Virgin Atlantic

When I first started my passion for VS only back in 2007, VS felt fresh and glamourous and now it all seems a bit doom and gloom, routes ending, new UCS no good, service being compromised.... It is time to change alliance to British Airways?

Have you tried the new UCS?

The trip reports show continuing satisfaction with the overall product.

VS is going through some changes because it is losing money hand over fist.

BA long haul comes across as indifferent in trip reports I have read on other forums.

Doom and gloom is relative - however if you believe this then perhaps it is time to change...

However, you talk about route closures (Sydney I presume) this has also to be taken into context. VS have just opened up a route to Canada too, so its 1 for 1 as far as I know.

I do agree with your points, there is a shroud around VS at this time, but I can understand until it starts making some money. Personally I will use VS when ever it fly's to where I am going - but I can understand you post.

Also, not being able to ever afford the UCS and being a PE person I cant comment on the new package. But surely BA struggle to match VS total experience on UCS with CH and all..?

My experience is exactly opposite.
I used VS to fly to Boston PE in 2007 and wasn't at all impressed.
I used it last year to fly to Orlando UC and had a great trip.
Going again this year.
Dick D

I have flown Virgin as a GC for many years. However, I am now moving to BA. Sydney for me was a blow as its a trip I fly a lot, but I do frequently travel to the US and Canada. I'd pay more and take a longer trip to stay with Virgin. I travel either PE or UC.

Regardless of any on board product changes I have had mostly good flights. The deciding factor for me is the lack of an alliance with security and a pool of airlines I would like to fly. I don't know the reasons, but not joining star alliance to me I think is the mistake made by Virgin. The only option is skyteam now and globally the airlines are not ones I would fly. Maybe in time the Chinese airlines will be the way to go, but however modern the planes are, the culture and service on board will not change in the short term. An alliance with other virgin airlines is never going to happen. Last year I had to book with trail finders for a RTW with Virgin and virgin OZ. VS could only fly me with other airlines if booked directly from Syd to Lax.

I know BA won't be as fun or comfortable and I will really miss the clubhouse, but the opportunity to fly everywhere with Oneworld makes it a necessary change.

I hope virgin pull though this tough period, but will the airline be one that appeals to people who travel further than transatlantic. In terms of new services to replace Sydney. Vancouver is not daily and only seasonal. It also operated last year.

I used to think VS missed out by not joining *A however, many airlines are now following what I would call the 'airline alliance' where they have reciprocals with specific airlines (which is how VS has always operated). I am thinking in particular of QF and EK seeming to have a stronger alliance/code share/schedule matching/FF matching etc than they do with OW.
The advantage of this is you only need to have an arrangement with an airline where you have a limited presence rather than alliance with a virtual direct competitor.

Europe is a problem for VS so beefing that up makes sense which is the only reason I can see the need for SkyTeam .DL, as a founder member, may have more of a vested interest in that.

Like VirginLondon, I too left after many years as a VS gold card holder due to dissatisfaction with falling service levels but I tried various other airlines before trying the dark side. However my first flight In club world was so good I decided to give one world a shot. I have now reached gold with BA, but within the last twelve months I have sampled the business class product of BA,AA,Iberia and Cathay Pacific and the on board products has been superb with all. I accept the clubhouse is a cut above but having tried the other airlines lounges in LHR,LGW HKG,MIA,PHX and MAD to name a few I have found all the lounges to more than acceptable to spend a couple of hours. In fact it really hits home how nearly all other airlines that I have used place a lower priority on the lounge product, so maybe VS are out of kilter, and I fear this may be a future cost cutting project especially as Delta again don't go over the top with their lounges.
With regards to trip reports I think you can take with a pinch of salt the trip reports on V-Flyer. I am one of the original members and I fondly remember are first ever get together at Heathrow in 2004, but we are virtually all fans of VS on this site so the trip reports are nearly always five star. As for the other forums people tend more to use these to vent.

For me the biggest difference between our two national airlines is direction. BA already has the A380 and 787. It is making money and announcing new routes. The is a real positive vibe and although I can only speak of my personal experience, the crews really have stepped it up a level. With VS all the news comes across negatively and I think they really need to step up their PR. The way the handled the seat charging was appalling and I know some people have to pay with BA, and I don't think it is a bad policy, just badly executed.

Finally over the last two years I have taken my family to the Caribbean twice, once in UC with VS and this year club with BA. We have just booked again and the pricing was very similar , so I gave the family the choice, and they picked BA. So that a party of 7 adults 4 children and four babies lost to the dark side and the main reason they chose BA was they liked the 777 cabin layout with the four centre club seats and they felt the crew were more friendly and focused.

So in answer to the OP original question, Yes I can highly recommend the change.

Whereas I find BA CW very, very average. I thoroughly dislike their dull, overcrowded lounges with bad food, I object to having to pay £60-£80 for a seat request in a supposedly premium cabin and I hate the seats where you have to climb over someone to get out - not to mention the nasty "non-privacy" dividers.

Yes I know if you have status a lot of those issues go away - but I don't. I'm sure BA look after their elite passengers very well. But my perception is they don't care one jot about those with no status.

So I'm sticking with VS and am more than happy to. They fly where I need to go.

All of which goes to prove it's an entirely personal decision and everyone has their different priorities!

Interesting read.
I have never flown BA so cant really comment on it as an airline. However that said I would really like to try BA F one day.
At the moment VS is clearly going through a tough patch and the bells and whistles that once made VS what it is are no longer which is a shame. I hope though that they will get back to being the airline that leads, though this alliance with Delta may have a detrimental effect (wait to see how that goes).
The thing that does slightly annoy me about VS is that they seem to put out lots of "rumours" of new things that will be coming in but yet they dont deliver on this. I would really rather they didnt say anything until it is 100% set in stone.
Having said all that I will still be picking VS for my next flight and hopefully in UC as I really enjoy it. The LHR CH and the DTCI are fantastic and with the exception of some of the onboard issues (like rubbish IFE yes yes I dont have a tablet but getting my phone loaded for next flight and the amenity kits!!! seriously!!!) I do still really enjoy flying VS.

gumshoe

You are a true VS fan and I would expect you have theses views. Up to a couple if years ago I would agree with you, but I truly fear for the very survival of VS, as you said if you believe what's written on other forum your points about food and lounges yet despite this the lounges and aircraft if BA are full and with a lot of ex VS flyers. One thing that MR Creeper could do for a start would be to contact some of the ex golds that have stopped flying so frequently and try and get some honest feed back as to why they switched. There was a time we picked all our holidays around the VS network but something is not right and that us why they are loosing FF.

However, you talk about route closures (Sydney I presume) this has also to be taken into context. VS have just opened up a route to Canada too, so its 1 for 1 as far as I know.

What's the new route to Canada you're referring to?

Re comparisons with BA -- I personally can't see how the CW seat with the need to clamber over your neighbour to pop to the toilet beats the VS UC seat (even the new UCDS) but I guess different people value things differently.

I tend to agree with other sentiments about VS missing out on an opportunity to join an alliance though -- a desire to earn Avios out of an ability to then use them on any of BA's OW partners would certainly give me an incentive to switch my allegiance.

I flew with virgin in sept for the 1st time! I thought the CH and the whole UC experience was fab, PE wasn't that great on the return.
We chose to fly with virgin because we love the brand and we did have great service! I know my upcoming flights with VS are going to be amazing...
maybe over the years they have lost their sparkle, to the old die hards, I wouldn't know. All I know is when I talk about flying with VS to friends and colleagues they all want to fly with them.
I hope they continue to fly into the future because I will be flying with them!
New customer! New fan! And proud!

Travelled with a group from work to the US this week. One of the group had to use BA the rest of us were using VS. The BA traveller said it's going back to BA that reminds me why I like VS so much.....

I'd bring something different.

About a year and a half ago, the service onboard wasn't good. It seemed to be reported across the board. The new UCS wasn't well received. The planes were out for refurb and it was a crap shoot as to getting a good one.

Recently, when I've flown with virgin, its been much better. The UCS is accepted as not as good. They are striving to solve the problems with losses. I don't fear for the future and look forward to my Cancun trip in UC in May... I wasn't looking forward to the Vancouver one last September, but they impressed me there, even with the new UCS and the looped video on way back.

TBH - I find these whole conversation a little bit mute.
For me an airline is only as good as its last flight. 8D
An example, I had my first Lufthansa flight a few years ago, just a European one but the crew was outstanding and the aircraft very nice. I blew the horn for them when anybody asked.
I recently had a second flight with them, chosen after my first experience. If I am honest, this flight was on a par with an EasyJet ride, apart from having a seat number. Now my views on this airline have changed.
The same is true with VS and BA, to me anyway. I flew BA for a number of year for business and VS for pleasure, my choice. The BA experience went more down hill so I switched it all to VS.
over the past few years I have had both good and bad flights with VS, I guess the same is true for the BA fans. People always have a choice and are free to exercise that choice. Also some people seem to switch on one semi-bad experience, some will try and try again. I try to put a little bit of substance around a flight that's not great. I am one of hundreds of thousands of people VS fly. If they were all that bad VS would have zero pax flying.
Some will fly the BA flag, some will fly the VS flag. This will never change and too me makes for some fun and interesting conversations on sites like this.

I have a whole heap of Trip Reports that I ought to post; they're sitting in a pile in note form, at the moment.

VS has swung left and right like a pendulum but, my overall, experience has been positive.

I looked at a RTW with BA in First Class but the route I wanted to take didn't have First on all sectors, so we have stuck to VS.

The hot towel test on my last flight was, reassuringly, clean and the Cabin staff were some of the best; again I think it's down to the FSM and the attitude of the passengers and the crew.

I've booked a last flight on the LHR-HKG-SYD route, just for the sake of it, and the fact that I intend to eat Sydney and Hong Kong.

Hotel wise, I'm sorted and the concierges are already booking restaurants for me.

As an aside, I'm going to steal all the red tipped pens from the HKG Club House on both outbound and inbound routes.

I did have the opportunity to return to Hong Kong with Singapore Airlines, via Singapore; more air miles, some extra tier points and a night or two in Raffles but Singapore Airlines business class is just so dull, and the lounge at Changi is filled to overflowing.

So, if VS flies to where I/we want to go then it's likely that we will stick with them; it's a little like a boutique hotel; Club World is good but nothing beats the Heathrow Clubhouse, and a decent crew make the flight.

I'll post a trip report on EasyJet at the beginning of March, to Amsterdam, as I've been persuaded to go over with some colleagues for a long weekend :$

For me, VS UCS will always win over CW where there's a 50% chance you will be climbing over someone to ablute.

The CW seat is quite old now and probably a bit out of date. There is talk of it changing to the same as CX - some pictures were on here showed a very similar seat. I also read on (business traveller or airliners - I think) that the CW seats going into the A380/787 were refurbed from the 747's. If so then a new one is probably on its way.

Virgin do have alliances with other airlines, but if in PE or Econ you can't use the lounges. Flying SYD to NZ recently I couldn't access a lounge with Air NZ. For a short flight bus class isn't really worth it. That is where for me Oneworld will be important.

I go back and forth and try not to think about VS yesteryear. Next flight might well be a deciding factor as my preference is all about the flight whilst CH and Revivals are lovely, being able to eat a leisurely well presented meal, stretch out and nap a bit comfortably and feel welcome at the bar (which is hopefully not being used as galley) are all thumbs up.

One thing we forget in thinking about all this is that VS have an incredible safety record. Being able to get safely from Point A to Point B (ok, ok sometimes a wing gets stuck in an office building) is pretty fabulous.

We just flew LGW-TPA and back with BA in WT+.

The reasons we booked BA were:
- good deal for an 'all in one' car + flight deal. Much cheaper than VS.
- the above could be booked totally online. VS' computer said no and call centre couldn't do a car + flight package.
- direct flight to TPA (a great airport).

Having taken the trip, it's fair to say there are plus/minus points against VS.
- BA's WT+ 777 cabin was decidedly late 90's. Harsh "on or off" lighting, none of the nice feeling with mood lighting and leather seats you get on a VS aircraft (particularly the Airbus fleet). BA have no plans to upgrade the WT+ section on the 777's which haven't already been done... so 3 class 777 = old cabin.

- loo was shared with economy (sometimes happens on some VS planes)

- Seat was pretty comfy but felt narrower than the VS PE equivalent. Liked the leg rest that raised up from behind your legs.

- Main meals were better than VS PE, they're the same as Club.

- Pre-landing snack was lame. Coronation chicken sarnie and a mini kit-kat isn't enough at the end of a 9h flight.

- Breakfast was a joke. Tiny (hard due to refridgeration) crossaint, cereal bar and some craisins. Diabetes in a box. VS PE offers a reasonable hot breakfast even on short NYC routes.

- OLCI via the BA App and Passbook boarding passes at both ends worked a treat, but better than VS.

- BA Cabin Crew didn't exactly engage or make any great attempt to be outgoing as a VS crew usually is. That said they were attentive and delivered drinks runs etc. On the outbound the cabin manager came by with her iPad and "wished us a good trip and thank you for booking with BA holidays". Felt a bit scripted but appreciated.

- Took 2 hours to turn the lights out on the night flight home, and they were very much on again 90 minutes out. Not very good on a 7h 30m flight when sleep time is short as it is.

- IFE was alright, pretty low res screen but VPORT is not much different. Can't comment on either carrier's newest systems.