LHR, economy. Virgin no longer give out a snack with the drink service and cheese and biscuits are no longer on the meal tray either. Same chocolate pudding that Virgin seems to have given out forever. Some staff were nice whilst others seemed fed up. On the way out there were no on-demand films, just a few films on loop. On the way back there was on-demand. Virgin need to improve service and food/drink quantity and quality to bring it up to a suitable level for a 12-hour flight.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  8 October 2009 by N Downing   (UK)

LHR to Delhi and back. The outbound flight was nearly empty, but we had our seats reassigned, probably to redistribute the cabin load. We moved to the seats we had chosen after takeoff. The food was edible, though not good. On our return flight, the cabin staff were far more interested in each other than the passengers - we waited over an hour for our trays to be removed after we'd finished eating, while cabin staff were having a loud laugh in the back of the plane. The meal on the return flight was dreadful.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  8 October 2009 by J Parkin   (UK)

LHR-JFK-LHR. Good flight out. Plane clean, flight attendants friendly and helpful and the seats comfortable. The screen remotes were in front and everything worked well. The only down side was the meal. The return flight plane not in as good a condition, seats uncomfortable and cramped, cabin not as clean, with information books missing from the seat pockets and rubbish from the previous flight. The screen remotes were in the arm of the seats, which meant people were sometimes setting the call buttons off by accident. On the return flight got my gluten free meal fairly quickly but standard of this was very poor.

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS customer review :  8 October 2009 by David Ellis   (UK)

LHR-SFO-LHR. Seats difficult to sleep when seat in front inclined. Cabin reasonably clean. As usual, toilets shared with economy and zero impact of notice on toilet door saying 'Premium Economy only'. FAs attentive outbound but disorganised and disinterested inbound, with long delay in serving food, poor drinks service and a habit of leaving trays/glasses uncollected. AVOD worked both ways with a good selection of films.