Difference Between Virgin Atlantic & British Airways?

Can hardly wait to see what responses you get. We had work training session where Virgin Brand was characterized as customer focused, popular culture and entertaining. My own experience with British Airways is traditional, and very, very British. :)

Pam

Have flown both and prefer Virgin Atlantic. Just exactly why I'm not sure.

Love the small bottle of water waiting along with the gift bag with eye shades, ear plugs. Love ALL the movies, music, tv show options. Responsive and polite crew. Food is fine.

And over the years have gotten great deals. $683 non stop round trip LAX to LHR early last December. Yes was in Economy.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Both are excellent and whichever one you choose will be a good experience. I tend to prefer Virgin because they always seem to go just a little above and beyond with customer service. An example of this would be once, when our flight was delayed by 15 minutes, they gave everyone an ice cream bar in apology. I also love the little packet of socks, sleep mask, etc. that they give out. It's just a cut above everyone else in this respect.

Thank you Pamela, Claudia and Anita, really appreciate your responses.

How is seat comfort and space in economy on both?

I haven't flown either of those airlines yet but will be on Virgin Atlantic in September. Based on my ticketing experience and supplemental Googling, I think you can expect to pay a substantial charge to select your seats more than 24 hours before the flight. I believe it's 25 GBP per person each way on VA. BA is probably similar.

Susan, have you looked at seatguru.com for reviews of the planes that fly your route, for each airline? It can give you the numbers on seats ( size, leg room, etc), as well as customer reviews.

I am not familiar with Virgin Atlantic, never flew with them. British Airways is, however, another story; price aside, (I always sit in Economy direct anyway), Br Air is my favourite, beats Lufthansa, United, and Air France going over from SFO, always satisfied flying with them.

Yes CJean, I've used SeatGuru in the past and it was very helpful. This time, on my iPhone, it was so frustrating I gave up. You spurred me to try again, and although still frustrating, I did find the seat width and pitch. That is helpful. But there are stll many choices of aircraft and seats/locations and because I don't have a flight #, SG can't show me the exact aircraft. So really, my question about seat comfort and space still applies when it comes to all the different locations.

I prefer to ask people I "know" lol here on RS than read 50+ reviews and try to make sense of them. Here is more personal.

Thanks to all who've posted... would love to hear more. So far, sounds like they're both good but VA has a slight advantage.

Plane type---BA has two flights a day from SFO, one on a 747 (BA284) and one on an A380 (BA286). People on Flyertalk seem to really like the A380, which is newer. They also fly a 787 from SJC but everyone says the Economy seats on that one are too narrow and cramped.

We always fly BA to Europe and enjoy the customer service and British ambiance. But I cannot be much help on seat comfort in Economy as we use miles to fly in Business Class. Our daughter flew the A380 in PE and enjoyed the flight--but her luggage did go astray and arrived in Rome two days late. With a flight to London this would not be an issue---it is transferring at LHR that can lead to lost luggage.

I will add that my son and his family joined us in London last May and they flew Virgin Atlantic from SFO. He is a techie and well-traveled, so I assume there was a reason for his choice, but I did not ask.

You will pay a fee to choose seats on BA if you want to do so in advance of check-in. I don't know VA's policy on that.

I've only flown Virgin long haul in Upper Class and I can say that it's far more preferable to BA business class. I prefer the Virgin staff, they're less arrogant than many of the BA staff. The staff on BA long haul routes tend to have been in the job longer and many have become cynical, arrogant and patronising (not all of course), the men tend to be less so. I've flown transatlantic with BA in economy once and it wasn't all that bad, certainly better than any of the US carriers I've flown.

Thanks everyone, every post has been very helpful.

We have flown BA round trip from SFO to LHR three times since 2006. So far we have been happy with service and we received little goody bags in World Traveler and World Traveler Plus. Next fall we are flying the new BA route from Oakland to Gatwick roundtrip. I was able to buy rt tickets for $598 each!!! Special sale for the new route. I did have to pay a seat selection fee, always have. I found out about this new route sale on this forum under Transportation! We have also flown Air France rt from SFO to Paris on their big Airbus A380! It had over 500 people on board and three boarding ramps. We flew economy on the upper deck and had two roomy seats together towards the rear of the plane. Paid extra to pick our seats.

Wow mello, what a great price!! Lucky you!
Sounds like you liked AF?
I'll be checking Google flights often for the best price on VA and BA.
You all have helped me a lot, thanks!

My brother recently told me about a great deal between SFO and London. Sounds like you have that information. He also mentioned $503 RT Oakland - London on British Airways. I want to go!!

We flew Virgin Atlantic to Heathrow last spring (May). We love VA!
Plane interior spotlessly clean.
Flight attendants polite and eager to make sure you have a great flight.
Food great.
Comfortable seats.
Price great for our round trip flight.
Will fly with them next trip to London.

Flew Virgin in 2013 SFO to London in economy. I remember the staff being very polite, engaging, and food just kept coming the whole trip, or maybe more on the daytime flight coming home. The food was good, but they had a lot of weird snacks that I didn't always care for. They even had ice cream! It was very nice! Have never flown BA.

Just flew VA from LAS-LGW in March. Got an amazing price (even with driving to Vegas and parking for 8 days) and sprung for the extra legroom seats in Economy on the way over. Totally worth the extra $120 it cost us. Flight crew was nice, plane was super clean and seats were as comfy as one expects. The bottle of water at the seat when we got onboard was a nice touch, and they came around with water or juice almost hourly. Nice to not have to track someone down while I'm trying to stay hydrated. We did regret not springing for the extra legroom seats on the way home, definitely made a difference for us (both 5'10"). I'll definitely fly VA again if we have the chance.

Let's just hope you don't get a crime scene cookie with your meal :)

Sorry. I couldn't resist. If you haven't read this hilarious complaint letter you are missing a real treat.
http://www.dearcustomerrelations.com/best-ever-complaint-letters/virgin-atlantic-in-flight-food/

Haha Laura, that's great. No prison cookies for us. The food actually wasn't too bad, considering its airplane food. I loved the little Gu desserts!

If you like the VA complaint letter (I have flown VA several times and always been very happy with the experience) you will love the Ryanair one which, for those of you pondering whether to use them for cheap European travel, should serve as a sobering and terrible warning. http://www.dearcustomerrelations.com/best-ever-complaint-letters/ryanair/

If you are prepared to negotiate the minefield of Ryanair rules and regulations to ensure they don't suck out all the cash from your wallet, then fine, and they can be ludicrously cheap if you are prepared to fly at anti social hours (I have flown Ryanair and, as it goes, it was OK, but I spent a fair few hours making sure we complied with all their requirements), but be warned that any 'mistake' on your behalf (and according to the above it WILL be your fault) will result in you paying enormous amounts of money to them because you didn't follow the rules (like them having a slightly smaller and lighter hand luggage allowance than everybody else) and THAT'S YOUR FAULT! But the complaint letter is a masterpiece!

Ian

Me too Andrea! That price is amazing.

VA complaint letter was humorous. I've read the Ryan Air one a while ago, also funny. We flew Ryan Air once, 10 or so years ago, and had a good experience. I've also been told they have the best safety record in the industry and that counts for something.

You all have been very helpful, thank you. Now I have to watch and wait for a good price for next Feb... 🤔