Virgin Atlantic Airways - VIR > Reviews > Premium economy - a virgin experience

Author's product rating:   

Food Quality	Good
Customer Service	Outstanding
Punctuality	Always on time
Space	Outstanding
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Much more comfort on longer flights, a more personalised service .
Disadvantages:	A little costly

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

We'd flown twice before with Virgin Atlantic, both times to Boston and had good experiences each time, so we had no hesitation in booking our 'once in a lifetime' trip to Florida to see Mickey & friends, with Virgin Holidays. What we hadn't bargained for though (naively, perhaps) was that all the Economy seats would be booked more than 8 months in advance. All they had left were Premium Economy for the dates we wanted, something we would never previously had considered, bearing in mind the cost of the holiday to begin with.

However, not wanting to let two small and very excited boys down, I let the enthusiastic young booking clerk sell me the benefits (actually he didn't really have to do much selling as I would have given in without much of a fight anyway.) I baulked at the extra cost at first (over £1700 for the four of us) but comforted myself with the fact that a small part of it would be offset by the10% discount we would get through our new membership of the Frequent Virgins Club. You qualify for membership with your third Virgin Holidays booking, regardless of how long ago your previous holidays were. What the young man did say was that once you've flown Premium Economy you'll never want to go back to Economy. He was right!

We took advantage of Virgin's excellent and I think, unique twilight check in at Gatwick which means you don't have to spend hours waiting around on the departure day. Even if you don't do this there is a designated Premium Economy check in desk, with virtually no queueing.

From then on you are treated 'a bit special'. Upper Class & Premium Economy passengers are called on to the plane first, giving you plenty of time to get your things sorted out in the extra storage space - not only do you have an overhead locker but there are storage lockers beween the window seat and the window itself. Once you're settled, the stewards come round with a glass of champagne which you have plenty of time to drink whilst everybody else is boarding the plane.

There are only 2 seats either side of the aisle, seats which are wider than Economy and which also give you an extra 7 inches legroom, so that when the obnoxious passenger in front (and there always is one) reclines his seat to the maximum just because he can, you don't care because you still have plenty of room.

The aisles themselves are much wider than usual, you can actually walk through at the same time as a trolley is being pushed through without fear of causing a mid-air collision.
Once in the air you have the usual Virgin benefits - personalised TV screens, goody bag etc., and complimentary drinks it seems every half hour or so, but with 2 steward/esses between 40-50 people you do feel you're getting a much more personal service.
As ever, nothing was too much trouble for the cabin staff, who treated everybody with the utmost courtesy and patience, from the woman who adamantly refused to take her overnight bag off her lap for take-off (she did in the end) to the two boys (not mine) who pressed the attendance button no fewer than 10 times to ask the stewardess ''Are we nearly there yet?'' Personally, I'd have throttled the little monsters by this stage.

After a little over 9 hours, we arrived in Orlando, where we and Upper Class were first off the plane, and were met by more lovely Virgin staff who showed us where to reclaim our baggage - this was one of the most pleasing parts - Premium Economy and Upper Class luggage not only comes off the plane first, but it has its own designated carousel, allowing you to complete the airport formalities in the minimum time possible. Even US Immigration were on form that day although I don't think we can really credit Virgin with that!

As a family we were genuinely impressed with the flight despite the extra cost. My husband and I both agreed that it was probably worth it overall whilst my sons were bowled over by the fact that 'we went upstairs on the plane'.

Would we fly Premium Economy again? Well, I don't .....Oh OK then I've talked myself into it!