Virgin Atlantic Airways - VIR > Reviews > Making the best of it.

Author's product rating:   

Food Quality
Customer Service
Punctuality
Space
Value for Money

Advantages:	They do try harder .
Disadvantages:	No obvious ones .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Economy class is grim. There are degrees of 'grimness' and in my opinion, Virgin occupies a position at the less grim end of the scale.

I have flown Virgin across the Atlantic every trip, barring my first. This was with Continental, who were having a little cabin crew trouble at the time. It was a nightmare, trust me.

After this horror show Virgin, who were a relatively new operation, came as a breath of fresh air. I remember reading a cocky piece in the inflight magazine from Branson himself. It made impressive reading, if only he could deliver...

In my opinion, he did. Many years and flights later, I still consider Virgin to be the best of the airline bunch.

Plus points? Well, I've never had a 'bad' in flight meal. There seems to be a couple of extra 'knee-inches' from the seat. Inflight 'entertainment' is plentiful and cabin crew are, on the whole, pleasant and helpful.

I did have one bad experience where my wife and I spent the whole of a transatlantic flight without any entertainment whatsoever. It was a catalogue of errors, compounded by the only surly and arrogant Virgin cabin crew I have ever come across.

Virgin did respond to my complaint by giving me a voucher good for money off future flights. However, there were so many strings, (could not be used with Virgin Holidays etc.) that they expired without me being able to use them. Perfect, Virgin are not.

Finally, Virgin do not seem satisfied to rest on their laurels. A number of improvements are in the pipeline such as larger LCD screens in the seat backs and improved entertainment content. I'm flying over to Miami in October. Any chance of a free upgrade Richard? Oh...suit yourself, I only asked.