1st time to London, which airline...?

one trip taken each on Virgin Atlantic and British Airways .. Virgin hands down was my preference. The VA seat was more comfortable, and I loved the Gü chocolate for dessert. Do they always serve it? I've no idea. I just love the memory :-) I've read that the seat could differ based on aircraft, so I'm sorry that I can't tell you which kind of plane it was. Definitely a wide body, had the FC section up some stairs.

Both have good reputations. Airlines do differ in how they configure the interiors of their aircraft. You can use a site like seatguru.com to check legroom, etc. You will need to know the aircraft type, though.

Thanks. I checked online and Virgin seemed to be the hands-down choice for many travelers. When I checked the pricing, British Airways was a bit less expensive.
I'd rather have an enjoyable comfortable more expensive flight than the alternative, even if it did cost less. Thanks again for the replies! Any more out there?

Virgin, absolutely! I can't wait to fly with them again!

I flew BA to London back in November... The price was good and I was comfortable (or as comfortable as I could be trying to get a full night's sleep on an airplane). They provided plenty of food and there are tons of free movies to watch, and they give you a little 'sleeping kit' a pair of socks, an eye mask, and toothbrush and toothpaste, which I thought was a nice little touch. I've never flown Virgin, but now I'm curious about it seeing these glowing reviews. Happy travels whichever you choose!

Great. I am fairly slender and am planning a night flight from USA to arrive in UK in the morning. I will definitely need a decent seat where I can stretch out a bit for sleep--I don't need a ton of room, but a few xtra inches would be nice.
Too bad Virgin Atlantic charges so much more for "Premium Economy."

Looks like I'm in the minority - but I don't care for Virgin Atlantic at all. My experience with them is flying out of Chicago. Maybe you'd have better luck elsewhere. I'd go B.A.

I flew out of Chicago on Virgin, too, and it was great. They also had the little toiletries kit, lots of entertainment options, and comfortable seats in economy. And I thought the food was great.

I prefer Icelandair to London (from Seattle). If it is practical for you to go to NYC, you might want to check them out. For my two recent trips to London, they were consistently the lowest priced. What I really like is that their Boeing 757's are configured so they DO NOT fill up my foot space with an electronic console under the seat in front of me. They are the only Economy class option I have found that has this configuration. Each passenger has a personal LCD touch screen monitor with many movie, tv show and music options. They make a stop in Reykjavik and you can layover for up to a week there for no addition airfare. Hope this is helpful! I am not affiliated with icelandair :>)
Cheers!

It all depends on the type of aircraft you'll be flying on. I stopped flying Virgin for one reason--the carry on allowance. It's only 13 lbs.

We flew to/from London (Gatwick) on British Airways and loved it. This was back in 2004 when BA was running a $200 roundtrip to London...those were the days. Economy was configured 3/3/3 so we had plenty of legroom and the seats were big and cushy. Individual TV screens for entertainment etc. Food was good; flight was comfortable; and I do remember the little flight goodie bag. FYI we flew to Germany in December on American and will never do that again.

We flew British Airways from Seattle to London in 2008 and enjoyed it very much. We flew on the Boeing 747 which is a very comfortable airplane, even in coach. We enjoyed the food and the service and had no problems at all except for after landing at Heathrow we had to wait 45 minutes to get off the airplane because the earlier flight from Seattle had been delayed 2 hours, so they took the slot we were supposed to get. Eventually, after standing on the airplane waiting to get off for 45 minutes, some buses arrived and we rode them to the terminal to go through customs, which was very fast and painless.