Virgin Atlantic Airways

Hopefully the following story will serve as a heads up to any and all that may be considering using virgin Atlantic airlines as their choice for international travel. Based on my most recent experience with them, not only are they inflexible in terms of their policies and interpretation of the rules, their customer service, lack of accessibility and the appearance they put forth of caring about their customers is in a word, disgraceful. In fact their lack of empathy and utter disregard for the safety of their customers is startling. Where I was initially upset about losing over 90% of the fare I paid, this is more so about their lack of integrity, questionable refund policy and the unwillingness to view each situation on an individual basis. This is simply intended to spare others, not only the financial aspect but more so the grief I went through in my dealings with virgin Atlantic.
A brief history to illustrate why I feel as I do. I am currently a student at the university of California. I work 3 jobs in order to support myself throughout the school year, so I appreciate the value of money. My plans since beginning college, has always been to attend a study abroad program overseas. As it was, this upcoming summer was the time that best fit into my academic schedule. I had planned to attend my colleges study abroad program in London beginning in June. When the program opened for registration in March, I decided to book my flight with virgin atlantic based on previous reviews I had read. Being told how user friendly their website was, I chose to book in that manner, which in retrospect was my first mistake. You see, their site is somewhat difficult to navigate and glitches from screen to screen on occasion. Possibly this is normal as I, have never been in a position to book an international flight prior to this. After some degree of struggle, I successfully booked a round trip flight to London in late March. Even though the fare was a bit higher than their competitors I chose virgin Atlantic in large part because of their reputation of outstanding service. Little did I know this was not to be the case. Days after the booking and my payment in full, the unfortunate incidents took place in Brussels where terrorists took the lives of many innocent victims. With the threat of more actions declared as imminent, the United States issued warnings for all travelers to avoid any unnecessary trips overseas for the near future. I felt in light of what had just taken place, that it was in my best interests to postpone my study abroad desires for this year and forgo the program at this time. Surely a responsible airline such as virgin would understand the situation and take care of its customers. Sadly this was not the case at all. Not only did they refuse to refund my fare — I was more than willing to pay what I thought should be a fair amount of fees to cancel, their customer service did their best to belittle me for my decision and to go to the extent of pretending to not even be aware that these attacks occurred! During one of many phone calls I attempted with them to arrive at a reasonable solution, one of their reps had the audacity of going to the Internet and googling the terrorist attack to see if it had even occurred. To say the least, I was stunned at this type of behavior. I asked repeatedly to speak with a supervisor thinking if I presented my case, any reasonable person would simply do the right thing. Unfortunately virgin supervisors hide behind the phone screeners and cannot be contacted by the general public. Their customer representatives simply read virgins policies and state the only course of action available is to write to their customer service department. Even though I presented what I felt was a compelling case for a refund, the phone staff sticks to the virgin script and refuses to look at the circumstances. This appears to be a company that prefers to hide behind the rules and refuses to do the right thing. When all was said and done, virgin issued me a check for $ 200 on a $ 2100 fare. They claim this was all I was entitled to. When I asked for an explanation, they claimed the $ 1900 they kept were various fees that I was not entitled a refund for. They claimed the refund given me was «reasonable». I beg to disagree. Even with follow up letters, Virgin refused to budge from their original stance. They told me they do not look at individual cases, nor judge them on their merits because it wouldn’t be fair to their other passengers. I have seen other businesses that value their patrons and would at the very least attempt to arrive at a solution acceptable to both parties, however virgin prefers to play hard ball. This is no longer about recovering lost money, but more so an attempt to warn others to be very careful about the ethics of companies that prey upon their customers. I only wish I had known what a despicable group virgin Atlantic was prior to booking with them. If this review spares

I recently travelled to London from Washington D.C. on an overnight flight. Prior to this trip, I have never experienced any serious health issues on a flight. On this flight however, late in the night, I suddenly felt my heart racing and the life quickly flush from my body. I quickly tapped my fiancé on the arm to tell her something was wrong before I completely lost consciousness. The next thing I remember, the flight service crew was attending to me, some moving passengers, another finding a doctor, while another was by my side reassuring me that the crew was well trained to handle this situation. With their attentiveness, they got me back to a reasonably normal state before the end of the flight. While this was a frightening experience, the professionalism, care, and kindness of the Virgin Atlantic flight service crew blew me away. This was my first flight with Virgin Atlantic, and I will always recommend Virgin Atlantic from this day forward.
Outside of this extreme circumstance, the basic experience was very nice. There was music playing throughout the aircraft as we boarded. The seats were fairly comfortable with a reasonable amount of room for economy seating. Each seat had a special gift bag with a toothbrush, toothpaste, eyemask, earplugs, socks and pen. Each seat had its own TV screen and there were many recently released movies available for viewing on demand. Food and drinks were served frequently throughout the trip, and alcoholic cocktails were free. The flight service crew on both our outgoing (VS022) and incoming (VS021) flights were extremely friendly, pleasant, and helpful.
On our return flight, my fiancé informed the flight service crew of my experience on our previous flight. Throughout the trip the flight attendant for our section checked in on me and asked me how I was doing. It was very nice of him and I appreciated the gesture.

VS20 to London on 22 May in Upper Class.
Don’t do it. Fly anyone else. Please. This company deserves to be euthanized. I haven’t even got on the plane yet and am regretting intensely my decision to give them my business.
If I could score them negative, I would, but «1» is as low as we can go.
Where to begin? Customer service? Absent. Recognition of the possibility that a problem might be innocent? Zero. Problem solving skills? Still zero.
In a nutshell, I arrived at check with an emailed eticket which they were unable to find it on their system. The result? Stark disbelief that they might share in the responsibility, a retreat to the fine print and an aggressive use of the word ‘sir’ by a battle tank like supervisor with the customer skills of Attila the hun.
Solution? None that didn’t involve their exquisite pleasure a recognising that I needed to be in London and extracting maximum cash for the pleasure. So the lesson? They will exploit their pricing power at the slightest opportunity. They are rude, aggressive and unhelpful. Avoid or suffer at your peril.

I flew in economy from LHR to LAX a few days ago. Really no need to upgrade to premier economy as the seating was adequately wide and the service exceptional. Save your money, folks-​Virgin knows what they are doing! Supposedly they were working with a reduced staff on my flight, but you would never have known. The beverage and meal service was spot on and they kept coming to refill beverages and even came by with 2 additional snacks after the meal and before the final «tea» (which was a mini meal). Definitely not wanting for delicious food on this flight. Plenty of vegetarian options also. I had the tastiest indian palak paneer-​scrumptious! A blanket, pillow, and headphones were waiting for me at my seat. A lovely flight across the pond in a sparkling clean 787. I’m glad I did not waste my money on an upgrade-​completely unnecessary.

It saddens me when you request your flight date to be altered, returning just 3 days later. I simply wanted to move my flight from a Saturday to Tuesday.
After being on the line for 25 minutes, to be then told it would cost an additional 1,700 GBP for myself and my 11 year old. It is not like we didn’t already have a seat booked.
This was a flight booked to see my sick Father, which was costly in the first place. This change would have allowed us more time with him, but I am sad to say VAA is quite simply a rip off. I think I will be looking at BA flights and other competitors if this is what they class as great customer service. Oh and by the way, I was very proud to work for Virgin 15 years ago … so I had always held them dear to my heart.

Okay Airline. I took it for the first time to go to Los Angeles. My flight from Newark was delayed four hours. I thought maybe they would offer us a free snack or movie but none of that happened. The flight experienced so much turbulence. I wish that the pilot said something to calm me down.
The seats are comfy and they have a tv but you have to pay for the movies. There are some tv shows on demand.
I would probably fly Virgin again but would rather choose a really early flight in case they decide to delay the flight.

Never even made it onboard. Cancelled my flight on 7 hours notice, then delayed the flight I rebooked. Said forget it and booked with Southwest. Supposedly my flight was cancelled due to weather. Funny, it was clear along the route. Will likely never fly this airline again for domestic. You are better off flying southwest or United or Delta.

Just flew round trip from SFO to Mexico. Staff rolling their eyes and huffing and puffing to Mexico. Had to check in my carry-​on because there was no more room left on the plane. Had to pay $ 26 per check in bag. Had to pay for food. Tray was filthy. Online check in didn’t work back to SFO. I will always try to book with another airline for future travels.

The Flying Club is literally worthless. They have almost no partner airlines and reward tickets [can’t find a flight from any Bay Area airport to any NYC airport 9 months out!]. They don’t even fly within the UK anymore – so weird! They charge a ridiculous amount in taxes even if you can find a flight to book with miles, so that it’s even more pointless. Customer service, while mostly decent behavior, are completely unhelpful. And while there are lots of ways to «earn» miles with partners, I’ve never seen a frequent flyer program with less ways to «spend» the miles. You can’t even get a lousy magazine subscription. Go with SPG and United for better customer service AND options and save yourself a LOAD of aggravation and expense.

Horrible experience at the SFO check in. They would not check my bags all the way through to my final destination which made me miss my connection in London! Never again will I book with Virgin Atlantic.

Worst airline experience in my life, terrible customer service (they even hung up on me while I was talking to them).
If you have connected flights, or you are constraint by time and need to leave around the time you are booking the flight, skip. If you want to be treated like a person and not like a bag of trash, skip as well.
Booked a round trip flight from SFO to LHR. The return flight was supposed to leave from LHR at 3:20 pm. I get an email from Virgin saying that they are moving my flight 3 hours, to 12:20 pm instead. It is impossible for me to be at the airport at that time, so I call them to cancel the flight since they changed the time so much.
They tell me that they don’t need to take any responsibility if they change flights for less than 5 hours. Their options are to cancel the flight but I get no refund (apart from some taxes) and that they move my flight to the next time but I need to cover the fare difference (which is $ 300).

Despite usually excellent service from the flight attendants once aboard, and despite that the Virgin brand gets my loyalty dollars in the US (VX) and to/​from Heathrow, Virgin Atlantic may as well be United, American, or Delta, IMHO.
I’ve sat in both Premium Economy and Upper Class. I definitely don’t think that Upper Class is worth the cost. The lay-​flat beds aren’t that comfortable, and it’s super weird to sit at an angle to the aisle. I also can’t believe that they’re still showing an antiquated cartoon as their in-​flight safety video — it literally looks like they did it in the original South Park episodes — FROM 1997!
I also just tried to check-​in online for a flight and couldn’t. I then called VA, only to be told that because I have five flights in my itinerary, the system can’t/won’t handle online check-​in. HUH? When I asked why, the customer service agent said that it’s just the limitation of the system and that most airlines probably have this.
Um, no, in fact they don’t. I just came from a trip with eight flights across five countries and checked in just fine.

Flew SFO to London Heathrow and back again recently.
This was the worst airline experience I’ve ever had in 30+ years of flying, and if I can avoid flying Virgin-​Atlantic ever again, I will!
The seats were the only averagely decent thing I can mention because unlike AirFrance they were actually not painful after 10+ hours of sitting in them.
However that is the only thing I can compliment them on.
The tvs are all broken, at least from Premium economy and back — perhaps first class gets better. But they’ve even brought in iPads or the equivalent, to give to passengers who complain — though even these are in limited supply, so if you don’t ask early you’re screwed.
If you get a tv with a remote that works and a screen that lights up, congratulations! Most of the remotes don’t work and the monitors give out or the movies just stop every 5 or so minutes, so you have to pause the movie and restart, or rewind and hope you can restart.
The bathrooms are small and not cleaned very well, though at least on the larger jets there are two on each side in the back (I saw folks waiting on one side of the plane when they could have just walked through).
Some of the food is by far the worst I’ve had on a flight as well, just awful — don’t ask for a specialty meal and expect happy service either. GF, Vegan, Hindi? Bring your own meal, you’ll be happier.
Oh, and the booze is free. Although god forbid you ask for more than one drink — you will get crapped on by the stewardess’.
Who by the way, have apparently made it their mission in life to make your flight as unhappy as possible.
I won’t go in to it here much more than to say that when asking for simple things they will snap at you and often simply ignore your request (this includes things like water and food, god forbid you ask for a blanket).
Perhaps VA is a terrible company to work for and this is why they treat you as though you were some inhuman vile creature that just crawled on board.
I don’t know, but I do know that nothing I, nor any of my fellow passengers, specifically did on either of the flights warranted their directly rude and sometimes cruel behavior. (Ok so maybe the screaming kids in the back needed some manners but. the other 95 passengers?)
Again, maybe First Class gets better treatment and I certainly hope so considering the cost, but I don’t think whether I spend $ 2000 or $ 6000 should determine whether I’m treated kindly.
I’ll fly AirFrance and bring a butt pillow next time, thank you very much.

$ 40 per seat to get advance seat assignment? Seriously

I am a frequent traveler. For a recent trip to London I decided to book on Virgin Atlantic and see if the service was any different (better) than American. The bottom line is that I will NEVER book on this airline again. I am warning you, this airline does not have policies and procedures that are anywhere close to as organized and easy to understand as the airlines in the U.S.
Details: I booked my flight online, chose the flights I needed, didn’t even think about «non-​refundable» because when I book on United or American they make it very clear if you are booking a non-​refudable ticket. I ususally don’t book non-​refun. because my travel plans change quite often.
In this case, I tried to change my flight online on the VA website, but there was NO WAY to do this. I was FORCED TO CALL. Which meant I was on the phone on hold for 30 minutes. When I finally got through, it was a $ 300 charge to change ticket. What? They said I had booked non-​refun. I said, «where did it say that?». The CS person responded, «In the terms and conditions section of the ticket». Really? You mean all that little tiny writing at the bottom? There was NOTHING when I booked the ticket that alerted me I was booking non-​refundable.
I then needed to move the flight AGAIN. Another 30 MINUTES ON THE PHONE! NO ONLINE CAPABILITY TO MOVE FLIGHTS. $ 300 CHARGE AGAIN! I said, well, what if I cancel and just use it later when I am POSITIVE that my customers won’t change our meeting dates. They said, well, that would not be possible. If I cancelled, I would not recieve any credit fo the flight. HOWEVER, if I «no showed», then the ticket value would remain, and I could rebook the value of what I had paid for the nominal additional fee of $ 400!
The bottom line is that I would not recommend this airline because of their customer service policies, and also because it is IMPOSSIBLE to change your flight online once it is booked, even if you booked it online in the first place.

OK, first off, crossing the Atlantic nowadays is an ordeal no matter who. The star rating should really range from ‘utterly miserable’ to ‘slightly above average’. There’s no ‘great’ anywhere to be found for the average guy. So, with the bar set, I give these guys 4 stars.
The best way to make this decent is to use something no other airline offers. VA have ‘premium economy’ but it’s not just a bit of extra legroom, it’s wider seats in a cabin away from steerage, priced higher but still affordable, and bookable with frequent flyer miles. Basically it’s like domestic business class. Use this and you’ll be happy, well, as much as you can be. You can choose the usual cheap seats but this is the best compromise for 10+ hours and well worth the extra $ 500. That said, no matter what you do, they don’t nickel and dime you like the others, entertainment is good, nothing can help airline food, but at least you can sleep through it in these seats. If you can’t get these, at least get the extra legroom ones which are about $ 150 more roundtrip. If you can’t afford either, it’s no worse than any other airline but with better entertainment.
Trust me. I’ve flown SFO-​LHR dozens of times on most carriers.

We had a very nice flight September 10^th. The staff was very helpful and the chief flight attendant did her very best to accommodate Alan’s dietary restrictions since the glitch in the system had not advised the caterers to put his meal on board. The food was good, though not the best we’ve had in Business/​First/​Upper, however, they had an excellent Chilean Carménère among their other offering. It was delicious. The staff were kept quite busy assisting some of the older passengers w/​the electronica involved in seats and entertainment stations. I think they are more in demand w/​us oldsters, although I saw one younger man ask for help, and they were unfailingly gracious and helpful.
The chief flight attendant gave Alan a business card w/​contact information for Customer relations, etc and contacted them herself about his meal on the flight home. He was contacted by them and is all set. It was exemplary service recovery. The plane was comfortable, we had sufficient room and we got all our bags back at Heathrow, which, for me, constitutes a successful flight.

Flew with Virgin Atlantic to get from SFO to LHR and back.
I’m normally a pretty big Virgin fan. I love how fucking mental Sir Richard Branson is. I want to live on his private island. Currently living in the UK and opted for Virgin Mobile and Virgin Broadband.
However, Virgin Atlantic is just not something I see myself ever falling in love with. Comparatively speaking, Virgin Atlantic is substantially cheaper than most other airline carriers so you can pretty much always snag a good deal. Unfortunately, it’s one of those cases where the cheapness in the price also undoubtedly shows in the quality as well. Damn shame, because being a Virgin fangirl I really wanted to like this airline.
~ Staff:
Not rude… just maybe a tad bit unprofessional I think. The flight attendants were behaving like untrained Average Joe volunteers because they were constantly fast-​pacing back and forth along the plane looking stressed as hell with all the requests from people. Doesn’t make for a very relaxing flight when occasionally you see your flight attendant storm past you with a high-​strung look on his face.
Like I said though, it wasn’t as if they were rude. The staff were friendly and attentive, but I feel like they have been improperly trained or something because the way they were acting is completely unlike the «pleasant cabin crew» I’m used to experiencing from other airlines.
—
Overall, the food was mediocre, the plane was very small and cramped, and the staff were like headless chickens scurrying about. If the flight was anything more than dirt cheap, I’d probably have to give 1 star. However, like I said it’s a «you get what you pay for» kind of deal. I only wish that Virgin Atlantic wouldn’t have to sacrifice quality.

Here are my takes on the SFO to LHR flight via Virgin Atlantic:
— Seats were good — no complaints. Lots of leg room in the last few rows which we purposely chose. We were in our own row within the aisle as it tapers off from three seats to two seaters. It was close to the bathrooms but not too close that it starts to smell if someone decided they needed a longer bio break.
— No WiFi. Why?! I’ll happily pay to be connected. I’ll give it to them there are several movies with some very good selection however I can only watch so many movies until I start getting cranky and continue to be irritated and again reminded that I am unable to check some emails — especially if I’ve been waiting for a particular email. Wondering for 10 hours if my job offer letter came in or not is torturous.
— Bad food. They handed us a menu at the start of the flight however when mealtime came around, they only had ONE option left for our entire section: the pasta that no one ever picks. Fortunately for me I was going to choose this option as this was the only vegetarian meal offered but for everyone else this would be annoying.
— Flight attendants were good (all British crew) and the one assigned to our aisle looked like a cross between Tom Hiddleston and Jake Gyllenhaal. But at one point of the flight, the flight attendants ALL disappeared. Um, what if something happened?
— In-​flight kits were handy which also included a toothbrush and toothpaste. This is good because I really don’t want to be smelling others’ morning breath! They also provided a pair of socks which i found useful since I wanted to take off my shoes.
Overall not a bad flight. A fair three stars.

Virgin Atlantic really is the only way to travel between San Francisco and London.
Seeing as I still have all my family back in England I have made the journey a number of times in the last 2 years and really wouldn’t go with anybody else now and although Virgin is a little pricier than other airlines it’s worth it.
Here’s why Virgin is my choice of airline:
* Free magazines & newspapers in the departure lounge.
* The flight attendants are great and nothing is ever any bother to them, you have any request and they will happily help you out.
* Man do they like to feed you! Night time flights to London usually gets you 2 meals but daytime flights they bring food every couple of hours. My most recent flight from London Heathrow (LHR) to SFO I got served three snacks and two meals! And, the food is pretty decent too.
* Unlimited free drinks. I hate having to buy bottles of water from the airport at a ridiculous price of $ 4+ a bottle so having this supplied along with Juice, Soda, Tea & Coffee is excellent. They also provide you with Wine, Beer & Spirits if you want too.
* Excellent variety of in flight entertainment including around 25 movies, most of which are very recent.
* You get given an Amenities kit containing essentials like Eye mask, Toothbrush and Toothpaste — much needed after the long flight!, Pen — for filling out those pesky forms, Socks ect and they all come in a reusable waterproof drawstring bag.
* No connecting flight! I’ve done the whole connecting flight business once before via Charlotte, Douglas (CLT) and NEVER again! Going direct cuts 8−9hrs off of the journey. No more 24hrs travelling for me.
The only negative I can think of is the economy seats don’t have a huge amount of space. There’s always enough space for me but being 152 cm tall and 98lbs I’m not anywhere near the average sized adult and have seen that anybody that is has a very tight fit. My poor husband had no space while in economy so we have to at least upgrade to extra leg room (gives an extra 3 inches) or a door seat in order for him to be comfortable.
Oh and if you’re lucky enough to get access to the London Heathrow Clubhouse — Use it!