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Virgin Express Passenger Reviews and Virgin Express Customer Trip Reports
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Virgin Express - by Patrick Angehrn
9 November 2006
Comment withdrawn at Respondent request : 27 September 2007
Virgin Express - by Sonia Ponz
9
September 2005
I fly quite often with virgin , BCN-BRU and have also done once ATH-BRU.
The prices are good if you book in advance of course, and the timing is
also good, had only one delay. The crew, I find iscold and in some cases
rude. Not all of them but there is always one or two on each flight to
spoil the moment.
Virgin Express - by Matthieu Fores
26
March 2005
Comments
withdrawn at respondent request.
Virgin Express - by Jan De Waele
21
November 2004
BRU-APG-BRU. Check in was very quick (under 1 minute) as I was only carrying a handbag, and a special desk was
available for travellers only carrying handbags. A travel companion checked in with a suitcase and
got her boarding pass under two minutes. The plane left in time, boarding was smooth. A
pre-booked a
reserved seat “with 2 inches of extra leg room” in the front of the plane, and got the seat I booked
through the internet. Leg room was bearable for this 2h40min flight, but only because the 2 extra
inches (I am 189cm tall, so OK, I am biased on this). The optional leg room cost me 10 Eur each leg,
but was worth it, considering I paid only 139 Eur for the round trip, including the extra leg room,
and reserved seat. I pre-booked a meal at Alpha D’Lish, a company providing on board meals for
Virgin Express. The FA offered me the package right after take off, but offered me to hold it back
until I wanted it, which was very convenient. The food offered was excellent, very fresh, and better
than anything I had on a short haul flight in the last 5 years. It costs a bit extra, but offers
better quality, and above all, the freedom to use the service or not. If you use it, you get a wide
choice of dishes, but you have to book it at least 36h before departure. Anyhow, I will use this
service again, if it is a “lunchtime” flight. FA were friendly, but anything except from a smile you
want from them will cost you money. The plane touched down well in advance of the schedule. I was
out of the airport 15 minutes later. The return flight was similar, the plane arrived 20 minutes
early.
Virgin Express - by Alberto Malerba
31
May 2004
They keep giving good service at very nice prices.
I regularly fly LIN-AMS-LIN and never had any delay.
Legroom, though, is quite small - I have to suffer a bit, but 1.5 hours is feasible.
If they improve also this point, then also tall guys like me would give them 100/100 !
Virgin Express - by Walter Vaerewijck
10
October 2003
I was one of the passengers who should have left with the plane that was
delayed due to the strike of the French air traffic controllers (see Mr
Roosemont's 15 May below). Although the delay was not Virgin Express'
fault, the passengers who stayed at the airport were offered
refreshments in a reception area of Lisbon Airport. When it was clear
that we couldn't leave Lisbon in time, I decided to collect my luggage
and to check in at a hotel. Nobody, including the crew, could tell
anybody at that time what would happen with the flight as the French air
traffic controllers blocked every possible passage. Anyway, I noticed
that Mr Paneels helped organizing the reception of the stranded
passengers and even offering some passengers the possibility to use his
mobile phone to warn their family members in Belgium. He left the
airport with a group of journalists he was accompanying only after
everything was taken care of the reception of the stranded passengers.
When I travelled to Brussels the next day I heard that the crew of the
delayed flight had stayed aboard waiting for further instructions to
make sure that the flight could leave Lisbon in the early morning. Many
other airlines simply cancelled their flights or their crews claimed
that they were going beyond their duty time.
Virgin Express - by Apostolos Chatzidimou
2
October 2003
I had another good roundtrip ATH-BRU-ATH. I found a fantastic price at the
internet and the service was nothing less than that promised. ! Crew was polite.
Virgin Express - by Iñaki Gomez
1
August 2003
As a low-cost airline, Virgin Express is doing quite good. I travel frequently to Brussels from
Barcelona with them. While I like the comfort of SN Brussels Airlines on the same route, I must
admit that I often choose Virgin Express for its very attractive prices. And for about half the
price (sometimes much less) I think their service is very good. The reservation on internet is quick
and easy, the check-in very is quick due to the absence of ticket, the planes are ok (nothing out of
the ordinary), the paying bar service not bad (very good coffee, and good sandwiches), and generally
the planes are very much on time. Of course I don't earn miles on Virgin Express, but since I can't accrue miles on SN Brussels
Airlines' cheap fares (that are in any case higher than on Virgin), I choose for the "red planes".
Concerning the crew, I think most of the times they are friendly and helpful. But of course,
sometimes they look a bit tired... But for a short flight I think it's a very good value for money.
Virgin Express - by Edwin Gocuan
1
June 2003
Our group European holiday this year resulted in booking of 8 flights with Virgin Express to various
destinations such as Milan to Copenhagen, Copenhagen to Nice, Geneva to Rome, Madrid to Brussels and
Brussels to Athens. These were our very first flights with Virgin Express. Very impressed with their
good service from the check in counter to the flight itself. Check in was a breeze. Flight
attendants were very friendly, cheerful and attentive and spoke trilingual in the announcements
before takeoff, on flight and during the landing. Good legroom space on the seats... and leather
too! A pleasant surprise for a low cost. For a minimal cost, their coffee being sold was of good
quality. There was only one incident involving our leg from Geneva to Brussels when the elevated
walkway got stuck onto the plane and had to be detached manually resulting in over an hour delay and
causing the agitations and anxieties of passengers. Except for this flight and incident, all other flights were smooth and even arrived ahead of
schedule. Their only drawback is that Virgin Express have to stop at their Brussels base before any
connections can be made and results sometimes to additional flight time and hassles, a disadvantage
for Virgin Express because this can result to more costly overall flights to a particular
destination. A plus side is that they land on major airports and not in the middle of nowere as
Ryanair does. I would recommend this airline only for point to point flights to and from Brussels.
Virgin Express - by F Roosemont
15
May 2003
Yesterday, due to the strike of the French air traffic controllers our Virgin
Express flight from Lisbon to
Brussels was delayed. While all passengers - without any information or
assistance - were waiting in
the transit hall not knowing if the flight was leaving that night, Mr
Y Paneels, Virgin Express PR Manager (and passenger on this flight) booked himself and his guests of honour a room in the Sheraton
and left "as a thief in the night". The entire crew stayed in the aircraft hiding
from the passengers.
Nobody blames Virgin Express for the delay - but the way the crew handled this situation is below zero. It is
not because you are not paid for the overtime you cannot stick to your
responsibility.
Virgin Express - by Chad Koehnke
17
March 2003
I was very pleased with Virgin Express! I flew with them on a flight MAD-BRU return. They
offered a "snack pack" which for US passengers is a pleasant replacement to the peanuts we so
often get on comparable length flights in the US. The drinks however were not free with exception
of the water, coffee, and tea. The FA's were very well dressed,
pleasant, and at least tri-lingual. There is something nice stepping aboard a flight with the
well dressed flight attendants greeting you. I am a big fan of "traditional" full service
airlines, but when the price is right, sometimes you have go with the low-fare carriers. Virgin
Express seems to properly balance the low fare carrier prices, with service and "feel" somewhat
comparable a full service carrier. I am hard pressed to find many other airlines that can manage
this.
Virgin Express - by
Gabriel Chew
26
November 2002
I flew from Heathrow to Rome via Brussels in the summer, and bar the cheak in staff not arriving
until an hour and a quarter before the flight (the 6.45 am flight), it was a
pleasant experience. We
got a drink and a sandwich, and the seat were comfortable leather. Brussels airport was a very nice
airport to transit through, though there were big walks from the Non-Shenghen area to the Shenghen
area. It only cost 106 rtn mid summer, some 70 less than BA/Alitalia
Virgin Express - by Herman Voorvaart
12
November 2002
During the flight I studied the Safety Instructions.
In an emergency situation the passengers are supposed to lean forward in the position that the head
rests on the knees. In my seat there was not enough room even to lean a bit forward, let alone to
put my head on my knees. The 'overwing exits' on both sides were blocked by 4 seats (2x2) on row 11. The Safety
Instructions show under "B" nr 1 through nr 5 how to open the emergency overwing exit. Picture 4
clearly shows plenty of room in front of the passenger. Picture nr. 4 does not show seats, does not
show row 11 as was the case during my flight TV-859. The seats were quite uncomfortable because the seats (the place on which your bottom rests) are
not level but leaning forward slightly thus pushing your body and knees slowly forward against the
chair in front of you. A little adjustment of the inclination of the seat could help a lot
so that
you are pushed INTO the chair (toward the back of the chair) instead of being pushed forward.
Virgin Express - by M Preston
7
November 2002
I bought a cheap ticket BRU-LON-BRU on Virgin Express. When I arrived at BRU airport my flight was
posted as having a two hours delay, so I went to the ticket counter and asked if I could change to
the 'later' one which was in fact leaving earlier. I would have thought that a decent airline would
have offered this change free of change, but this outfit charged me GBP30 to change. I paid in the
hope of arriving earlier, then the flight I was rebooked on suffered an equivalent delay, although
they'd assured me it would leave on time.
My request for a refund, need I say, has been ignored, and I will not be travelling on this low
cost, low quality carrier again. They do not do credit to the 'Virgin' brand.
Virgin Express - by J Ryan
5 November 2001
I flew Virgin from Heathrow to Brussels to Rome in August. The fare was fantastic at 49 pounds. The
food was what was promised (pretty much nothing). The seating was nice (exit rows on both flights).
But both flights were very very late. If you fly Virgin expect delays. But as far as value goes, its
a great deal.
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