BA or Virgin???

LondonDreamer

Cliecost wrote: »

Okay,

It's Gatwick to Saint Lucia and it would be economy class

Hope that helps.

Definitely Virgin then. As I already stated, the BA Gatwick fleet is old. The Virgin fleet was refurbished last year. I'd rather be in Virgin's new economy than BA's old WT+ if you manage to get an upgrade.

InsideInsurance wrote: »

The only material difference between the two is one allows 10kg, the other 25kg and one states you can have a handbag/manbag on top of this.

In practice has anyone ever seen Virgin weigh hand luggage? Or stop someone taking a handbag as well as hand luggage?

Maybe others fly with gold bullion more often than me but even our fortnight long hold suitcases are normally in the mid teens of KGs so how you'd need the long weekend handluggage type bag to be 25kg I've no idea

I always prefer to fly carry on only, even for longer trips. And every time I've flown Virgin, hand luggage has been weighed and tagged. Handbag is fine, but you can't carry a separate laptop bag which is the killer for DH. Means he has to get his laptop in the main carry on, which makes getting his bag under 10kg pretty difficult. So we usually check through on VS for that reason.

Ellis17

I flew with Virgin to Mexico from London last year and I have to say the entertainment on the flight was absolutely fantastic. The economy seats were comfortable enough to sit in for a 9 hour flight, and they give you a nice package including soft blankets, soft pillow etc with headphones all complimentary. The main thing for me though was the service, all the stuards and stuardesses were lovely and wanted to help in all situations!

photome

Virgin for me, their refurbed planes are a massive improvement on their old ones.

BA economy sucks!

System

InsideInsurance wrote: »

In practice has anyone ever seen Virgin weigh hand luggage? Or stop someone taking a handbag as well as hand luggage?

I've never experienced VA weigh hand luggage from LHR, but have had mine weighed when flying back to LHR from LAX, and friends had theirs weighed once when flying back to LHR from I think EWR (might have been JFK). In my experience it seems that they aren't bothered when flying out, just when flying back!

InsideInsurance

LondonDreamer wrote: »

I always prefer to fly carry on only, even for longer trips. And every time I've flown Virgin, hand luggage has been weighed and tagged. Handbag is fine, but you can't carry a separate laptop bag which is the killer for DH. Means he has to get his laptop in the main carry on, which makes getting his bag under 10kg pretty difficult. So we usually check through on VS for that reason.

I used to prefer carry on, and many of my trips are just 2-3 day things so it makes sense not to have to mess about with baggage drop etc, but I think that mainly came from a fear that was instilled in me that bags go missing all the time.

Dont put expensive or fragile things in the hold but with an average of 5-6 trips a year with hold luggage I am yet to have anything go missing.

In honest I normally fly PE or UC with Virgin but PE has the same hand luggage restrictions as Economy and never had a problem with mini suitcase + personal bag. It could be due to status but we are always one of the last ones to board so no point trying to get into the UC line by flashing the card when the economy line is also empty. Likewise neither silver nor gold are supposed to change hand luggage entitlement (gold increases hold luggage thats all)

LondonDreamer

InsideInsurance wrote: »

I used to prefer carry on, and many of my trips are just 2-3 day things so it makes sense not to have to mess about with baggage drop etc, but I think that mainly came from a fear that was instilled in me that bags go missing all the time.

Dont put expensive or fragile things in the hold but with an average of 5-6 trips a year with hold luggage I am yet to have anything go missing.

Oh, I'm not scared of the hold. I've flown many times (used to be a frequent flyer) and never had any baggage issues. I just like to pack light these days and don't see the point in checking when it's under the carry allowance.

[Deleted User]

LondonDreamer wrote: »

Oh, I'm not scared of the hold. I've flown many times (used to be a frequent flyer) and never had any baggage issues. I just like to pack light these days and don't see the point in checking when it's under the carry allowance.

I concur.
It must be 15 years since I packed any hold luggage and this includes long-haul holidays for up to a month.
This was largely enforced on us by living in Ireland and using LHR/LGW as the base for the long-haul flights.
With Ryanair and then Aer Lingus ( the only way across the Irish Sea from where I live ) introducing prohibitive baggage charges we learned to pack light - even Mrs Tom The Great Sebastian came to appreciate the speed in clearing airports versus packing a hair-dryer.
To this day my grow-up kids still recall a month-long hike around Thailand living out of their school rucksacks.
And I'm still using the same rucksack that cost me £30 from Millets a decade ago with every unecessary strap cut off.
I mean, does ANYONE really need to pack a towel these days ?

Delree

There's probably no real difference but I make the trip annually, went with Virgin first time, great experience so I'm loyal to them.

richardw

I did like VS's new A330 aircraft from JFK-LHR in economy 2-4-2 seating, didn't like T4 at JFK though.

Cliecost

Ok, we plan to go to St Lucia from LGW but would like to travel in further comfort...something like business class/upper class (I hear they're the same level).

Is it worth it? (My wife has a bad back so anything that allows more room and the ability to lay down helps)