Virgin vs BA, can’t help making flight comparisons

[Amy C]

Just come off a Virgin Upper flight to St Vincent and the Grenadines. Haven’t flown Virgin upper since 2012. Flew BA Club to Maldives in Jan. Comparing the two rivals is interesting to me, especially as I used to be a ‘Mystery flyer’ for both airlines and it was my job to secretly assess every aspect of the journey from stepping foot in the airport to exiting arrivals at destination.
Everything I noted back then and extensively wrote about still applies. BA could learn a fair bit from Virgin.
This is only my experience of course, I realise others may feel differently.

Virgin ground staff (generally) are miles friendlier and and more welcoming.
The clubhouse is better than anything BA offers. I actually think I prefer it to the Concorde Lounge in many respects. Abundance of staff available and who ask if you’re OK and make conversation. Food orders brought quickly, tables cleared rapidly, nothing out of stock and fantastic toilets by comparison.
On board the staff are beautifully attired, grooming immaculate and incredibly friendly. They’re almost over the top in terms of genuine warmth and enthusiasm. They also all seem to be ridiculously attractive! BA staff often look like they’ve been dragged through a hedge backwards and that a smile that reached their eyes would kill them.
Each upper passenger was personally approached by the cabin manager who introduced himself, explained the seat, thanked us for flying with Virgin and invited us to let him know if there was anything they could do for us. Did not have that in Jan with BA.
They had to deal with an abusive and very rude passenger who refused to wear a mask but they dealt with him brilliantly.
The seat environment is not a patch on Club Suite with very little stowage and plastic bits everywhere on the A330, but there’s better choice on the IFE and I found the seat more comfortable for sleeping.
My inflight mags were in really bad shape with torn off pages and dog eared corners. The seat was much cleaner than BA’s however. The cleaning standard on BA aircraft has always been inexcusably dire in my experience of the last decade flying with them in all cabin classes.

Food was served by course and not all on one tray like BA is currently doing. Although lunch was served at 10:40am which was annoying. All food was delicious and beautifully presented. Really good quality too.

A torturously long flight with an on board stop over in Barbados but it really was faultless in terms of service.
There were 50 unsold seats so by no means full even in high season. The crew said it’s gradually getting better though.
I just wish Virgin flew to more destinations.

• This topic was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[ANNE]

Amy – we’ve just flown out to Dubai with BA, having flown with Virgin to Las Vegas in December, and like you couldn’t help making comparisons.

Our seat comparison wouldn’t be at all fair as we had Club Suite coming here and the old 787 seat with Virgin. But comparing soft product is reasonable and Virgin wins on almost everything. We also think the Clubhouse beats Galleries easily, but the biggest thing for us though was the onboard food. Virgin are back to a ‘proper’ meal service with choice of starter and dessert as well as all 3 courses served separately. BA are somehow still dumping everything on a single tray, and the less said about the lump of cauliflower in sauce that was supposed to be the starter 3 days ago the better!

The second meal on Virgin was a choice of afternoon tea or a chicken burger. With BA we got half a sandwich! Literally half. I know the DXB flight is a lot shorter, and to be fair we weren’t that hungry as the lunch service took 3 hours so it was barely an hour and half before the second meal was served, but this still seemed pretty poor to me.

Our BA crew were decent on the whole though, and most importantly generous with the drinks. The service did seem a bit disorganised but I suspect this is at least partially due to the A350 and the space they have available.

We’re in First on the way back – let’s see how that goes!

[NorthernLass]

Interesting posts, thanks! I’ve never flown Virgin – purely because the prices in school holiday periods which we’ve been stuck with for the past 12 years are extortionate and we’ve always had avios to use on BA flights for at least 2 of us, which made BA a much more economical option. However, the teenager is nearly grown up and we got the Virgin cc last year and started collecting VS points. Hoping to use them to upgrade to Upper Class, probably next year. NYC would be fine for us as it’s easy to connect from there for our annual GCM holiday.
Tell us about St Vincent and the Grenadines, @AmyC, it always looks gorgeous in documentaries! Also, mystery flyer sounds like an awesome job 😁

@ANNE – we’re flying F to BOS in a couple of weeks, I’m preparing myself to be underwhelmed from recent reports …

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[Amy C]

Northern Lass: It was an awesome job. I’ve been lucky enough to do it for EJ, then Virgin, then BA for 3 years (until Cruz pulled the plug on the project 🤬) and finally Oman Air. Also did Eurostar for a few years until the pandemic. Think it’ll be a miracle if it ever returns in aviation. I mainly do hotels now which have died off considerably but hopefully returning slowly. It’s not my main job however. I wish it were.
First impressions of SVG are they are very, very green and mountainous. Off to Bequia island tomorrow which is supposedly where some of the most stunning Caribbean beaches are.

[Andrew J]

Club World is like a premium economy product compared to Upper Class. Everything from the Upper Class Wing, to the Clubhouse, to the crew, to the food is a world apart. BA act like they’re doing you a favour, whereas Virgin make you feel like their special guest.

@Anna – BA First is just about at an acceptable standard for a business class product, don’t go expecting a first class product, but you’ll get a decent meal and attentive service comparable to many other airlines business class. Only thing that stands out as first class is the quality of the LPGS champagne (until the couple of bottles they have loaded run out).

[NorthernLass]

Thanks, Andrew, we have flown in F previously but this will be our first BA trip in any class since 2019! I usually find they can’t ruin the wine list so there should be something to keep us happy lol.

[Andrew J]

NorthernLass wrote:

Thanks, Andrew, we have flown in F previously but this will be our first BA trip in any class since 2019! I usually find they can’t ruin the wine list so there should be something to keep us happy lol.

And the preparation of the food (on the newish china that we all bought a couple of years ago) is good too. I did have a decent lobster out of JFK just before Covid hit, washed down with LPGS and after the JFK Concorde Room which is much much better than the LHR one, I left having enjoyed my flight.

[NorthernLass]

I remember they served an extraordinarily good claret with the lamb cutlets when we flew F to JFK on my birthday in 2019. The chap in front of me in 1A must have sunk two bottles of it – all while tending to his emails wearing his vest and shorts (he took off his suit shortly after take off). The chap in 2A ate only his own trail mix that he’d brought on board and did yoga in the aisle. How the other half and all that 😂

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[Amy C]

Club World is like a premium economy product compared to Upper Class. Everything from the Upper Class Wing, to the Clubhouse, to the crew, to the food is a world apart. BA act like they’re doing you a favour, whereas Virgin make you feel like their special guest.

You have hit the nail on the head there Andrew. Virgin for me are consistent in that respect. I have never had a bad crew. I’ve had great crew on BA but generally they are a bit, ‘Meh’ and often aloof. Despite the fact I’m currently in a dispute with them (taken to CEDR), and I think they’ve treated their customers with contempt for the last two years, I have a soft spot BA. I genuinely want BA to improve and be the best airline in Europe. Currently they are a national embarrassment.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[Andrew J]

Totally agree – I do like BA as a brand and that kind of long established company is far more aligned to other aspects of my life (I still use a Smythson diary rather than a digital one). The Virgin brand is far too “fun” for my taste really but what I can’t put up with is half-hearted, couldn’t care less service service and cost cutting. Just compare Galleries Club if you were flying without status in CW to JFK – compared to the Clubhouse – it’s almost like something out of a comedy sketch how different they are.

[Amy C]

Yes Virgin is more ‘fun’ and notably less stuffy. They were blasting out current pop music during boarding. Looking around my cabin consisting of 2/3 of people well over 55 on route to Barbados for cricket, I could feel their irritation. Every PA from the crew to the flight deck is notably less formal, but I quite like that as it’s a little more human with a bit of personality injected.
Basically the Virgin crew were just genuinely happy, both towards passengers and towards each other. The kind that can’t be faked. I can’t recall a BA crew that were ever as relaxed, smiley and yet still efficient and professional as the Virgin crew I had yesterday. I hope after all this praise they don’t let me down on the way home.

PS. I can’t abide digital diaries myself. Paper all the way!

[CarpalTravel]

I’m another who agrees with you Amy, I have always said I prefer Virgin due to their upbeat atmosphere, the fact that they seem genuinely glad you are joining them for a flight and want you to have as good a time as they appear to do. It’s quite infectious (poor choice of term…) and really adds to the occasion which when you are going on holiday, is exactly what I want!

Their JFK VAA lounge Was really something else last time I was there too, quiet, spacious and very luxurious. Compare that to the BA one where it was rammed and I couldn’t even get a seat, I had to mill about for well over an hour, sharking with the others for a soon to be vacated chair.

[Peter K]

Amy C wrote:

PS. I can’t abide digital diaries myself. Paper all the way!

And I thought I was the only person who still used a paper diary! I find it so much easier to flick through to see what is going on, and when, at a glance than an electronic one.

[ANNE]

NorthernLass wrote:

@ANNE – we’re flying F to BOS in a couple of weeks, I’m preparing myself to be underwhelmed from recent reports …

I’ll be a happy customer on the way home from here if being in First means no cold cauliflower starter and a drink less than an hour and a half into the flight!

[Whatsthepoint]

My wife and I are going Virgin Upper for the very first time in October and then BA to Mauritius in January. I am looking forward to the comparison having heard so much about the Virgin clubhouse and on board hard and soft product, We have flown BA CW many times and for the majority of the time it’s been very good. Service good, food good, comfort good and therefore struggled to understand all the negativity about BA CW, but that might be that we haven’t tried Virgin yet. Aer Lingus and Emirates were a bit better than BA in some ways, but not by a huge amount.

[marks7389]

I have to say we found Virgin very disappointing on our first UC experience. It didn’t get off to a good start when, following failed attempts to check in online, we turned up at the Heathrow Upper Class wing to check in to be told that there was a problem with our tickets. We proceeded to spend the next 40 minutes standing at the check-in desk whilst the agent desperately tried to get a response from the ticketing desk by phone before it was sorted, by which time my wife was convinced we were getting a taxi home again. All-in-all it took an hour to get through check-in and security.

We then proceeded to a packed Clubhouse (where initially there were only child seats free in the children’s play area). One of the first things you notice when it is that busy is the layout turns the main lounge area into a massive echo chamber. Probably not the effect they are going for, and things improved substantially when it emptied out. To be fair we probably weren’t really in the best mindset to appreciate it by that point.

The experience onboard didn’t get off to a good start either, my being abruptly told to put my mask back on whilst I was part way through my welcome drink with it in my hand. No personal introduction from a cabin manager or any such niceties and the famed friendly service seemed to be absent.

Which was a real shame all-in-all as I was really looking forward to trying Virgin UC and, seat aside, I had high expectations. After we provided feedback whilst away they did try to make up for it on the flight back, especially at Antigua airport where we were whisked through security to the lounge with a personal escort (a little weird and unnecessary but we appreciated the gesture).

Anyway we have another try booked for later in the year, except…. the outbound is now with Delta as the Virgin flight was cancelled which took a bit of a fight for us to be accommodated on the same-day Delta flight rather than the initial insistence on bumping us to the following day and cutting our trip short. On the plus side it’s a later flight now so looking forward to getting the proper Clubhouse experience. Fingers crossed…

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[nxm23]

I’ve been flying Virgin for about 15 years. I’m currently in Miami having flown here in the new BA Club Suite for the first time.

I couldn’t get any availability on Virgin with my miles and BA had a sale on so it was one of those rare occasions where there was a big discrepancy in fares between BA and Virgin.

I agree with everything you said.

The UC wing check in and security at LHR is a dream. BA Club World check in and security is horrible. It’s a huge queue and miles away from being a calm and premium experience.

The Virgin clubhouse is in a different league to BA lounge in T5.

The cabin crew on Virgin are in a different league. Smiles, enthusiasm, friendly. BA just feels glum in comparison.

In flight meals are better on Virgin. Both in quality and having it served course by course.

Everything is better on Virgin, bar one thing. And here lies my issue. The new Club world suite is so much better than the old, tired, cramped UC seat with zero storage (not the new A350 UC suite which isn’t yet on the MIA route).

I’m in that seat for 9.5 hours and I don’t know if I’d choose Virgin over BA for long haul if I’m stuck in that old seat v the BA club suite. All the other areas where virgin wins, does that make it enough to beat the most important aspect of where you sit/sleep for 9.5 hours? For me, it’s such an important aspect I’d give the win to BA, just.

I’m flying back First Class on the BA A380 so will be interesting to see that, but VA really need to roll out the new suite across their fleet. When they do – then it’s a knockout win for Virgin in the first round.

[AL]

Have always been a fan of flying VAA; BA service has let me down so many times (and continues to do so – three flight cancellations last week!) and, with the odd exception, service is stuffy, dull and rather boring. Food and cabin service are top. Consistently renew my status with them for these reasons amongst others.

I prefer the older 789 UC seats to the new A35K UC suite – the suite feels cramped and a bit plastic, like a knock-off DL One. So, perhaps the CW Suite is better in this regard. But, given most of my hops are 6hr taxi rides, anything to stretch the legs is better than nothing. On the other hand, A35K Premium is a world apart from aging 789 Premium, though!