r/virginatlantic

Currently on a VA 350 ATL-> LHR via a Delta booking. $4k R/T in upper class and the sound doesn’t work on the IFE and the pay internet is roughly 250 kb/s. Thanks for the premium experience. Won’t make this mistake again.

I am looking at Booking flights from Manchester too Orlando from the end of August for 14 nights, there seems to be loads of options for saver seats for the flight out of Manchester for 13,500 points however the flights back from orlando are over 50k points, is it worth waiting to see if the price of the return flights drop or does this never happen.

I'd booked return flights, due to depart and return in July/August, and I now need to cancel both flights. Wondering what the cancellation and refund process is like and if I should know anything beforehand? Booked Premium class both ways if that makes any difference. Any insights are appreciated. I know it's probably all on the website but I'm looking for any experiences where people may have experienced caveats that others should know, for example.

I’ll be flying Airbus A330-900neo on Virgin Atlantic from Seattle to London soon (economy class) and wanted some real experiences from people who’ve taken this route/aircraft recently.
A few things I’m curious about:
How is the entertainment system and movie selection?
Is the WiFi worth paying for?
How many meals/snacks are usually served on this ~10 hour flight?
Are seats comfortable enough for sleeping?
How cold does the cabin get?
Are there any hidden expenses onboard (paid snacks, drinks, headphones, baggage surprises, etc.)?
Is premium upgrade bidding worth trying?
Any tips for surviving the flight comfortably?
Would also love to know your overall experience

I have premium economy for my return flight.
Do help me with experiences thanks

Update : IT WAS BETTER THAN EXPECTED ! though i could not sleep but got so many drinks and snacks! Also found good entertainment on screen for the time being! Thanks everyone for advices and comments

For anyone who cares, there’s Starlink WiFi on my A350-1000 (Bennie Jet) from Heathrow to Toronto Pearson!

We’re looking at booking for Florida next year. But the car it offers you is a tiny small Chevy Spark.
What’s the script with getting an upgrade? Can I go through Virgin and upgrade at a later date? Or do I end up chancing my luck and upgrade at the car hire desk?

I have a feeling the answer is probably no one knows but just in case people had an idea of trends or insight? I was using vests.io to price some return reward flights (MAN-MCO) and there was a tonne of rock bottom options January 2027 for return economy of 15k points, different days different trip lengths. I spent the afternoon pricing options up and hotels etc and I've just come back to book the flights now I'm ready on the dates I wanted and the points have gone up quadruple and the taxes have also gone up since looking a few hours ago? And this is the same across all the options that were listed a few hours ago. Is this because I was looking at them earlier and will they go back down tomorrow in people's experience? I'd be gutted if I'd missed out but wanted to keep my hopes up.

Booked this flight itinerary direct with Virgin:

Outbound:

MAN > ATL (Operated by Virgin)

ATL > SMF (Delta)

Return:

SMF > MSP (Delta)

MSP > CDG (Air France)

CDG > MAN (Air France)

Context:

Travelling with my mother who suffers from severe back pain. Wanted to book seats to ensure we were sat together and had decent seat options. Virgin’s website allowed me to select seats for the Virgin and Delta flights but for Air France I had to go the AF website instead. So I booked 4 seat selections with AF, costing £30, £30, £15, £15. I also ticked the option to partially pay with miles I had previously been awarded with KLM and because of AF and KLM collaboration via Flying Blue, they were eligible. 7000 miles used across the 4 seat selections. £90 and 7000 miles down for 4 seats.. But ok, whatever, at least my mother will have a nicer flight.

Fast forward and Virgin end up changing the SMF > MSP flight for ‘operational’ reasons. This brings forward the flight time by 7 hours, meaning I’m going to have to get to the airport at 4am and I also now have an 8 hour layover in MSP. This is simply not feasible, especially with the pain it would put my mother through sitting in an airport for 7+ hours. So I get in touch with Virgin who thankfully advise that the flight is eligible to be rebooked to a more suitable option (terms and conditions say if the impact is > 5 hours it is eligible, this is key). This then completely changes the return itinerary and I now simply go SMF > ATL > MAN. I take this as a win… Nicer journey in my opinion with a nicer layover. Delightful customer service in arranging the change. No extra cost. Until…

I raise the question, will my seat bookings for the final two flights with AF be refunded? I obviously can’t sit in those seats anymore and ultimately it’s not my fault my itinerary has ended up changing for what were originally ‘operational’ reasons. Customer service advice they don’t have access to the seat bookings made with AF and that I will have to reach out to them instead. A bit annoying, but ok, I get it. Computer says no, so I’m not gonna give the Virgin customer service any grief.

So I reach out to AF via multiple customer service chats and eventually I am given a link to the correct refund request form. I fill it out and they finally get back to me today advising (quote):

“We hereby inform you that we have rejected your refund request, because it does not meet the criteria listed on the website.”

An operational change to a flight which leads to the *airline* changing my itinerary is not criteria for a refund of a seat selection ON A FLIGHT I AM NO LONGER ON???

Surely that is the definition of a refund-eligible scenario. I am not receiving the service paid for because of the service providers changes..

Got in touch with the customer service again who in a long winded way advised there is nothing they can do other than to suggest to submit a refund claim form again. But honestly what is the point..

Any advice please? Any opinions in general? I am honestly gobsmacked

I booked my first flight on Virgin Atlantic for a flight in October. The fare has dropped since I booked it a week ago. I'm used to flying United -- when the fare drops, I contact Customer Service and they issue a flight credit for the fare difference. Does Virgin Atlantic do the same thing, or am I SOL? I tried searching this sub and online but couldn't find a definite answer.

Hoping someone has advice on this issue. I'm flying first class from SFO to London on Friday. I received the select meal email. Clicking the email on my phone loads a 404 error page. Clicking the email on my laptop opens the select meal page but when I confirm it says server error and "not to worry, they have great food on the plane." WTF. I called customer service who selected a meal for me. Or so I thought. Today, I received another reminder about selecting a meal. I have a dairy allergy, and there is only one meal I can eat. Which I'm more than sure will not be available on the plane if I don't select in advance. I'm paying tons of money for this terrible user experience. Any suggestions beyond calling their not great customer service again and sitting on the line for 20 minutes?

We've been pretty much exclusively flying BA for the last 4 years, I worked my way up to Silver status but now soft landed down to Bronze this year and as we only do PE holiday packages about 2-3x a year and maybe 1x short haul economy flight here and there I know I'll drop to Blue next year. So as a result, we're looking at doing PE in Virgin next year for Orlando.

I've heard the Virgin points/credit card etc are overall better than BA is (now) and that Virgin fly newer aircraft so is a more pleasant experience in PE, which I'm presuming is why BA is significantly cheaper a lot of the time. Is it worth the switch or is the price not worth it?

For reference, we're both above average height so PE for us mainly hinges on extra leg room/wider seats, my partner loves the food on flights so that's a plus too.