What has happened to Virgin Atlantic?

Tippytoes

Not sure if I should be posting here or elsewhere, but I'm so disappointed with the way Virgin Atlantic conducts business these days. I first flew with them way back in their early days of operation. The service they gave then was second to none. The penultimate flight I took with Virgin was poor, but I thought it may have been just a glitch. My last (and final) flight with them confirmed my suspicions - that Virgin really has gone down the pan. Poor food, aircraft cosmetically falling apart, families seated apart, cabin crew more interested in taking breaks than taking care of paying customers. I avoid BA like the plague - if they don't lose your luggage, they don't fly due to strikes. Now Virgin is off my list as well. I don't think British-based carriers in any way match the quality of service and reliability of overseas airlines and the prices of their flights are often much higher. I'd be interested to hear other passengers' views. My personal favourite airlines are Air New Zealand and American Airlines.

LeeSouthEast

Had a similar experience the last 2 times we flew with Virgin. They have indeed gone downhill.

cactusdust

I'm not sure what airports you two have flown out of.. but flying out of London Gatwick shouldn't be treated as an accurate representation of VA as a whole.

stoneman

cactusdust wrote: »

I'm not sure what airports you two have flown out of.. but flying out of London Gatwick shouldn't be treated as an accurate representation of VA as a whole.

But that is the problem, don't know the exact figures but I guess they run a hefty percentage number of their flights out of LGW, so if you are saying that the flights out of Heathrow are different as in crew attitude than that is a lot of the company not doing their job properly. I am afraid it is called "bean counting" these days.
It is no coincidence that in the last couple of years it seems as though it is the airlines that treat you with contempt have been the ones making money, and the ones that tried to treat you like a valued customer, IE: MAXjet, Silverjet, EOS and to an extent BA have either gone through or lost tons of money. It is just a shame that MAXjet couldn't ride out the hike in fuel prices at the time, we flew with them 4 times and for the cost of a Premium economy ticket it was a no contest decision, I would never have flown with another airline again.
The fuel price rise and the decision of AA to run the same route to JFK out of STN did for EOS and MAXjet, and as soon as those 2 went bust AA pulled out.

Mr_Lahey

I am not sure how to address this. I was until very recently a Gold Flying club member. I have flown with VS many many times and generally their service has stayed pretty consistent i would say.

In terms of transatlantic flights there is very little between any carriers although my favourite is KLM. I am however perplexed at how you can put American Airlines in front of both VS and BA! I find American to be one of the worst transatlantic carriers, old planes, dodgy (if at all) IFE and arrogant Milfs as stewardesses. United, Northwest and Delta in my opinion all fare better than AA.

Fair enough i wouldn't fly BA by choice but i think its unfair to be scathing on VS. I still think that Upper Class is one of the best business class products around (unless you fly out of LGW/MAN)

My advice for anyone booking a hop across the Atlantic would be to take the cheapest flight, unless you are flying to the West Coast it's not a particularly long flight and the standards of all carriers is too close to call. Of course, anyone in their right mind would be best advised to avoid BA at the moment and for the foreseeable future.

Rosie75

I've only flown once with Virgin Atlantic, and that was nearly three years ago - but it was an multi-city flight, flying LHR-LAX, then LVS-LGW. The flight from Heathrow was excellent, professional cabin crew, excellent service, good films (on demand). The return flight to Gatwick was more like a charter flight, the cabin crew barely acknowledged passengers they were so busy discussing their personal lives, there were no blankets or pillows and the entertainment system wasn't working.