Virgin Atlantic Airways - VIR > Reviews > Pinch me, am I really in Economy class

Author's product rating:   

Food Quality	Good
Customer Service	Friendly and attentive
Punctuality	Good
Space	Comfortable
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Good food, great entertainment, added perks
Disadvantages:	None -  though if I'm going to be really petty, the toothpaste tasted gross

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I'm a pretty frequent flier- having been going hither and thither since I was a tiny tot. The general airline experience has been pretty unmemorable until the day I tried Virgin- on a long haul flight from London to Los Angeles.

They started off by passing out sweet Werther's Originals before the plan had even taken off. Then over the next 12 hours, I received drinks - mmm, nice choice of californian wines, a killer bloody mary, a post-dinner shot of Bailey's, a lovely dinner (something pasta with asparagus if I remember correctly) and plenty of chocolate from chocolate cake to a dairy milk on the tray, followed by a tasty breakfast of fresh fruit, yogurt, and a croissant. All served on a very cool colour coordinated tray with coloured blue plastic accessories- none of the gloom of 70's style airplane trays.

The entertainment was fantastic- 6 films to choose from, along with a choice of TV shows ("Friends," "Frasier," "Ab Fab", if only reality was this good...), radio programmes that weren't rubbish...

And then there were the accessories- a little kit with your headset, toothbrush, toothpaste (albeit, I tried it and it tasted disgusting, but you can't win them all), stripey socks...this before all the competitors' like BA did their pathetic job at trying to copycat. I admit I even used the flight blanket which was a fashionable red tartan (and smelled clean- shock horror!)

The flight attendants looked immaculate, replete with fine pressed red uniforms, french twists, and sincere attentiveness. The sort of pretty attendants of yesteryear (before that generation of attendants got old and snarly and jaded and didn't give a flip what customers wanted).

Heck, even the safety video was entertaining- with the cartoon starring the voice of Euan McGregor. It was riveting- and while I normally zone out during the video, I was entertained.

Since then, I continue to use Virgin when I can. It hasn't let me done yet.