are virgin the best for america

boblibarn

can people please give their honest opinion of flying to american with virgin. i have been to florida and we travelled and flew with first choice and it was fine, i am going to new york in feb and everyone is telling me to book with virgin, are they really that diferrent and if so why ?

Bob_the_Saver

"everyone is telling me to book with virgin"

I take it they don't like you!

melancholly

book the cheapest. it's not a long flight versus other destinations and while virgin are great, they aren't £100 per person great!

boblibarn

lol bob the saver , now im worried , x

bagand96

Assuming you are flying economy.....

Book the cheapest and most convenient for you. Economy is more or less the same on any airline. Some may not have personal TV screens, most do. BA and Virgin's free bar service includes alcoholic drinks, whereas the US carriers do not. Thats about all the differences wrapped up!

rainbow_carnage

Not a big difference between Virgin and BA economy. I'd stay way from Delta, who are consistently awful. I've had so many bad experiences with them that even at half the fare, I'd fly with someone else.

More important than the airline is the type of plane. (I'm afraid I don't know enough to name specific models.) I think BA and Virgin both only use newer planes on their transatlantic flights. Not all airlines do. Seven hours is a long time to sit between a sweaty fat man and a girl singing along with Mamma Mia! without a personal TV set.

ferf1223

rainbow_carnage wrote: »

More important than the airline is the type of plane. (I'm afraid I don't know enough to name specific models.) I think BA and Virgin both only use newer planes on their transatlantic flights. Not all airlines do.

Agree with this 100%. It annoys me when people slag off airline XX because 'they don't have seat-back TV on their planes' when they DO...just not on the particular flight the poster booked.

We always book AA flights on 777s, for example...we will scroll through the times and pick out flights on 777s.

Some of Virgin's routes are on 747s which are quite old and a bit knackered - some on the Vegas thread have completely sworn off them now until they swap out the fleet serving Vegas...other Virgin routes are on Airbuses, and they are great. I don't know what Virgin flies to New York but it would be easy to find out.

Seatguru is handy to compare amenities on different aircraft types on different airlines.

bagand96

More important than the airline is the type of plane. (I'm afraid I don't know enough to name specific models.) I think BA and Virgin both only use newer planes on their transatlantic flights. Not all airlines do.

BA have some of the oldest Boeing 747-400's around! A lot of Virgin's are quite a good vintage too!

That said, I do understand your point. Its not the type of plane as much, but the interior fit. A 20 year old plane can be fantastic with a brand new interior in it. All BA and Virgin have personal TV. Most of the US airlines do now too, but not all, and some carriers don't have it on specific aircraft types.

Virgin is a tricky one. Some of the 747s are tatty and are long overdue a big internal refit. Generally the rule with Virgin is don't use them out of Gatwick - thats where the tired aircraft are, on the 'leisure' routes. Out of Heathrow they are much better. Although even that is changing as their fancy new A330s are going to operate leisure routes from Gatwick and Manchester.

phatbear

I/we have flown virgin 4 times to New York, 5th time coming up in a weeks time and once to San Fran and each time the service has been spot on, heck if it wasn't I wouldnt keep rebooking them

boblibarn

thanks everyone for their views , looks like its virgin or BA , would luv to fly from birmingham as thats the closest airport but not sure if i can but manchester is also an option

bagand96

boblibarn wrote: »

thanks everyone for their views , looks like its virgin or BA , would luv to fly from birmingham as thats the closest airport but not sure if i can but manchester is also an option

Continental Airlines fly to New York from Birmimgham; and you can connect there to most US destinations.

From Manchester Delta and Continental go to New York, American Airlines go to New York and Chicago, ad US Airways go to Philadelphia, all with onward connections to other destinations.