Virgin Atlantic

Love Virgin Atlantic. Whenever I head to London, it’s always my #1 choice of airline– except if I go in the fall/​winter, I have to choose another airline because Virgin’s ORD/​LHR route is only in the summer. Boooo.
Everyone at Virgin (they are actually employees for Continental, I believe, but with all the mergers lately that may have changed…) have always been nice and helpful. Organized boarding system, rarely a line to get to the counter, and every single time I’ve flown from ORD, the Virgin crew has been lovely. I swear they hire femme-​bots as flight attendants, they are all crazy gorgeous (and yes, they are all great at their jobs, too!).
The only thing I took a star off was for the ORD lounge. If you fly Upper Class or are a Gold Member, you get to use the lounge. Now, I realize that with one flight a day, only in the summer, they can’t set up their own lounge, however, they share it with Swissair, and it’s just sad. I know, total #firstworldproblem, but if I were paying full price for a ticket (which I never do… Watch the sales!), I’d be annoyed. Last time I was in there, they were out of almost everything to eat, were out of bottled water, and had all but a few bags of peanuts left. This, again, is because they are a shared lounge, so it’s first come first serve with all the other airlines. I’ve flown out of Boston, and they also have one flight a day to LHR, and man, that lounge is incredible. Small, but just wonderful– it’s a shared lounge as well, but Virgin runs it, and it’s awesome.
(also, if you ever get the chance, the Virgin London Arrivals Revivals Lounge at LHR is insane, and the London Virgin Clubhouse for outbound flights should seriously be on your bucket list.)
So yeah, Virgin rocks… I can’t wait until my next Virgin trip to London.

It is a sad statement about the level of customer service in the US when you speak with agents at Virgin Atlantic and are overwhelmed with their superior level of customer service.
I was so looking forward to my London trip, my first on Virgin, and am sad and disappointed as I must cancel due to a cancer diagnosis. Hugh, Jordan and Claire have all been incredibly understanding and helpful. What other airline allows their operators to give out their extension number!!!
I will treat myself to this trip once I get through my treatment/​surgery and will continue to rave about this company.

There are so many reasons why I love this airline. The biggest one happened today! I spent 8 days in Chicago with my family and was wanting to get an earlier flight home that day. So I showed up at the airport. She said yes you can reserve a seat in the earlier flight for $ 35, no bad! Then I had to pay $ 25 for my bag, ok no big deal cause most airlines charge now:(. So she told me if I wanted to upgrade to a row with more leg room for $ 69 my bag is free and I get complimentary cocktails, food and movies!!! Sign me up!!! The flight was great,

A superior airline with excellent customer service. The United and American Airlines of the world should take note, this is what flying should be like!
We had an issue with a missed flight and were able to get through on the phone (almost) straight away and were moved to a new flight with a minimal fee and minimal hassle.
I have flown Virgin to an from the UK on numerous occasions and although sometimes leg-​room in coach can be tight, their personal onboard entertainment, excellent food and (complimentary) beverages and flight accessory bag make up for this nicely.
Please Virgin, extend your Chicago services throughout the year and not just the summer months! If I have to fly United one more time I’ll scream!

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS This is how airlines should be! I can’t wait to fly Virgin overseas!
Our flight attendants were lovely and our flight departed ORD for SFO just a few minutes after scheduled. (seriously happy that we didn’t encounter one of these epic delays that others mentioned!)
I love the entertainment and the little remote in the armrest! Also love that you can order your drinks from the same screen with little interruption! The bf next to me loved that he had an outlet (!!) to keep his stuff powered up the whole way to San Francisco. What an AMAZING idea!
I think we booked our ORD-​SFO flight on a super deal (I remember something about $ 200 RT). I hope we can catch more like this in the future. I want to fly Virgin Atlantic all the time!

I fly Virgin more often than any other airline. The ORD terminal rules. There are free power in all chairs near the gates and the employees are top notch. Sometimes there is a delay, but it is not there fault. Whatever, I feel comfortable.

Wow! All I have to say is this airline is AMAZING! I heard about how awesome it was to fly through a couple of people at work and boy were they right. Our flight to Chicago on the 21^st of July was our first time, and we let the world know once we were In Chicago. We told everyone how great this airline is, and how we’re sure it’s going to «come up». Our flight attendant (Karlee, flight 815 on friday the 29^th from Chicago to L.A.) was sooooooo nice, helpful and super sweet. Man, if every flight attendant could be like her the skies would be much more appealing to fly. Keep it up Richard, and be sure to get more girls like Karlee! We’ll definitely be flying Virgin again. Thanks for the great service!

–16 and Pregnant (don’t judge me!)
–The Dark Knight
–Pride & Prejudice
–NEW episodes of Futurama
–downloading an entire playlist of pretty darn decent music to calm my nerves during take-​off
–unlimited soft drinks
…all of these are things I managed to enjoy for FREE on our Virgin Airlines round trip flight to San Fran and back.
For an additional charge, I also watched a Harry Potter Movie (word to the longest block of entertainment money can buy on an airplane) and consumed a «protein snack pack’ (hummus, crackers, tuna, fruit, and Toblerone), and a deli sandwich — both surprisingly delicious for plane food.
All in all, that’s a lot of entertainment and snack-​age for a flight to provide. Additionally, all luggage was handled masterfully, all flights were on time, etc. My only hangup was a long line for our a.m. trip out of O’Hare, but the annoyance was minimal. I’d totally fly it again. And since I got triple points for joining up their membership schtick, I probably should!

Well done, Virgin Atlantic. Reviewing your Chicago people, everyone was excellent. A very polite and organized boarding process. We knew it was getting close to boarding when the team all started showing up and setting out the ropes and lines to keep it straight. Pre-​boarding announcement was easy to understand and I think most people in the area understood.
A special note about O’Hare Terminal 5. There is ABSOLUTELY NO food once you are cleared through security. So if you’re hungry, eat at a different terminal. (There are elite lounges. Virgin Atlantic Upper Class and Star Alliance Gold get to use the SAS Business Lounge reviewed separately.)

I HATE FLYING. For this very reason I was very nervous about using Virgin Atlantic to fly to London this July. I was wrong! My flight was not sold out and I got lucky to have a empty seat to myself! The food was better than most dogfood they serve on planes, too. If you register your meal selection BEFORE flying online, they bring you the food BEFORE everyone else! How cool is that? Pretty cool when you are on a flight with the munchies. The staff brought beverages the entire time, and the wine selection wasn’t bad at all (again, compared to some of the piss I’ve probably drank on other flights). My flight arrived on time and all 30 lbs of luggage (shoes) arrived safely. On my way back home from Chicago, I had no issue either. The on-​flight entertainment is also AWESOME. You get to pick from a selection of New Releases, as opposed to being forced to watch Hannah Montana with everyone else. You can also play games and their on-​board shopping is cool too. During day flights they provide you with a meal, snacks, and then a choice of sanwich-​which in my opinion is great. You also get a travel kit each time you travel. Just make sure to give yourself plenty of time to board and check in, both airports suck at this. The only reason why I didn’t give Virgin Atlantic 5 stars is because I hate flying. I know It’s not their fault. Another reason for 4 stars is because I have to deduct 1 point for the fact that they seated me next to a barfy pre-​teen girl on the way home.

Because Lufthansa went on a strike I got the chance to shift to one of Virgin Atlantic’s flights to London.
Fucking brilliant.
Everything was simply, brilliant. Just as the other reviewer stated, from the short time with the ticket agents, checking in baggage, seating on the plane, in-​flight dealings with the lovely attendants to finally leaving the plane, everything was fucking brilliant. Yeah!
LoL.
The flight out to London wasn’t full so I was able to relax, every time my glass was half full a sweet Brit would ask me if I needed a reload. First question out of their mouth was which alcoholic beverage could they bring to me. And what a selection they had! The little passenger’s baggie you find in the seat pocket had all kinds of interesting flight trinkets, the typical eye shades for sleeping, a little note pad with the Virgin logo with a pen and a little rubber ducky to float in the sink if you so chose to do so. Some other things which I looted home which I can’t remember now. But everything in that baggie was something cooler than the usual crap you find in that baggie on any other International flight. You can imagine that the owner of Virgin said. «I want this flight to be perfect to the littlest details»
It was. I was lucky to get bumped onto this flight, it was way more expensive than my original flight with Lufthansa. Thanks to their employees for striking and creating a new Virgin Atlantic customer out of me.
The only hang up for me was the baggage allotment. Flying to Asia you usually get alot more baggage weight allotted. Flying to London there was a difference, but they gave me free bags to move articles to and carry in hand. Awesome.

From the ticket agents to the ramp agents, to the flight staff, everyone was friendly, bright, and very caring.
Our first flight out was very empy, so everyone in economy was able to spread out and enjoy some room.
Coming back, the flight was full due to the Easter holiday, but despite the 250 people on board, we had another smooth flight with another great staff.
The food was edible — in fact, a few of the snacks were what I would call GOOD.
Who knew?

I heart them SO much. I flew on my first international fligh pre-​9/​11 when they still had a route to Chicago. I was so happy to hear that they were starting back up in Chicago again just in time for me to book for my next trip overseas. The service is awesome, the food is actually good (not just airplane-​food good, but good! They even have a cheese course! And tiny bottles of wine — free!). Everyone gets a goody bag with slippers, earplugs, eyemask, and I think I remember a toothbrush or something or other. Every seat has its own TV. Virgin, not Metra, is the way to really fly.
EDIT: I’m dropping them down to 3 stars after my most recent flight. I don’t know if they had to cut the luxuries since they started back up with the Chicago route, but the food wasn’t nearly as good, the flight attendants seemed annoyed when I asked for an extra glass of water, and they boarded us a full hour before our flight took off from London, which meant we were on the plane over 9 hours.

We had a great experience with Virgin Atlantic. Very friendly staff. Lots of good movies/​tv/​radio/​games!!!
We were offered at $ 75 upgrade to Premium Economy. It rocked! More legroom, sweet amenity kits, good food… and lots of free drinks. The Upper Class cabin looks PIMP!
My only complaint is that it takes WAAAY too long to check in once you get to the airport (whether O’Hare or Heathrow). So just make sure you allow for PLENTY OF TIME to get yourself checked in.