Earlier this year I travelled from Manchester to Florida. It was a late package deal, and initially I was concerned the flight would be a 9 hour chore I had to endure in order to get to the fun part of the holiday. I couldn't have been more wrong!
We arrived at the airport and boarded the plane on time, first good point being no delays. The staff were very friendly and helpful when directing us to our seats and very informative about the flight before we took off.
The first thing I noticed was the amount of leg room in the seats. It was by far the most space I have ever experienced while travelling Economy class. I also appeciated the pillows and blanket placed for me on my seat. In fairness, the feeling of spaciousness may have been contributed to by the fact the plane was only half full. We were the only two people in our entire aisle! The staff told us all that we were quite welcome to move around and change seats if we wished, once the flight was under way. The gentleman behind us took her up on the offer half way through the flight when he slept across the four seats in the middle aisle across from us.
Now that the flight was under way what would I do first? Of course I had taken a book to keep me occupied, which I didn't even get to open once! The entertainment is also the best I have ever experienced during a flight. Each seat has its own TV and you get to choose exactly what you wanted to watch. There was a choice of current movies and oldies, about 10 choices in all. Apart from this there were TV shows running as well. Each had a start time and you just selected the channel and off you went! Once the movie/show had finished it would repeat itself again. So if you were like me and fell asleep half way through the movie, you could go back and watch the second half next time around!
Now, if you got bored with all the TV options, there was also Nintendo games to play. There was an abundence of games to choose from, and although they did take a couple of minutes to load up it was certainly worth it.
In between all of ths wonderful entertainment the staff kept bringing us food and drink. Apart from the regular meals and drinks they also offered an ice cream snack and sanwiches. It is by far the tastiest food I have had on a flight, and I am quite picky when it comes to food. Drinks were unlimited and if the staff didn't happen to be bringing anything around (which was quite a rare occasion) the were quite happy to take requests whenever and wherever.
I must admit that I slept for a few hours during the flight (hence the reason I tried to watch the same movie 3 times!), which in itself shows how comfortable the seats were. I didn't find any problems getting comfortable at all.
When we were due to land the staff were very helpful in telling us what to expect once we got to Orlando Airport and what procedures we had to follow. We landed a little earlier than expected and I left the plane feeling refreshed and ready to go, rather than drained and ready to drop like most other airlines I've travelled with.
The returning flight was much the same in standards and it was a nice way to end the holiday, rather than just the dreaded journey home.
I would thoroughly recommend Virgin Atlantic to anyone travelling across the big pond - or anyone travelling anywhere for that matter! My only hope is that they increase the routes so I can make them my main airline wherever I go.
More details
Class flown most frequently
Economy
How often do you travel with this airline
First time
Where did you book
Directly with this airline
Safety
Very safe
How well does it cater for disabled people
Don't know
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