Virgin Atlantic, a mixed but generally positive experience. (Virgin Atlantic)

Member Name: andyLDN

Product:	Virgin Atlantic
Date:	16/11/08 (198 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good price, great entertainment, timely service, good online support

Disadvantages: Felt a bit misled by customer services, more legroom would be good!

Attracted by some great value deals on offer at the moment, a friend and I decided to take a trip to New York for a week as our annual holiday. The cost of the flight was £340 direct from London Heathrow to JFK Airport including taxes.

We booked our tickets online, which was an easy process and at the same time were able to select the type of meal we wanted on board (vegetarian, dairy free, kosher etc). Coming up to the departure we were also able to make seating requests and fill in US immigration information online. It's a good facility and made me feel like I was very organised!

Unfortunately the seat request isn't guaranteed, and as we didn't check in online (the website was down), our seats were given away to someone else. After some wangling, the customer services rep managed to get us two seats together which was at least something. However as she smiled and waved us off, she must have had the underlying satisfaction that she'd placed us in two windowless seats between two toilets. This was a bit annoying, as I am scared of flying and like to be able to see out of the window so I can see where I am.

The legroom in economy was also a bit stingy, apparently 37cms. However we were well entertained on the flight, and it all went quite fast, and taking a walk about every so often meant I didn't feel that cramped.

There are also seat-back TVs with on demand movies, games, audio, travel guides and current location. I watched Sex and The City and Mama Mia.

The flight on the way back was better, and despite not checking in online we got our originally reserved seats. The flight was turbulent and I couldn't sleep but can't complain about that I guess!

Summary: Overall a mainly positive experience