Virgin Atlantic Airways - VIR

Who hasn't heard of the almost mythical experience in luxury that flying Virgin Atlantic represents? The Virgin Clubhouse lounges, the on-board massseuse and manicurist, the bar right there in the cabin, the fully reclining beds...the list is endless. But what about economy class? Was there any trickle-down effect, or was the difference enough to effect a Marxian-style revolution (sorry way too much philosophy/history this semester!)

My father was eager to find out and so booked us on Virgin Atlantic from New Delhi to London on our summer vacation to Europe this summer, and needless to say, we came away thoroughly disillusioned with the Virgin myth. What on earth had all those people who had recommended Virgin raved about? This flight was the pits, and needless to say, I was not too pleased with the prospect of flying back to the US later in the summer on my way back to university. When I landed in Newark, NJ I was a changed woman. I couldn't WAIT to fly Virgin back home in December for Christmas break. It turns out that while the India-UK leg leaves some room for improvement, the transatlantic segment is absolutely first rate. Read on for comparisons between the two...

Flight frequency:
Between New York and London, there are 7 flights daily each way, two of which are operated by Continental Airlines. Between London and New Delhi, there is one flight daily.

Online services:
Virgin allows customers to choose their own seat online, request special meals, make reservations, check flight status, and input frequent flyer numbers through their website, www.virginatlantic.com. There are separate sites for the UK, US, Australia, Caribbean, China, Hong Kong, UAE, India, Japan, Nigeria and South Africa, easily accessible by clicking the appropriate country from the pulldown menu on the upper right corner of the site. The site is itself quite easy to navigate and to use, and even the most internet phobic person could use the site successfully. I wanted to do my seat requests online, but I needed by booking reservation number, which I couldn't seem to locate on my ticket. A quick call to a very friendly operator at Virgin Customer Service resolved the issue, and within minutes I was looking at a map of all available seats on my flight, and decided that I was satisfied with both legs. Two more clicks and my Delta SkyMiles number was safely added to the system, leaving me worry-free about remembering to produce my card at check-in. You can also do DIY Check In online, but as I don't quite understand the requirements for this service and I did not use it, I shall not discuss it here.

Seats:
The seats on Virgin flights are, in my experience, hit or miss depending on the aircraft you are flying. The US-UK leg was decent, not super comfortable, but I've sat on worse. They're slightly narrow, with an ok amount of leg-room, though if you have exceptionally long legs, you're in for an unpleasant ride. The seats on the second leg however, were hideously uncomfortable. I wound up with body aches everywhere that still haven't gone away 2 days later. What's more, the lady in front of me put her seat back, and in trying to wriggle around to find a comfortable position, I wound up hitting the back of her seat several times, leading her to snap at me (slightly unjustifiably, it wasn't intentional). Even putting my backpack in the overhead locker didn't do much to alleviate the space problem (and it should be noted that I am a very small person who normally has no problems finding a comfy position in airline seats).

In-flight entertainment system:
The in-flight entertainment system on the Virgin planes between the US and the UK is absolutely first class. The first time I encountered it, I was so blown away I was convinced I'd lucked out beyond belief. The entertainment system has a dazzling array of features - no mere movies and TV shows on this set. Each seat has its own TV screen with controls on the handset phone located next to you. The system is relatively easy to use, but you'd need more than a 6 hour flight to fully take advantage of everything this system has to offer. The movies are absolutely fantastic, and fresh out of theaters. My flight three days ago featured, among around 40 movies, March of the Penguins, Wallace and Gromit, Wedding Crashers, and The 40-Year Old Virgin. Fall asleep while watching? No problem, you can start and stop movies wherever you want, and can even fast-forward and rewind in case you missed something. There's also a wide variety of TV shows for both adults and kids, again, very recent.

The music selection is extensive and allows you to create your own playlist. If you think the person sitting in seat 55K is really cute but don't have the guts to approach them in person, you can discreetly message them using the instant messenger feature of the entertainment system, and if things go well, you can always move up to flirting over the phone using the free seat-to-seat calling. If none of this strikes your fancy, you can while away the hours by playing a variety of video games, or even by learning a foreign language (they have audio books to learn English, Spanish and Japanese). Even the SkyMap program is jazzed up a bit! I think it's safe to say this is probably the best entertainment system on any airline, and I must admit, it brings a lovely touch of luxury to sitting in economy class. The entertainment from the UK to India was not nearly as spectacular - there was a choice of a handful of TV shows and 8 movies, really old games, and a tiny screen. To make matters worse, my handset was lousy and I had to press extremely hard on the buttons to get anything to work, leading to sore thumbs :( Still, the prospect of that entertainment system to and from the US makes me long for the next time I fly...

Crew:
On the whole, the crew on Virgin are friendly and generally attentive, but sometimes spacy. The first time we flew Virgin, the crew to the UK were terribly slow - getting food took ages, and getting it cleared took just as long. This time, the crew were in high spirits and had decided to celebrate the holiday season by dressing up in quirky costumes. From the US, I had a fairy princess, a reindeer, and other assorted characters, which I have to admit made me smile and certainly brightened up what had otherwise been a very long and tiring day. The service on the India leg was also quite good, and unusually, was nearly entirely male. The only incident came over the immigration forms for India. I was handed a form for Indian nationals, and called after the steward saying I needed a foreigner's form instead, but was brushed off with an "it doesn't matter!" This left me exceedingly puzzled, so at the end of the flight I went to the back and got the correct form myself. Other than that though, the service was extremely friendly and rates among some of the best I've ever experienced in economy.

Food:
Virgin boasts on their website that their food aims to go beyond edible and cross the line into good, an idea largely unheard of amongst most major carriers in economy class, but again, Virgin exceeds expectations. Out of all the meals I've had on Virgin, I would happily eat most of them again. On my most recent flight, the first leg featured a choice of christmas turkey, beef stew, or a vegetarian option. I went with the turkey, and got a mini traditional English turkey dinner - turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts and pigs in a blanket. As a festive touch, each tray came with a mini candy cane, and dessert was a heavenly slice of oreo cheesecake (drool...). I can't remember what we had for breakfast, so apologies for that. On the UK-India leg, dinner options were curried chicken with rice, herbed chicken with vegetables, and vegetarian lasagna. The steward recommended the herbed chicken to those who asked, but neglected to tell me that when I requested chicken, I was in fact getting the curried chicken. I didn't discover the mistake until I had opened the dish, and needless to say, I was quite disappointed. The dish was so-so, leading me to conclude that Virgin doesn't do Indian food well. The side dishes were all Indian as well, and generally tasteless and/or stale. I didn't attempt the dessert, which was some unrecognizable mass of yellowish, thick liquid because if you can't tell what it is, you probably shouldn't eat it. Shortly before arriving, we were served breakfast, which was delicious. There was a raisin roll, yummy with English butter, a choice of a cajun chicken or tomato, onion and cheese pasties. I went with the vegetarian option, which was sooo good I was tempted to ask for seconds! Breakfast was topped off with excellent cereal and bio yoghurt, which was poured over the cereal. The mix of granola clusters, tart, dried raspberries and healthy yoghurt was the perfect way to end the meal.

Virgin also does special meals which can be requested either by calling them directly or through the online site under meal requests. Available options include kosher, vegan/vegetarian, low sodium, gluten free, and dairy free meals.

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Conclusion:

Virgin Atlantic is now one of my favorite airlines to fly, because regardless of the small problems it has, it's still streaks ahead of its competitors. Not only are the fares cheap, but I really appreciate the fact that although I am sitting in economy, I am not treated like some unimportant nobody, but rather am made to feel special, regardless of how much I paid for my seat. It's the little things that can make or break a flying experience, and Virgin is tops at making sure that you want to fly them again, and they get my recommendation hands down.