Virgin Atlantic airways from London Gatwick to Las Vegas McLarren airport. (Virgin Atlantic)

Member Name: steveo38ms

Product:	Virgin Atlantic
Date:	10/08/09 (234 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Direct flight

Disadvantages: Tired leisure fleet, sometimes rowdy passengers

Dooyoo Virgin Atlantic Airlines.

I recently flew with Virgin Atlantic airways from London Gatwick to Las Vegas. McLarren airport.

This is one of the many companies set up by Richard Branson now celebrating 25 years of flying and now flies to many destinations all over the world.

The Web site can be found at http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/index.jsp

The web site is quite good and very easy to navigate around to book your fare or holidays, car hire. Hotels, airport parking etc.

There are basically three travel classes on Virgin Atlantic those being.

1. Economy.
2. Premium Economy
3. Upper class.

Some travel sites plug virgin premium economy as being business class. Let me reiterate and assure you that it certainly is NOT I repeat NOT anywhere near a business class experience. It is what it says it is and that's premium economy.
Their upper class is more akin to Business class.

From what I experienced the only difference is that you get a separate seating area from Economy with a seat pitch of 38 inches whereas in economy it is only a measly 31inches. That's the distance of the seat in front of you to the seat you are sitting in. The standard of food is very similar to that of economy the only exception being that it is served on chinaware, (on my particular flight they had run out of a particular menu option and so the alternative was take) and you are offered a pre departure drink. You are not entitled to use the business class lounges unless you pay to enter.

The cabin crew I must say are absolutely brilliant and work really hard. They are always smiling and never seem to sit down at all. By the end of the flight I am sure they must be truly exhausted and yet they are still smiling and look immaculate in their red uniforms. I must say that on one flight I took the crew were all from Scotland and when the stewardess was making a PA announcement it was very difficult to understand her accent and she may as well have been speaking Japanese... I did quip that perhaps they could repeat the PA but this time in English.

The selection of entertainment on Virgin is very good but then you would expect that from them bearing in mind their other commercial operations and there are various movies available and music channels and all kinds of interesting short programmes, comedies and documentaries etc. The AV system had to be restarted a couple of times, its showing its age.

The comfort pack they give you is ok but certainly not high quality products, although the eye mask was quite useful on the return overnight flight.

The current leisure fleet at Gatwick is quite dated and have not yet been upgraded. I found the plane very tired, worn out and quite drab. I do hope Virgin is able to rectify this as soon as possible. The fleet at Heathrow have been upgraded and it looks much better.

Their price structure is very close to that of British Airways and not a lot of difference between their premium economy fares but given the choice I would definitely opt for British Airways every time as theirs is a much superior product.
I know I sound a little biased but I am a staunch believer in BA.

Would I recommend flying Virgin?
Not if other airlines are flying the same route.

Summary: Okay - for what you pay for it