Virgin Upper Class: Is it worth the price in 2023?
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- čas přidán 2. 11. 2023
- Experience an Upper Class flight on Virgin Atlantic’s transatlantic routine to New York. The flight was from London Heathrow to New York JFK on 26 October 2023. The aircraft was an Airbus A350-1000.
#VirginAtlantic #FlightReview #UpperClass #DoorsToAuto #JFK
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Breakthrough (No Drums Edit) by Simon Jomphe Lepine (StoryBlocks ID SBA-346454102)
Bright Eyes (4 Minute Loop) by Daniel Willett (StoryBlocks IS SBA-346626305)
Let me know what you think of the review and the service on Virgin Atlantic Upper Class. Comment, like and share. And don’t forget to subscribe for future reviews.
Love your thoughtful and honest reviews.
Great and honest review. The upper class wing and the clubhouse are both fantastic. The service on board was ok. Like you I pre ordered my meal and on both legs the crew were unaware.
That flat bread looks like something you'd get at a fast food joint. My goodness.
Paying five times the Economy fare, "OK" doesn't cut it. Although the seating was worthy of Upper Class, the food and service resembled Commoner quality. If I had splurged for a luxury experience, I would have been disappointed.
It’s not 5 times the economy fare, I regularly fly upper class with Virgin but could never do that on BA or Emirates, flights to Florida is 1000 in economy and I regularly get upper class for as little as 2500- 3500
"Commoner quality" shut up
The thing that makes it truly worth the money is the clubhouse at Heathrow and not having some selfish person recline his seat on you for the whole flight in Economy Class.
I Love The Clubhouse Lounge In London Heathrow.Great Trip Report
Thoughtful and realistic review, that based on your personal experience. Without the need to overly criticize the airline as a whole, or the staff by being unrealistically nit-picky. With that being said, it appears as though everything related to food and customer service has declined in quality and portion since the pandemic in the USA and abroad based on my personal travel experience post-pandemic. 😋
we fly with Virgin often Having checked the cost of upper class Id say it is not worth the price. There is little doubt that there is still some cost cutting going on with Virgin and we have noticed some changes ourselves. Enjoyed your blog very interesting Thanks
Virgin really need to up their game. I travelled Premium Economy to the USA three times and once in first. Some travellers love their quirky attitude but as a business traveller I find it lacking these days. Sadly, no other major carriers from Britain to America are any better
i dont think VA is the airline it was once sadly. the clubhouse in heathrow is great.
Well presented video. VA clubhouse is very good and the seats look much better than the VA "coffin" arrangement. Pity the food wasn't up to scratch and I'm suprised to hear the FAs didn't all live up to VA's traditionally excellent, friendly service.
I flew UC a month ago to SFO on the A350 as well and had a broadly similar experience. Crew did need reminding about my special meal but no problem in the end. We didn't get a separate airbridge though.. lucky you! :)
One thing about the A350 UC suite - they get a lot of criticism on the forums for being too snug and some people find them claustrophobic. I personally loved the snugness of them but I imagine anyone larger (read "fatter") than me would have a very difficult time as I'm not exactly huge and found it "just right". Someone who's 6 feet tall and 20 stone or something is going to have a horrible time in this suite I reckon compared to those on other VA craft and I'd advise them to stick to PE.
When I last flew with Virgin which granted was a couple of years ago now all the food menu was overseen by James Martin and I couldn't fault it. It looks as though that's not the case now?
Thank you very much for sharing your experience. I agree wholeheartedly about the on board food and this has become Virgin Achilles Heel. In my recent TR on V Flyer I was able to compare the current offering on BA. Virgin’s offering of “carrot crush” is something you might get from Denise Royale in the Royale Family 🤣🤣
Good video, as usual. Still a great voice and a nice smile. I have not flown Virgin in like a million years. Your main meal dish looked rather suspect, and the second meal looked unappetizing.
Having been to New York twice with Virgin on Premium Economy, I'm not sure I'd pay extra for this over that. Certainly on the trip out, during the day, not sure the extras are worth the cost for the flight length . I might think twice about the return leg on an overnight flight I guess, just for the flat bed. The food did not look good! Different from my experience, which was surprisingly good on my Premium trips.
The crew used to be excellent on virgin. These days in upper it's so variable, you always get the head person introducing themselves and around half the crew are good. The other half often treat you more like economy customers and are quite disinterested and brash. Flown with them to San Fran and Mumbai in the last year for 4 upper class flights. I like that they now have stuff like kombucha in cans, wish you could get it as a welcome drink. They must waste a fair bit of champagne having so much poured out but often the take up isn't that high. Also why never any fizzy water for the welcome drink? Always just flat. Mostly it's market conditions as people have no loyalty and they need to make a profit. It's still been (just about) worth it bidding for an upper class seat and getting it at the min value. But the going rate of over double this is totally not worth it. Hate the old herringbone seats, but doubt they'll be upgrading them with how many are in use on routes that aren't that lucrative. Often I think I'd rather fly economy on a non overnight flight than pay for a so so upper flight. The carrot starter and bread and butter pudding they serve out of London is good. I wish they had more fruit in upper. So often it's all gone within a couple of hours, surely it's cheap as to bring more apples, oranges and bananas on board?
I would not expect to pay £24 for wifi when I have paid for Upper Class! Ridiculous.
Personally if i have paid in £s for that flight I would have been extremely disappointed, the lounge at Heathrow looked good but a small portion of pre frozen fry's similar to what you get in McDonald's not acceptable I appreciate that was your choice as you were expecting great food on the aircraft only to be disappointed, the small tin of crisps with your first drink no better to what you can get at the back ! main meal presentation was poor, no tray cloths to give a sense of quality and the food look poor in comparison to BA.
Virgin standards have certainly slipped from where they used to be before Covid.
I have recently flown short haul business with BA and was very impressed.
Just flew Virgin round trip from SFO to CPT and back. I agree that the food was pretty mediocre at best. I ate pretty much the same things that you did . That lamb flat bread was dried out and burnt and SO unappetizing . As a long standing customer of this airline, I have definitely noticed a HUGE decline in the level of service by the flight attendants on the plane. They gathered together in the front galley (prob 6-8 of them) and were having roucus conversation and laughter and none seen checkin in on the passengers . When you did ask for something it was like it was a HUGE imposition on their time and their irritation was visible. The crew in the past always acted professionally and were extremely focused on the passengers and this has changed drastically of late. I hate to say it but the crew was also a much younger crowd and you could sense that their heart was not really in the job at hand. I am definitely going to have to rethink my choice of airlines in future for travel from the US to the UK as Virgin is definitely slipping in terms of their product.
Common theme is that the food on flight is basically rubbish!
You did not include the link to the premium economy :(
Great review as always.
Still a Virgin fan...love the Club House. I say this as recently flew to the Maldives with Emirates business class...found it average with robotic crew, both legs. Meal service diabolical.
Was expecting more and it really didn't deliver.
Virgin are my go to Caribbean carrier. Never had bad customer/passenger service.
Overpriced madness for what “extras” you actually get for the heavily inflated fare
I’m shocked even with all those those points you redeemed it cost you over £1000 in charges, that’s horrendous for a one way flight.
Just like BA, Virgin seems to have lost their shine. While they offer a perfectly adequate service and nice facilities, they don’t seem to have anything to make them standout in business these days, and so many other airlines just do it better!
You summing up the flight as just “OK” is what most people seem to say about both these British airlines in this day and age. No business class flight for this cost or number of miles redeemed should be considered as OK, they really need to up their game.
The cost was for the return flight too. But agree that Virgin has lost some of its shine. That said the return flight was far better - shame I didn’t video that instead!
Sorry but the robot text on the video need not have been used. Contained too many mistakes.
It seems a little plastic and i feel that cabin isnt going to last the test of time. VS Upper is more like a business product. VS could do with 1st product on certain routes such NYC. VS has become expensive, and since it's now owned by DL, AF/KLM anf only a small amount of still owed by Brainson. You can tell profit is more than customer services.
Ba food and service miles better however ba business lounge at Heathrow isn’t great at all
Its business class at best.