Virgin Atlantic

VS009 to JFK New York. As always Virgin Clubhouse is top-class and arguably cooks the best fresh food of all global airlines. The Clubhouse has a very soothing ambience and is a wonderful way to begin a holiday. Welcomed on board by name from an enthusiastic and very professional staff who did all they could to help and go the extra mile. Food was good films good too and the nice flat bed helps enormously too. All in all a very good flight from a high quality airline.

LGW-Barbados return. Issue with on-line check in not working was frustrating in that you went through the whole process entering passport details only to get a message on completion that the system was down. Also happened on return. A message at the outset would have been much more helpful. Check in agent at terminal was very jovial and pleasant and seating as requested was honoured. Outbound flight delayed by an hour due to passengers disembarking an AirNas flight. It was not possible to board the Virgin flight as there was insufficient space in the walkways! Seated in row 23 Premium economy. Friendly cabin crew handed out pre-flight drinks and menus. Good entertainment system with good choice of movies. Pre-dinner drinks served promptly. Meal service commenced and I was disappointed that my choice had already run out by time they served me leaving me with the vegetarian curry. I did not expect not to be able to have my choice in Premium economy. Uneventful flight which made up some time across the ocean. Return flight departed on time and landed early at Gatwick. Dinner was a creole chicken dish which was actually quite tasty. Cabin was far too warm making for quite an uncomfortable flight and too hot to sleep. Breakfast was pretty good - choice of continental or full English. Having landed early the gate was occupied so we had to sit on the aircraft for half an hour which was quite frustrating. E gates at LGW not working so by time we got through the queue luggage was waiting.

Flown last month on a 747-400 MAN-MCO economy class. Very nice welcome and a good range of leg room. A variety of movies food was very nice. Very dirty wing and dusty cabin apart from that Virgin Atlantic is far better than Thomson Airways.

Heathrow to LAX. Paid extra for premium economy just to have passengers in front seat in my lap the whole flight. Seat broken so nothing could be done. Since stuck in one position whole 10 hours had sun in my eyes with nowhere to go since staff refused request to ask passenger if possibly could put blind down. Could not even use Premium Economy toilets had to go to coach per Virgin staff. Very rude staff who serve bland tasteless food and obviously hate there job. Have flown for over 15 years with Virgin and if they don't improve soon they are going down to BA's level if not lower. Staff needs to learn to smile and treat passengers better. Not sure what good paying for Premium Economy is when seats are uncomfortable and service awful. Don't waste your time contacting customer service as they won't help or even try.

London to LAX and back LAX-LHR 10 August 2014 VS24. From departure to lounge very poor directions to lounge. The lounge is hugely disappointing. The food counter looks like a hawker stall with really bad selection of food. When I told the receptionist that better directions to the lounge would help us tourists using this airport she commented that we got there anyway! The lounge is really nothing to shout about. If we had known that's it is of such poor standard we would prefer to spend our time in duty free. Service on the plane was excellent. But entertainment system keep on breaking down and hanging.

Flown VS-400 to Heathrow in the summer for our annual trip back and we were amazed how friendly and helpful the cabin crew were. I couldn't fault a single thing. Happy staff and great food for aeroplane standard. Always offered us drinks and asking about our welfare. Everything about it was great!

Chicago to Heathrow July 10 Flight VS040. Flight from Heathrow back to Chicago July 20 Flight VS039. Our experience with this airline was fabulous. The flight attendants seemed happy focused and enthused about the job they were doing. Our crew always kept us up to date on what was going on. We were also offered a beverage many times throughout the flight. We really enjoyed our time on board the aircraft.

I went from Manchester to Orlando when we boarded the crew helped us with our baggage. All crew were very nice food lovely everything was excellent. Seats comfortable there was a nervous flyer seated next to me and the crew did a very good job of keeping her calm and reassuring her.

MAN-LHR-DEL return. Little Red from Manchester to Heathrow efficient and friendly service followed by simple bus transfer to terminal 3 without need to go through security again. Night flight to Delhi on A330 very uncomfortable with cabin temperature very cool with seemingly less legroom and less seat padding than on earlier Little Red flight. Very quick food service although no choice of food by the time it reached us in the middle of economy and then left in peace until breakfast. Return flights all in daylight and an excellent cabin service from the crew who seemed to never stop working either on food or drinks services (the ice lolly service is a nice touch). Seats however still very uncomfortable!

This was my first time with Virgin and I will not fly with them again. I recently flew return London to South Africa (Jo'burg). I have travelled many long haul flights on both business and pleasure and I can unequivocally say that on a score of 1-10 this rated as a 1. On my outward flight the experience was well cattle class at its absolute worse. The return trip however was far worse and just dire! So starting with little things the aircraft was really tatty with the pouch in front of me containing all the brochures falling forward because the stitching was broken - this on observation was the case with many seats around me ensuring that the pouch was resting against my legs for 11 hours - tatty! The films were old - out of date and the food was awful. The return flight was staffed by stroppy staff - no smiles at all. I've been flying over 25 years and I've never even reviewed a flight before because from BA to Singapore Airlines to cheap Russian / African airlines all have been reasonably ok to excellent but this was just a poor experience. On the return flight crew were far worse.