Virgin Atlantic Airways Passenger Reviews and Customer Trip Reports

Premium economy, Gatwick to Cancun September 2012 and return flight. Both awful. Old uncomfortable seats. Films - only 12 to choose and can only view all at same time. You have to wait for all films to end before you can view from beginning. Poor quality headphones and dodgy plug sockets. The offer of a DVD player gave me a larger selection of films, autonomy of viewing choices and better headphones! Food was poor. Toilets could have been cleaner. On our return flight it was appalling to watch some of the crew's behaviour. Laughing and playing tricks on each other. Food trays pushed into our hands rather than served. Noisy conversations took place immediately behind us which prevented us from sleeping. I could not wait to leave the aircraft. Avoid at all costs.

LHR-HKG-LHR on Y. This is about the 4/5th time my family and I have flown VS to HKG. Each time the service seems to get worse. On the outbound flight, the purser kept making awful jokes, the food was dry, toilets don't get cleaned, and the kids missed out on kids pack. The return flight was the same. It seems that Virgin are getting stingy. When we first flew Virgin, the service was pretty good. Now it makes Lufthansa's MUC-LHR staff look ultra friendly.

Miami to Heathrow in Premium Economy. Having changed to BA after the decline of Virgin we were only on Virgin to use up miles so at least did not have to pay more than a few hundred pounds for this flight. (Silver card holders but this means almost nothing on Virgin - no lounge access, no priority seat booking). It is hard to see how they could cut the product back or cheapen it any further. This is just a poor economy service with a bigger seat. Cheap basic minimum amenity kit, extremely frugal portion of mediocre food, no drinks service at all but you are offered a choice of 'red or white' wine with the meal and given a compulsory lecture by the crew about 'alcohol in moderation' when setting off. I suppose that this is Virgin's way of saying 'we have charged you in the region of £1400 for this flight but have cut the few pounds cost of offering you a drink'. Dirty toilet pan. Luggage eventually came off after an extremely long wait although all the other airlines were managing fine. Priority tags were ignored. They were trying to sell upgrades from Premium to upper class at Miami airport for £1200 one way!

Having had a great holiday in Mexico we started our journey home on VS94 22 August 2012. The flight was full and lots of people were complaining as the plane had changed which meant people were no longer sitting next to each other. I had asked for a drink of water and 30 minutes later it arrived with no ice as quoted "It had all melted" - no apology given. We practically had to beg for a drink as staff were not visible. Meals came round, we were at row 55 centre seats and we were told no choice was available due to the poor availability from Cancun except the meat dish which I declined, my partner took it and then said it was disgusting. I am a frequent flyer and a gold card member and my work flew me business class on at least 100 Virgin flights. This shows that customer care is indeed very different from business to economy class, this is disappointing and has put me off flying Virgin again.

Gatwick-Las Vegas, 10.09.2012. We have been loyal to Virgin Holidays/Atlantic for more than 10 years but with increasing difficulty due to sliding standards. Poor seat conditions, terrible food and IFE breakdowns isn't what we want at the start of a holiday. Cabin crew tried to be friendly but the heart seems to have gone out of them, they managed their "scripted" basic roles but no more than that. Flight home-we had pre booked Premium Economy, happy with the boarding routine but it all went down hill after that. Again cabin crew seemed very tired and eager to get everyone settled and to sleep. The food was awful, dried up over heated beef casserole, dried out bread roll and raw tasting rhubarb dessert. Breakfast was even worse, overheated, dry and coffee bitter. I was abruptly asked to close my window blind until daylight appeared again - how about a simple please with a smile! I did want to purchase Duty Free but a following a cursory flick of the brochure to a darkened cabin by our Premium cabin crew member, I decided that the crew didn't want the bother. I had purchased a blow up airline approved foot rest as I am short - good job I did as where have all the foot rests gone? Some missing, some broken.

London Gatwick to Las Vegas flight, Sep 2012. Very disappointing service, meals, cleanliness of toilets and out-dated onboard entertainment system. We were only offered water twice on the 10 hour flight with the food. The food was terrible and no cheese or crackers were provided and the bread roll was stale. For our snack before we landed, it was cheese and red onion sandwiches. Red onion on a packed flight! Some of the toilets were in a terrible state and this was reported to the attendants on several occasions who did nothing to rectify the situation. The entertainment system was old as movies/tv were not on demand. Asked questions about the wine, information given was its either red or wine.

Return flight from LHR to LAX. The staff were very friendly and helpful. The seats were as comfortable as can be expected in economy class. We were able to board and depart the plane quickly. There was a good selection of new release movies. The only problem with the flight was that the DVD screen in the headrest could not be seen properly when the person in front leaned their seat back. A lot of food was provided on the departed flight. There was not enough food on the return flight however, and breakfast just consisted of a muffin and a granola bar.

I have travelled with virgin for 15 yrs and have witnessed the decline of the service over the past 3 years. My last flight from LGW to Antigua was probably the most disappointing. The new menu is not as good as the previous one and the way it is served is like being on a production line, the personal service that was a Virgin plus has now gone. The complimentary drinks service had ran out 3/4 into the flight. The cabin crew were a little hit and miss. If you were lucky you were greeted with a smile, if not it was as if you were an annoyance rather than a paying customer. The aircraft had the updated entertainment system and this is a plus, lots of various entertainment to choose from with the on screen touch control. I am now trying BA flight to see if they can offer a better service. Virgin was a blue ribbon carrier in my eyes but now they fall very short. Now blue ribbon prices with no frills service. If Virgin up their game back to where they were a few years ago I will be a returning customer, if not then my hard earned money will be spent with other airlines.

LON-EWR in UC. On time flight. I preferred the seats and seating arrangements on this 747. Purser addressed pax by name when introducing herself. Cabin crew was organized and attentive. Cuisine is fair, at best. Wines topped off this trip. Movie selection poor. I think that stopping all service[ beverages, toilets, audio, video, your own electronics] one full hour pre landing is excessive. The UC check in at LHR and the clubhouse were great!

London-Boston, Newark-London. Pre-assigned seats reallocated on check-in (by one row on return journey). But both flights good, with friendly, helpful, cheery crews and informative flight deck announcements. Food was the usual airline gloop - but plenty of drinks on offer. AVOD clumsy and erratic so gave up after a while. Take a book! Paid for extra legroom seats on outbound. Well worth it. Got premium economy upgrade on return with Flying Club miles. Big seats made for best overnight flight. Much better experience than previous Virgin flight from Shanghai when crew were sullen and wanting to be anywhere but with us passengers.

Flight from LA - Heathrow. Very unpleasant flight, seats feel narrower with less leg room than other airlines. Food was quite bad as well. Will definitely not be using this airline again.

Tried to book in online but could not get two seats together. Tried again at the airport but still no luck. Had to ask for a cold drink 3 times. First time of asking was told they were only serving hot drinks and would bring me one when they had finished. Flight attendants were very abrupt with no eye contact or customer service. At breakfast time the waft of bacon was going round yet economy passengers were given a cold, stale croissant and a yoghurt.

21st June 2012, SYD-HKG, seat 32K - no window for a window seat. It gets better though. Seat back did not recline so my 9 hour flight was spent sitting upright. I had to strategically manoeuvre the cord on the handset/remote to be able to change channels or do anything with the inflight entertainment. When I asked to be re-seated, I was told nothing could be done as economy was full. This is far from a world class offering or service.

Las Vegas to Gatwick Premium Economy. First of all the flight and staff were very good, its the rest of the Virgin experience that lets it down. They will tell you anything you want to hear to get the seat sale, you ask 3 different people the same question and get 3 different answers, they promise the earth and deliver very little. We assigned our seats before we left home, they told us the seats were upstairs, and good window seats, they were downstairs in the middle. We used the bag drop at the Venetian Hotel, told it was free, it was $10 per bag, its not the money its the principle. Again promised our seats were upstairs, again they were not they were downstairs in the middle. To cap it all we witnessed people being upgrade into the upstairs cabin. These might seem small points but it all adds to the overall experience and you should be able to rely on people being honest.

Absolutely the worst flying experience I have had in 47 years. Boeing 747 flight VS002 (scheduled to leave 9.20 pm) from Newark to Heathrow (September 3) cancelled after keeping us on plane for 5.5 hours at the gate and after providing repeated assurances that "minor" engine problem would be repaired. Delays made it impossible to find a suitable substitute for 24 hours - the September 4 VS002, significantly compromising our vacation plans. For two nights in a row I watched the British Airways 9.25 pm from Newark to Heathrow leave the next gate exactly on time while we were stuck with Virgin. After taking us off the plane at 2.15 am on September 4 the ground assistance was disorganized and not helpful. I was provided an "800" number for assistance, which put me on hold for 15 minutes, then disconnected me. Incredibly, our return flight (VS001) to Newark from Heathrow yesterday (September 13) was cancelled due to a "technical" problem after another round of delays and misinformation. I chose Virgin because of its reputation - that reputation is severely tarnished in my view (and confirmed by other Virgin frequent flyers who have seen a diminution in service).

LHR-NYC-LHR. Check-in done in minutes at LHR T3 and in JFK, seats were reasonable, although seats were much comfier on in-bound journey. In-flight staff were helpful, was traveling with my mother, who has diabetes, even though we forgot to mention diabetic meal, they changed it on request and would always ask her for assistance if she needs it.

Flight delayed by 3 hours due to maintenance needed to aircraft. The plane was dirty because of the quick turnaround, they didn't have sufficient time to clean the aircraft, the seat was broken, the food was positively horrible, the in-flight magazines had seen better days, and to top it all the in-flight entertainment system wasn't working. They kept trying to reboot, but still nothing. OK, now this is another family who has chosen to fly with another airline.

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