Virgin premium economy & BA world travellerplus

supersaint_2

What is the difference between these and which is best

rpstdavids

If you are flying out of Heathrow, then Virgin win every time, for me anyway.
The seats are fairly new, and the service is slightly better, (dedicated check-in, pre-flight drink, proper china and cutlery etc), where as on BA the only difference from economy is the slightly larger seat.

Flying from Gatwick is another matter. Virgin still have the older seats on these aircraft, but the one advantage is you can sit in the 'bubble' (upstairs). It's nice and quiet up there with only 40 seats, and its a godsend especially if you are flying the Vegas route to get away from the stag/hen do's. They also still have the older TV systems on the Gatwick fleet, not the on-demand (AVOD) system they have on the Heathrow fleet.

stoneman

VS every time, even if flying out of Gatwick. BA WT+ is just economy with extra leg room

malkie76

Both products offer wider seats with more legroom than their economy counterparts. Neither particularly has the upper hand, apart from minor differences they are identical.

A consideration you may wish to make is the seating plan on the plane used on the route you are looking to take. Certain planes have much better seating options.

For example, the 70J version of the BA 747 has the single WTP seats located at 28B/J which offers unparalleled private space and legroom. The 52J version puts the WTP cabin ahead of the CW cabin which means you can make sneaky trips to the CW Club Kitchen.

Perfect for a pair are seats 70A/C/H/K on the upper deck of the VA 747s, however the 75A/C/H/K on the lower deck offer outstanding additional space and first off the aircraft.

However not all VA planes have PE on the upper deck - ie it's really worth checking out which plane is used on the route and the flight you are interested in.

edit

It's worth pointing out however that if you don't hold status with the airline, or aren't on a full price ticket then the chances of you getting the best seats with either airline are extremely limited.

Doshwaster

BA Traveller plus is only worth it if the difference in fare between that and Steerage is less than £100-ish for a trans-Atlantic flight. If you book early enough there are often good upgrade offers available.If it's any more than that then it's really not worth the money. It's the same food - you just get served first. The seats are much more comfortable and I will often book TP one way if I need to be fresh for a meeting at the other end.

One advantage of T-plus is that since it is such a small compartment you have a better chance of getting bumped up to business.

malkie76

Be careful raising people's expectations like that. While op'ups do happen the pecking order is Gold/Silver/OneWorld status holders/full price ticket holders/blue with partial status/partial discount ticket holders then finally discount ticket holders.

To make matters more interesting BA are currently known for upgrading status holders from ecomony straight to business jumping over those in WTP.

The trick with WTP that people forget about is the ability to upgrade even the cheapest of tickets to business using BA miles - that's the true value of WTP tickets for lesuire travel.

stoneman

malkie76 wrote: »

The trick with WTP that people forget about is the ability to upgrade even the cheapest of tickets to business using BA miles - that's the true value of WTP tickets for lesuire travel.

This is true. One way upgrade from WT+ to CW is 12,000 miles, about £200+, now that has got to be one of the best use of a mileage program around

malkie76

Indeed! The only issue is that there are only so many reward seats on any given flight - nearly impossible on some where BA know they can fill a plane with full fare paying passengers. That being said, all you need to do is plan ahead to be successful.

I assume you are referring to the ability to buy BA miles online to use instantly (your comment about 12k miles for £200). You are correct - it's a simple and quick way to upgrade your flights. However, you don't necessarily even need to buy miles if you are active in a partner reward programme.

Tesco's CC points is a great way to earn BA miles with no change to your regular activities. I recently converted £100 of Tescos CC points into 25,000 BA miles which is enough for a return upgrade in CW.

However, they've been used (in combination with my own BA miles from flying) to provide two returns in CW to the far east (out to Beijing, returning from Toyko) in next March/April (a total of 80,000 miles used)

I bought two returns in WTP and upgraded both legs for myself and partner into CW using BA Miles :beer:
Business class style and luxury for only a few quid more than discounted economy fares! Fully flat beds meaning falling asleep in London and waking up in China I can't wait!

Aidenr

Below is a responce I gave on another post
*****
I have just got back yesterday from Japan ( Narita ) as crew and I work for VS.
I can only echo what has been said above regarding the Premium Economy.
* Different Cabin layout from Economy - compared to BA same seats, just more leg room
* Dedicated Cabin Crew that only look after all 44 passengers ( if full ) - BA crew look after both cabins
* Bigger seat
* dedicated checkin
* 100's of movies on demand
...... the list goes on

I have flown BA several times and have been lucky to fly in traveller plus, club and First and without sounding obviously bias, VA have a better product ( although we dont have a First class cabin - Upper is way better LOL )

Just a couple of things to add:
VA's 747's have the same amount of seats in PE and economy as the Airbus.
Also PE is only available in the " bubble " on the Gatwick configured 747's and has not been retrofitted with the new purple "super" seats.

In relation to service, like BA Virgin have a majority of "national" crew members. thus meaning that in Economy for example, there will be 3 Japanese crew and 1 london crew member. So the service is like JAL as we serve 2 Japanese meal choices as well as western food - IMO they are faultless !

Personally I prefer the 747's but the Airbus is very slick and new and has all the gadgets like a dual water fountain in Economy etc, plus it is actually longer than a 747
*****

As another poster stated, in relation to inflight entertainment, I would check your routing
99% of LHR flights have on demand movies and LGW are on a loop system ( with a few exceptions/aircraft changes)
In relation to the cabin, you will always have dedicated crew and all the little extras...
dedicated checkin, newspapers, china dinnerware and glass etc etc.
Although the seats on LGW are not the new "super seats", they are still bigger/wider and larger recline than VA economy/ BA WT/ WT+

malkie76

There's nothing really that you've said which differentiates the products - the 'little extras' you mention such as newspapers and proper glasses are also part of the standard BA product. Almost all BA flights have AVOD too, so that doesn't give VA the advantage either.

Given that most people OLCI, the dedicated check-in is largely moot. It's maybe a valuable point when flying VA given their extremely restricted number of desks, but if flying from T5 (for example) given the number of desks and bag drops there are no queues at any of the desks in any class.

There are no significant differences, and they are typically similarly priced on the same route. I guess BA has the advantage in terms of number of routes they fly compared to VA, but then it does depend on where the OP is looking to fly.

One final point is that in terms of scheduling (in my experience), BA flights take and land ahead of VA flights on the same route meaning that BA passengers are first into immigration - nothing worse than being behind an entire 747's worth of passengers when entering the US!

Aidenr

malkie76:
I do see your point in relation to T5 as an example. With the amount of traffic that they have ample facilities are required.
VS have there own own area in T3 but not the whole terminal and as you said with the amount of people using OLCI then I guess that is the reason why there is not as many desks, that and space of course.

In relation to BA landing ahead of VS, I would disagree. The ONLY time I have herd of this happening is in Orlando when BA come in on a 777 with a little over 200 passengers and VS come in on a 747 with over 400 and we are due to land at the same time

With the PE product vs WT+ there are many many similarities although at VS it is treated as a whole different cabin and service.
dedicated cabin with your own crew, designated toilets and the whole service is delivered differently and like I said with the little extra hence the name Premium Economy.
This is not the case at BA.
The BA product is great having used it myself, but I would say that VS have the upperhand when it comes to the little extras when as said the price is pretty much the same.
Just my pennies worth !
;-)
A