Floying Virgin to the States (Virgin Atlantic)

Member Name: jonotinx

Product:	Virgin Atlantic
Date:	29/06/04 (595 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great in flight entertainment (on newer planes), Direct flights / punctual, Listen to comments / complaints and respond well

Disadvantages: Didn't get seated together on return flight, Older aircraft not upgraded to new standard

We recently flew Virgin from Heathrow to San Francisco, and returned to Gatwick from Las Vegas.

This was my first time with Virgin, and I was expecting good things as the Virgin brand generally tries to deliver something a little better and different from it's competitors - I wasn't disappointed.

We chose Virgin as the only direct service from UK to both San Fran and Vegas (all other airlines we looked at had changes somewhere in the States)

Check in was a pleasure - their desks are open most of the time, so you can just walk in and check in when you like - no waiting for a set time for the desks to open and joining a queue with several hundred other people. Baggage allowance was very generous - something like 32Kgs for the hold, each if I remember right. If you're moving that much luggage, you're more likely to put your back out than get hammered for excess baggage !

The timings were spot on, boarding and leaving bang on time. The flight out was 11 hours, and have to say it really did fly by. There was plenty of food (pretty tasty for airplane stuff) and free drinks where you just helped yourself.

The entertainment system on the way out was fantastic; massive choice of films / music / games - all 'on demand' so you started, stopped, paused etc. when you wanted to. The trivia game was especially good fun as you play against fellow passengers on the plane. You also get a free goody bag which is pretty nifty with headphones, flight socks, eye mask, tooth brush, pen etc.

Service was good. And on arrival in San Fran, they provide a limo service to take you to your hotel downtown (about 45 minutes) - we'd only booked flights with Virgin, and made our own arrangements for hotels but we could still use the service. It was only $35 (compared to at least $45 for a normal taxi and was much nicer.

We were not quite so impressed with the return flight from Vegas - the biggest problem wa
s that my partner and I were not seated together, despite checking in in good time. We'd booked the tickets well in advance so this was rather annoying. They did say they'd try to change things round to seat us together but this would depend on if all other passengers turned up. In the end, we were at opposite sides of the plane and a row behind. The plane wasn't as clean on the return trip (maybe suffering from lack of preparation time ?) and as it was an older aircraft, the entertainment system was well below our outbound trip.

To be fair to Virgin, when I commented on our return flight via their web site feedback, they were very apologetic and sent me a nice letter and credited my flying club with an extra 5000 miles. So at least they do take comments seriously and do something about it if they get things wrong.

Summary: