A Virgin who knows what they're doing! (Virgin Atlantic)

Member Name: bestbunnygirl

Product:	Virgin Atlantic
Date:	31/01/09 (374 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great inflight entertainment, service and perks!

Disadvantages: Upgrading is pricey (but worth it)

We've flown with Virgin Atlantic on a few occasions and each time we've had a great flight.

My review will be based around our last flight which was in November 2008 which was Premium Economy from London Gatwick to Las Vegas.

The great service starts from the moment you book. I booked online and it is such an easy system to use. Very straightforward and you are able to put in a variety of different options to suit your needs. For example if you are flexible about the day you want to fly you can use there grid pricing system to see when the cheapest flights are before and after a certain date.

I chose the dates we wanted to fly out on and come back, put in our details and paid! It really is that straightforward.

The Virgin Website is great leading up to you flight as you can log in using your booking reference and flight number and pick your seats, put in special meal choices (e.g vegetarian, low fat) and the best bit is it counts down to your flight! Be aware though just because you've reserved those seats it doesn't always guarantee them!

The website is great as well as it will give you information about the films that will be showing on your flight. The inflight entertainment is pretty good as some of the films have only just come onto Sky Box office!

I initially booked economy seats but as the trip was for my husband birthday I decided to upgrade to Premium Economy. I also did this online and it was just a case of logging into my flight and clicking upgrade (oh and paying of course)!

The day of our flight arrived! All packed and ready to go! We stayed in the Hilton the night before which is connected to the South terminal by a walkway - this is a really handy place to stay if you have quite a journey to travel to the airport.

We went to check in and there is a seperate dedicated area for Premium Economy and Upper Class so we didn't have to que at all. You get extra baggage allowance as well if you fly PE or Upper - 32kg instead of 23KG. I have to admit the ground staff checking us in weren't all that friendly which I found unusual as every other time they have always been very friendly.

With PE you are invited to board the plane before everyone else which is quite nice as it doesn't seem like such a rush.

Our seats were in what I like to call "the bubble" basically the upstairs of the plane! I loved this as it felt like you were in your own little private jet.

We got on board and took our seats. Unfortunately flights out of Gatwick don't have the upgraded leather purple seats (these are currently only available on flights from Heathrow, although according to Virgin they are going to be updating this but they don't know when!).

On our seats were our free little amenity pack with socks, toothbrush, eye mask and pen. The socks came in very handy as it was a bit chilly on the flight!

You get loads of room with a seat pitch of 38 inches and in the bubble it is just two and two so there is a lovely large walkway in between the chairs. One thing I hate about planes is feeling claustraphobic but I never have done on a Virgin flight.

We were bought over our welcome drink of sparkling wine, bucks fizz or orange juice.

Also at this time one of the hostess' came over and asked if we would like our champagne on ice or in the gift box. Argh! That was meant to be a surprise! I had previously ordered a champagne giftset to be delivered to my husband on the flight. This was meant to be delivered with a gift card to your "un-suspecting guest" yet the hostess totally ruined the surprise!

Oh well, we still enjoyed the champagne! And she was very apologetic and it was the first time she'd done the pre-orders so I guess that was why!

We sat back to enjoy the rest of our flight by watching the inflight entertainment. Unfortunately we had one of the old TV systems where the programes were on at set times. They have a great newish system which is on demand which is much more convienient if you need the loo!!

We had menus for our lunch but the menus were incorrect. The food was still very nice. I had sausage and mash with onion gravy and the hubby had mustard chicken. For plane food the food is really good quality and very edible. You also get a GU dessert! Yum!

The hostess' were great making sure everyone was ok and constantly bringing out drinks and fruit and always willing to answer questions or help you out. You do seem to get a contstant supply of food, and I don't know why but I feel the need to eat every bit even if I'm not hungry!

At the end of the flight Upper Class and PE get priority exit which is ok, but not much point really as luggage always takes such a long time to appear on the carousel you don't make up much time!

Every flight that I've been on with virgin has always been great and we are using them again at the end of the year.

They have a great flying club where you can earn points each time you fly. For our next flight we are flying to Boston. We bought economy tickets for about £460 each but are able to use 20,000 points each to premium economy saving us the best part of a grand. So if you are going to fly with virgin, it's definately worth signing up for this!

Summary: Great service from a great airline