Virgin Atlantic

Not too good I am sorry to say. Outbound the food was dreadful, chicken in mustard or lasagne which was bland. Coming back the food once again was dreadful, sweet and sour hard bits of chicken and lumpy rice, a hard brown roll and one drinks service. The two men in front of us had their seats pushed back the entire flight and we are quite tall so it was cramped. I went on the plane healthy and got off with a sore throat, sneezing and have been left with a hacking cough. The movies were good though, so there is one good feature. I wish I could have been more positive.

The service was excellent, cabin crew attending to the passengers. Our seats were comfortable and plenty of leg room. The meals on our outward flight were very good, also got sweets to eat for takeoff and landing and ice creams after the meal The only down side to our flight was the quality of the meal on our return journey - far inferior to the meal from London. Overall we were very happy with flight and would use Virgin Atlantic again. It was competitively priced with other airlines.

LHR-ORD-LHR, VS39/VS40, UPPER CLASS. Heathrow Lounge best in the world. Cabin on A330 very tight on space. Food mediocre. Cabin crew outbound good. Return crew inattentive and rushed. Worst of all is the coffin like, herringbone, Upper Class seats. They are narrow and extremely uncomfortable. The saddest thing is that Virgin Atlantic used to be the best airline transatlantic. No longer, and they are not listening to their loyal customers. The overall product is average at best. They are still better than BA, but far behind the Middle East and Asian airlines.

Return journey with Virgins Little Red service. What a fantastic flight yet again with this service. Planes look fresh and as new. Interior is clean with fantastic purple leather seats. Staff happy to see you and welcome you onboard. Qucik snack and drink service given and includes alcohol. A great shame that this flight is stopping soon. A real pleasure to fly with.

What a mixed bag. I had been so keen to fly on the Dreamliner and actually tweaked our plans to go out and back from LA on this plane. Due to money constraints, this is our first economy flight as a family. Many years ago I flew with Virgin on business to Vegas in economy and vowed never again. The flight out was fine. It is a really good aircraft. Seems generally, really spacious. Plenty of room in the overhead lockers. We fluked bulkhead seats going out and these were good with decent leg room. The seat is a new design and very slim. Quite hard though for 11 hours. Due to not having a table on the seat in front the table folded out from the armrest along with the TV. This meant the seats were really, really narrow. I am a normal sized bloke and this seat was narrower than on any two or three hour hop in Europe with budget airlines. There was a small amount of recline and this did help comfort a little. The food was as you expect it to be. Edible calories. The service was reasonable although very noticeabley different than in premium cabins. Very rushed. The flight home was terrible. I had paid for extra legroom seats and found myself next to the toilets getting stood on and kicked pretty much all night. Virgin should not under any circumstances sell these seats as some kind of benefit. If anything they should give them to people they don't want to fly with them again. The plane itself had lovely big windows which helped the general atmosphere and we did really feel a bit better due to the improved air / humidity etc. Due to the cabin being a 3+3+3 the aisles were really tight. Passing through the PE cabin I was also quite surprised at how cramped the seats looked. All in all, I would not be keen to do this again. If this is the future of flying then I am afraid that we shall be flying less long haul. We are going to Australia next year and there is no way in the world that I will be flying Virgin for this. I think it is time to change my allegiances and to try other airlines for long haul.

Return Leg from SFO via LA to London. SFO to LA was by Delta (on Virgin Code). LA to LHR was Virgin Atlantic A340. Biggest let down was the Delta flight from SFO to LA. Meant to depart at 7pm. Took off at 8.30pm. My wife had the same experience a week later. That meant that the transfer time at LA was impossibly short. I had to literally find my way out from the Delta terminal and walk on the side walk to the the Virgin Terminal. That is a good 20 minute walk. There was no assistance available at all. Half a dozen of us made our own way. The had to go through security again which is a pain. Made it to the boarding gate when they were boarding only because the Virgin plane was late. Hold luggage didn't make it. The Delta link up with Virgin is a disaster. Had I known! The A340 is crammed in the economy. Legroom very tight for tall people. And the Entertainment system packed up, so the whole 11 hours were difficult to pass. Service is okay. Nothing to brag about. The vegetarian option on the menu was surprisingly good (pasta in tomato sauce). Overall the flight was a disappointment and I would not use Delta connection again.

We left on the 5th May from Gatwick Flight 15 to Orlando FL. even though the flight was late the whole Virgin Atlantic experience was great. The service we received was 1st class the staff were accommodating and dealt with requests in a pleasant manner - could not fault the service at all. The food we thought was excellent and enjoyed it. We left for home on the 26th May arriving on the 27th Flight no 16. We were late taking off by about 25 mins. just waiting then the captain came on the tannoy we held our breath welcoming all 430+passengers aboard and crew saying we are already to go fuelled up but just awaiting the ground crew to in my words to disconnect the boarding gangway. In no time at all after that we took off. We are both in our 70s and would recommend Virgin Atlantic. We will be flying with them again.

Flew on 29/05/15 from Gatwick to Las Vegas. Check in process was fine. Upon boarding I noticed 2-3 police waiting at the gate watching passengers enter not in itself out of the norm but when they proceeded to board the aircraft and walk up and down the aisles it was slightly unnerving to say the least. The food was average at best but the actions of certain crew had me amazed. I was sat on one side of the galley and on the other side a stag group of about 9-12 guys. Throughout the flight there was constant bad language which was not once addressed by the crew even with small children only a couple of rows back. It seemed that two young female members of the crew seemed to think they were on a social night out with the guys from the stag do and spent most of the flight sat in the galley talking to them allowed them to help themselves to the drinks! Later one of the crew went to the Business class cabin loaded a plate of cheese and biscuits and brought it back to the galley for the hungry stags to feast on. Absolutely shocking professionalism from certain staff.

London Gatwick - Las Vegas 22/05/15. Arrived early for bag drop but realised that my new passport had not been updated on the ESTA system for getting into the US. Check in agent was pretty good at telling me where to go to get it done but also made a call for me to find out waiting times - turned out I'd be cutting it close so did it on my phone instead. Was enormously relieved as this nearly ruined my entire trip. Paid for assigned seat on upper deck but might consider shelling out double for an extra legroom seat next time if in economy the cramped space is a real issue with a tall guy on a flight this long. Cabin bag space is an issue as well but crew were accommodating in finding space for my bag (which despite being a little large the check in agent had waived through after explaining the unusual reason for my trip - these guys have a lot of discretion and it pays to be nice to them). Plane delayed due to disruptive and violent drunk passengers. I neither witnessed this directly nor intervened as police were already in attendance. Given how frustrating this delay was I would question Virgin's gate staff level of vigilance in letting these guys get to the aircraft in the first place. The resulting tirade of repetitive warning PA's from the captain and cabin senior were a little condescending and poorly worded and seemed to reflect quite a bit of judgement on people who had done nothing at all. Once we got underway flight was uneventful. Food good (for economy) IFE decent but need to bring your own headphones if you want decent sound seat reasonable. One thing of note is that the seat belt signs were turned on for turbulence a total of 5-6 times despite mild turbulence only been present once. I speculated that they were doing this to give the crew a break and I have mixed views on this. Service otherwise good if a little robotic and crew were a tad informal at times. Although Virgin are my favorite on this route at the moment they could make substantial improvements with a few attitude tweaks as they have done in the past.

LHR to Dulles economy return. This was one of the better VA flights the airline must have taken some notice of the previous reviews we found the cabin crew very friendly and attentive the quality of the food was not too bad on both legs. The aircraft was fairly new however the seat pockets seem to be a mega problem as they will not hold the mags etc which end up all over floor. VA must get this sorted as this could be a problem in an emergency. On the whole not a bad experience.