Virgin Atlantic

Flew with Virgin to Las Vegas. Only good thing I can comment on is the In-Flight Entertainment system - other than that both flights were awful. On the outbound flight we received just two drinks each before the "complimentary bar" was declared closed just a few hours into our ten hour flight. The cabin crew were more interested in discussing what they were going to do in Las Vegas rather than provide any form of customer service and the food was an absolute joke my partner ordered beef stew and received something with three 1.5cm cubes of what I guess was beef and my chicken curry was inedible. The icing on the cake occurred on our return to LGW when we discovered that one of our bags had not been loaded. We did try to complain on numerous occasions and rather than attempt to address any of our issues the cabin crew / Virgin staff simply handed me a piece of paper titled "Any Concerns?" - by the end of our holiday we had collected three of these. To date Virgin have not responded to any of our complaints about the poor service quality of food or delayed baggage.

Just back from Mexico with journey from London Gatwick being very good with great crew and good meals offered. Return journey was not as good. We were not offered a drink before they started to serve dinner with wine and soft drinks. Would have been nice to have had a spirit before meal. We were half way down the cabin but they ran out of one of the choices when they got to us. Breakfast was tasteless and unappetising with better served to us last time we travelled with Virgin in economy class. Would also like to have been offered a facecloth to relax you after sleep. Seats were very comfy with lots of room and very good entertainment with lots of first class films.

LGW - Barbados 16th March. Check in and boarding at Gatwick fantastic with no crowds. Seat comfort and legroom fantastic in an extra legroom seat for only £20 on airbus A330. Inflight service very good from an enthusiastic young crew bar service available for the whole flight with no problems food more than acceptable for economy class. All in all a very good experience from start to finish would recommend.

LGW-BGI return (747 + A330) in Economy. Both trips were very good indeed. Staff were really in to their jobs friendly helpful attentive. Entertainment food and seats a lot better than the competition. Took extra legroom seats on return and well worth £20 pp supplement.

We always fly with virgin in premium economy. The whole experience depends mainly on which crew are onboard. Some crews are excellent others leave much to be desired. On our last return from Orlando we were in the front half of the 'bubble' with economy behind. This is really not good as toilets only at front so the whole flight children were running up and down and people queuing constantly blocking the aisle. On departing cabin economy passengers were allowed to depart before premium this is only a problem because premium passengers pay a lot more for this privilege so apart from more seat width and extra luggage there is no difference any more between economy and premium. The crew on this flight were dreadful. Having said this other crews have been fabulous it is a pity this is not consistent. We are flying Upper Class in a few weeks time hope we have a good crew.

MAN-MCO. Virgin are in the process of changing their seat reservation system and have well and truly messed up they didn't advise all customers when they shortened the booking leadtime and equally didn't when they extended it - the problem now is that we fly in 3 weeks in Premium Economy and though no fault of our own we aren't guaranteed to sit together which is unnerving for my small children - repeated calls to Virgin customer service has got me absolutely no where - they simply say try again at the airport? They are not the airline they used to be.

I flew Manchester - Jo'burg with Virgin and found the long haul leg well below what their reputation would lead you to expect. The food was poor the seat uncomfortable and leg room minimal when you recline the seat (made worse by the fact that the seat in front was broke to the magazine rack dangled down) and no foot-rest - almost standard these days. The cabin service was awful - a 90min wait after departure for even a glass of water. Worse still was the fact that my bag was left at Manchester for two days. They were telling me the bag was at Jo'burg when it was still in Manchester. All airlines lose the odd bag but I have never met such an unhelpful operation when I contacted them.

SYD-HKG-LHR VS201 25th March. What a contrast to the outbound flight this time had a window seat which had much better leg room than the centre seats on the outbound the comfort of the seat was still poor. IFE worked a treat with plenty of options the only issue is the screen resolution which is barely visible when viewing dark scenes in a movie. SYD-HKG cabin crew were first rate very efficient pleasant and could not do enough to help. Food was also good the crew for the second part of the trip were also a credit to the airline. A pity the outbound could not match the high standard of the return but my faith has been restored and Virgin will get another chance.

VS200 LHR-HKG-SYD Airbus 340 600. Leg room very poor in the middle 4 seats which were some of the most uncomfortable I have experienced the IFE had to be rebooted on several occasions as a result we were without it for 4-5 hours and when it was on all options were not available (simply not acceptable on a flight of this length). Crew on the LHR-HKG were in the main poor and in some cases rude the HKG-SYD crew were no better especially the male crew member who was only interested in chatting up the young girls on the flight. Food was ok but no little extra's you get with other airlines. All in all very disappointing.

VS76 MCO-MAN. Previously allocated seats of 16H & K on the lower deck changed by Virgin to 24H & K on upper deck. Check in at Orlando like organised chaos. Boarding on time and efficient. Welcome drink provided. IFE magazine provided for March shame entertainment available on system was from February! Crew disinterested. One alcoholic drink provided with dinner which only comprises of salad main course tiny dessert and bread roll. No cheese biscuits or chocolate. Coffee served in paper cup. Baileys or brandy offered. Additional request for another bottle of wine resulted in 1 bottle for 2 of us served in plastic cup! No juice with breakfast lukewarm tea/coffee. Crew disinterested. Total opposite to VS75 MAN-MCO service 1 week earlier.