Virgin Atlantic sent me a press release last week to promote winning the TripAdvisor Travellers Choice Award for ‘Best European Premium Economy Product 2018’.
For this and two other reasons, I thought it was worth taking a quick look at how Premium Economy compares between British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.
We will be publishing the results of our ‘which Premium Economy cabin would you prefer to fly’ competition in a few days, so I thought it would be good to see how hard facts match up with your perceptions.
It is also relevant because one of the features of the new Virgin Atlantic credit cards is the option to take a voucher for a free Premium (Virgin’s new name for Premium Economy) upgrade when you hit the spending target. The voucher can upgrade 2 x one-way flights for a couple or a return flight for one person.
But is Virgin Premium any good?
Let’s face it. Premium Economy is not a half-way house between Economy and a Business Class bed. It is simply a higher quality Economy product.
This comparison between BA and Virgin is only for guidance, especially as the exact specification will vary by aircraft type. In general, though, the Virgin Atlantic Premium product seems to have more going for it. Neither product offers features such as lounge access but there are touches which set Virgin apart.
Here is a comparison of some key areas. This is primarily taken from the Premium page of the Virgin Atlantic website and the World Traveller Plus page of the British Airways website.
Free seat selection at time of booking:
- Virgin Atlantic: Yes
- British Airways: No (for non-Silver and Gold customers)
Seat width:
- Virgin Atlantic: 21 inches
- British Airways: 18.5 inches
Seat pitch (gap between consecutive seats backs):
- Virgin Atlantic: 38 inches
- British Airways: 38 inches
Dedicated check-in desk:
- Virgin Atlantic: Yes
- British Airways: No
Priority boarding:
- Virgin Atlantic: Yes
- British Airways: Yes at Heathrow via the new group system, No otherwise
Lounge access:
- Virgin Atlantic: No
- British Airways: No
Priority baggage handling:
- Virgin Atlantic: Yes
- British Airways: No
TV screen size:
- Virgin Atlantic: 10.6 inch
- British Airways: 10.6 inch
Food and drink:
- Virgin Atlantic: All meals served on china with metal cutlery, all meals upgraded vs Economy
- British Airways: One meal (dinner or breakfast) served on china with metal cutlery, mains are from the Club World menu
Power socket at seat:
- Virgin Atlantic: Yes (type varies by plane, wi-fi on most aircraft)
- British Airways: Yes (type varies by plane (PDF), wi-fi rolling out fully over the next year)
Luggage allowance:
- Virgin Atlantic: 2 x 23kg
- British Airways: 2 x 23kg
Dedicated cabin crew:
- Virgin Atlantic: Yes
- British Airways: No
Frequent flyer miles earned on non-refundable PE ticket:
- Virgin Atlantic: 100% of miles flown
- British Airways: 100% of miles flown
Frequent flyer miles earned on flexible PE ticket:
- Virgin Atlantic: 200% of miles flown
- British Airways: 150% of miles flown
What is interesting is that, with the possible exception of the main course of your meal, Virgin Atlantic has a superior or equal Premium Economy product in all areas. The most obvious difference is the extra seat width but there are many other small benefits, such as Priority Check-In, which add up. Using your annual Virgin Atlantic credit card voucher for a Premium upgrade is not necessarily a bad result.
You can learn more about Premium on Virgin Atlantic here and World Traveller Plus on the British Airways website here.
(Want to earn more Virgin Flying Club miles? Click here to see our recent articles on Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club and click here for our home page with the latest news on earning and spending other airline and hotel points.)
About Head for Points
Seeing as there’s a lot of catering talk then my wife and I took Thai AirAsia from DMK this morning and my wife consumed the chicken rice and I opted for my usual basil fried chicken on rice. Absolute lush and cheap as chips. BA could learn a lot from a fellow LCC.
As i recall i paid about £1.20 for the chicken and rice on the same route 🙂
The food on Air Asia is both good and cheap, its part of my booking routine with them to always pre order some food. Much better eating on the flight and getting off content and then head off to hotel.
“from a fellow LCC”
+1 😉
I am currently in Florida, having flown out on a TUI 787-9 in Premium Club.
I know TUI have no business class and few routes. I also know they have no frequent flier scheme
However if you want to go where they fly, I would choose them over VS and BA
The hard product is new and very good ( I didn’t check but I don’t think they have the suspect RR engines)
The seat pitch is also 38 inches, you can choose seat at time of booking, the screen size probably the same with a lesser choice of movies ( I watched 3 Billboards and Battle of the sexes, excellent and good respectively).
Meals – mains were better than VS and BA but on plastic trays with metal cutlery. The second meal was a very good afternoon tea ( plastic / plastic) two sandwiches, Victoria sponge and a good scone with jam/ clotted cream
Separate Check in, priority boarding, priority baggage – yes our bags did come off, first, off the plane first which for US immigration is a godsend, PLUS Lounge access and Fasttrack on the outbound ( Escape lounge at MAN T2 )
Staff- exceptional, plentiful, numerous, not at all stuffy, humour very much in evidence on the pa announcements as well, and brilliant with the young children on board.
Cost – I know there are no miles / tier points to be earned and it is outside school holidays but ,
VS wanted £500 in economy, and an astronomical £900 in PE
TUI was £320 no bag in economy, £520 in Premium Club with 1x23kg bag.
The saving is so huge and the product so much better that miles and tier points become irrelevant( speaking as someone who holds both BA and VS cards, but has no worthwhile status in either.
Similarly – I flew Thomas Cook Airlines to the US last year and was blown away by the product and friendly staff. If you live outside of London there are now many good options that are not virgin/ba.
35″ pitch no good if you are tall.
I agree they are really friendly and the food is good (although a bit random – we were suddenly given mini cornetto ice creams at one point). The Captain gave out a lot more information as to what was happening as well which I liked. For the extra we paid (only £250 per person for the return flight) it was good value
Downsides
We were flying to and from Barbados and the return flight was delayed for 2 hours with no explanation – there were no Tui staff and no announcements as to what was going on.
When we finally got on it turned out there was a problem with the PE toilet so only one was working – that then stopped working 15 mins into the flight
On the way out the inflight entertainment was stopped 40 mins before landing so we could see Tui adverts so only managed to watch 2 and a half billboards!
+1. Made a similar trip at Easter and had pretty much the same experience. Pleasantly surprised as I rarely fly charter.
Flew with them once to Phuket – I’m just going to say this, the demographic was shocking. Rowdy. It was also relatively expensive at about £1250 return. I wouldn’t repeat the experience. I thought the hard product inferior to VS.. Lounge access is good – but if you have PP it amounts to the same thing.
TUI and Thomas Cook are often the choice for package holiday makers especially those looking for bargains outside of London especially, the only thing is that the flight times are often rubbish as in arriving back at 2am or leaving at 7am meaning your losing a lot of sleep time and convenience, I would rather leave at a reasonable time and pay more.
They also seem very popular with Stag/Hen weekends which does mean that they are often some rowdy characters around, so when flying BA CE it is usually a lot more peaceful.
Will the outcome of the ‘which Premium Economy cabin would you prefer to fly’ competition have a caveat that many would have picked to try something different from BA? It was why I picked mine.
OT, I am unable to see all my current bookings in the BAEC home page (I can see the first 3 out of 7). I phoned BA who said it is an Apple browser (Safari) problem. I downloaded Chrome and get the same result (clicking on the view all my bookings link takes me to an unavailable page error message). Logging in to wife’s account produces the same problem. Is anyone else having issues?
Yes , its been an issue for three weeks or so..
WORKAROUND FROM FT :-
One shortcut to your other bookings without using the ‘Find My Booking’ tab on the home page, is to click ‘Manage My Booking” for the first booking on your list and then click ‘My Other Bookings’ next to the Booking Reference at the top left hand side of the page. Not ideal, but it will save a little time.
Thanks Roberto. That is a very acceptable workaround
OT. With changes to Avios, Is there any point having Iberia points?
Booking with Iberia?
They have many lower cost avios fare such as MAD to MIA plus their business seats is very good. Arguably better than BA and for less money ( positing flights excepted ) makes the red headed step child a very good option up against a clunky old 777 with a screen the size of your mobile phone.
Oh and their wine list is excellent.
….and they have printed menus. To some of us these little things still count ????
I actually prefer BA over VS. I find the recline on VS is pants.
I think that the 787/A380 WTP product is decent enough, especially for a day flight, and I’m happy to pay a premium of about £10/flight-hour over economy. This is often achievable if you can get a dual-inventory fare, or on a return leg. Being able to upgrade is a big plus as well. I’d still pick Virgin all things being equal, but it’ll come down to whose flying what routes, and I think I’d also push a Silver or higher with no status on VS towards BA when you throw in fast track and lounge access.
I am probably in the minority where I actually prefer PE to CW on BA. Aside from similar food, I have a very strong dislike of the CW hard product. I just find the seat too awkward. Even if they were the same price, I’d sooner sit in PE than CW when travelling with someone.
VA PE also has a pantry.
But on BA most WTP passengers take stuff from the Club World ‘Raid the Larder’!
Really? I’ve never dared venture to the other side of the CW curtain. Thought it was forbidden.
No not the pax, it is the mixed fleet cabin crew
Does anyone else find the BA website to be incredibly slow? It feels like it has too much animation and even on my powerful work PC it is slow!
I keep getting redirected to British Airways’s %&£ppy beta site and unwanted localised links whenever I access the BA site now. The beta site keeps hanging, takes ages to load unwanted things and is generally pants. I have no idea why British Airways is loading their screens with so much unwanted stuff.
Big fan of the virgin PE – i’d happily use it on daytime flights, overnight i admit it’s not as comfortable as the upperclass bed.
The ‘wonderwall’ on the dreamliner & a330 was a fun touch also – much better selection of things than BA’s Club kitchen in CW. Does BA have a wonderwall equivalent?
Out of interest, is there an equivalent to Club Kitchen for BA F passengers?
No.
Depending on the crew in F they will either ask what you want and fetch it for you from the Club Kitchen, or politely suggest your stretch your own legs.
We travelled CW from LHR to BKK on Saturday afternoon. I ate lunch and needed some more sustenance so headed for the galley. Was just browsing and the FA approached me with more than a little OTT attitude with ‘can I help you, Sir’. What help could I possibly need with looking in the fridge? Seriously, go away. I took a sandwich and a pasta and returned to my seat. His attitude continued for the entire flight. Get a grip.
Alternatively you could have followed the requested passenger procedure by staying in your seat and calling for a FA who would have bought you something.
I’m sure the CW menu makes it clear that the Club Kitchen is help yourself
Really? Another attitude problem here? The guy didn’t like my face from the off. Some sort of inferiority complex which is quite prevalent on BA. Though, the female FAs were excellent. Definitely not something we experience with EVA or Thai. Anyway, the galley fridge is help yourself.
Agree there seems to be some staff who have the inferiority complex but i don’t believe its likely not just you but several people per flight they decide to pester.
Looking forward with interest to your reply, Cate.
If you feel strongly about this then you should put a complaint in to the airline.
Being a bit OTT myself I usually ask a FA to get me something from the Club Kitchen, saying I don’t want to get in their way. They usually bring me loads which I stick in the storage drawer. I rarely bother them for the rest of the flight so hopefully I’m forgiven.
Virgin removed the dedicated crew members in W on the 787 when crews were “blended” in 2016 and crew numbers were taken down from 12 to 10 on this aircraft type
Slightly OT, but Virgin PE related so this was good timing. With the upgrade vouchers, do you pay the taxes for economy or premium economy with the redemption. I’m hoping it’s the former rather than the latter, but I expect to be disappointed!
PE surcharges, but as long as you don’t depart from London it should be modest.
Thank you. Probably going to have to leave via London as PE redemptions are largely snapped up from the regions from what I can see.
PE. It is primarily extra APD which the Government pockets.
Thanks Rob, appreciated.
O/T – The IHG points break is live – there is no published list yet but I have made bookings at those that were released on the preview list.
Flying PE used to be the family “default” for long haul holidays. Whilst clearly not a patch on business the extra space makes a huge difference vs. regular economy and makes a flight tolerable (but less so for night flights). Also, as a BA FF the extra tier points have been helpful for keeping my Gold status.
However, thanks to HFP, over the last 2 years we have flown business class with both BA and AA by securing excellent value ex-EU fares.
Sadly the chaos of a house move earlier this year meant I left it too late to find a good cash deal (and there were also no Avios options available for our preferred destinations in premium seats over school holidays).
So, we’ve bitten the bullet, paid cash and are flying outbound to the US later this year on the new AA premium economy product on a 777-300 and back in BA WTP on an A380. To compensate for the flight “downgrade” we have “upgraded” our hotel at the other end!!
Does anyone have experience of the AA product? How does it compare with BA and VS?
I’ve flown a fair bit on VS PE and enjoy it. Last year I (and my 2 young boys) got upgraded on a new BA 787 to TLV to WTP at check in. Nice but not as good as VS IMO. I think the entertainment choice was better on BA but I preferred the food and rest of the experience that Virgin brings (nicer crew etc too).
Reviewed: Virgin’s three-tier economy class – gimmick or game-changer? – The Telegraph
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/comment/virgins-new-three-tier-economy-fares-reviewed/
Reads a bit like an advertorial but still an interesting insight.
This was the Economy Delight press flight we were on last week. Report to follow in a week or so.
Not that I was on it obviously 🙂
Another benefit I find flying with Virgin is the Gogo inflight wifi. Basic messaging pass for the entire flight is approx £2.50 but every time I’ve used it, I’ve also received full browsing functionality.
Also, Delta give you basic messaging for free:
https://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/traveling-with-us/onboard-services/delta-studio/in-flight-wi-fi.html