Great airline, cheap and fun!!! (Virgin Atlantic)

Member Name: jaylad

Product:	Virgin Atlantic
Date:	18/05/01 (258 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: In-Flight entertainment, Miami route not too pricey

Disadvantages: Legroom could be better, Old aircraft on Miami route

Flying Virgin is great!, there are several things that make Virgin Atlantic different from other airlines.

The main feature of Virgin Atlantic, is that you have seat back tv monitors in the back of every seat meaning everyone has there own choice of entertainment. I know many others are doing this now, but Virgin pioneered this in economy, which is what we flew.

We flew to Miami, and this is one of Virgins first ever routes, so you expect the service to be good and up to standard, and it is.
We got to Gatwick airport and there were many check-in desks open, and it takes no time to check-in, and there are over 300 people checking-in at the same so its really good that you don’t have to wait about for ages.

The gate where we boarded was sadly looking a bit dated, (no fault of the airline) but there are not enough seats for everyone.
We boarded the plane and it was one of Virgins first ever planes, a rather old 747-200.
Well luckily the plane had seen a few refits and was clean and tidy inside, if not noticing the mish-mash of red and grey seats randomly scattered (looks a bit untidy). You sit down and you stare into your own personal tv, where you have a choice of 6 channels on the 747-200, but if your on the 400 series or an Airbus A340, you get more and a Nintendo games option! Upon boarding, the tv’s are all showing the video to ‘tubular bells’ which was the first song Virgin records ever launched, in turn making them a major record label. Also, when on your seat is a goody bag containing socks, toothbrush and eyepads etc. Also in the bag are headphones and this enables you to listen to the radio stations as well as the tv. Theres about 12 radio channels.

The flight took off bang on time, and the flight was about 8 hours long, and you were encouraged to walk around the plane as we did, and looked out the rear door window for ages seeing where we were flying over.
The legroom is very averag
e; I mean its not that much better than a charter flight and it can be hell on a long haul flight like this one. When I got to my seat and saw our row I was in complete shock to think I was at least spending the next 8 hours huddled in them!
The pilot was good in informing you of flight time/speed and time of destination. The crew are quite professional too, when summoned by the call button overhead, they instantly brought us what we wanted. The uniform is quite novel though, more of a catwalk outfit, red top, red skirt and red high heel shoes! The crew also helped when we had to fill out our ‘Visa Waiver Forms’ which you have to do when flying to the US. There is even a program run on the tv system that everyone has to watch so you can all fill it in together!

We arrived in Miami early, which was great!

On the way back we checked in on time – and Virgin have there own check-in desks in Miami airport so you feel really important!
We flew back on another old plane, which sadly seems to be a regular thing on the Miami service (are they getting newer ones for this route?) and the service was just as consistent. The food is average, if slightly better than on a short flight and we were even offered seconds!

The price we paid was very competitive for 4 of us, and also included car hire. Some of Virgins routes now though hardly seem a bargain, BA charge around £4,500 for a Club World return ticket to San Francisco and Virgin are charging around £4,200 for their equivalent, Premium economy – big money!

Summary: