American Airlines - tight

duchy

I've flown with both several times recently (last Virgin flight September-last AA November and next AA next week) but choose to fly AA over Virgin where possible. The one route I would not touch Virgin is Gatwick Vegas as it attracts stag groups and combined with free booze and young cabin crew makes for a Magaluf experience if you are un lucky enough to get a large group. I felt unsafe in that enviroment. The cabin crew had no control and several passengers would have been refused boarding on AA in the state they were allowed on..Had I been travellin g with kids I'd have been furious as the laguage was awful-Stuck in a metal tube for 9 hours where every other word began with F or C is NOT my idea of a nice flight ! The VS cabin crew on this route in economy are usually very junior as those with more seniority choose to bid for either upper class or other routes as they don't want to deal with the stags either
AA seats have a slightly better pitch than VS seats
Crew are generally older and more experienced with AA -Virgin crew are very young-I sat next to a vicar complete with dog collar and bible in hand from New York in September the VS flight attendent asked him if he'd ordered a Hindu meal !! There was also the flight attendent who talked endlessly the whole way from Gatwick to Vegas about how she had to buy factor 30 sunscreen to both crew and passengers. I'm guessing it was her first working flight and she was excited but it really wasn't very professional.
Booze is freeflowing and free on VS compared to $5 on AA -I don't drink enough when flying for that to influence my choice.
Inflight entertainment on VS is slightly better than AA-food is similar. On-time I've had better experiences with AA than VS but any airline can get delayed.
AA have more connections to where I fly and I prefer not to have to switch carrier midway.
Nothing wrong with Virgin-decen t planes and reasonable service but for me AA has the edge but it all comes down to what you are looking for. Fares are consistently lower with AA than Virgin although there will always be exceptions but AA charge £60 in tax compared with Virgin's rip-off £130 so that gives them a head start anyway.