British Airways Vs. Virgin Atlantic

Just different brand of seats used on the plane. The VA seats have thinner divides between the seats giving that couple extra inches.

Seat guru does not measure seats themselves, they depend on information available from airlines and what users of the site report.

We always fly BA but use miles and fly in Business Class, so I cannot comment on Premium economy. It includes meals from the Business Class menu, which is pretty good.

http://www.britishairways.com/en-us/information/travel-classes/premium-economy/world-traveller-plus

Our next trip we are going down to San Jose to take that 787 to London---just because.

I do know that people complain bitterly about the narrow seats in economy on the BA 787's. So when they say that World Traveler Plus includes a "wider seat" it still may not be very wide. But do you care about that? Most people book premium economy to get more leg room and a quieter cabin.

I will note that my son who lives in SF prefers Virgin Atlantic for his London travel, but I have not asked him why.

Since last May, I have flown British Air five times to Europe. I fly business class and it really upsets me that I have to pay extra to select my seat so that alone makes Virgin Atlantic a better choice. On the most recent trip, we did not pay extra to choose our seats and they broke up our family of four into 4 seats two on the upper deck and two on the lower with none next to each other and one of the people in the group is only 11. The only reason I stick with BA is because the schedule works for our travel plans and they have connections from Heathrow on BA to my final destination. For VA, I'd have to take a partner airline to my destination and I prefer to have all travel on one airline when possible. I find the two airlines comparable in terms of service and time performance for flights. '

My preference is Virgin Atlantic.

I've flown it to London 3 times, BA once.

Last November Virgin had a great price, ( made aware via website alert) under $800 for a red eye round trip LAX to LHR.

Prefer the ease of check in, booking seats ahead of time, comfort of seats, finding a small bottle of water on my seat always an appreciated touch, better food and you will never be without entertainment options. Staff has always been attentive.

Even get an amenity kit in economy class.

Never flown BA and flew Virgin to London once. I had heard Virgin was good so when I saw a good price I booked with them. I honestly couldn't tell a difference with the seat space, but they continually came around with food and service was very good in economy. They even came by with ice cream and snacks between the meals. My dad and I booked the two seats together toward the back of the plan where it goes from 3 seats down to two and there is a space between you and the window to store more of your things. Kind of nice!

I did a cursory review of the posts on flyertalk and the thoughts there are similar to here. Most seem to prefer VA over BA. It's all the little things, BA charges you for seat selection unless you have status or are flying first. VA offers dedicated check in lines for PE passengers. Wander wall on 787s - like a self serve snack and drink center - welcome aboard drink predeparture.

And in terms of the seat width, the last two times that I've flown Southwest I have had the unfortunate circumstance of having a passenger of size next to me encroaching into my seat. About 2 to 2.5 inches the first time and about 2 inches the other time. So yes seat width is important to me, at least it is now. Fortunately the flights were fairly short.

Thanks for all your thoughts.

Virgin Atlantic provides the quality service compared to other airlines.. They also provide additional features different classes, entertainment in travel, quality food, etc. So, I prefer the Virgin Atlantic.