Review: Virgin Atlantic 787 Upper Class Business Class

I was on the inaugural flight a few years ago from LHR to Bos on this plane . Had a great time but not a fan of the seats .

Last September, Hubby and I took a VA flight from Las Vegas to London on a 787 with the exact seat configuration. Sometime during the flight while I slept, my purse stowed under the footwell was ransacked and I lost around $4500 in cash. The theft was discovered before we landed and the theft reported to the main stewards. Long story short, VA says it’s not responsible for our loss. I will never take another VA flight with this seat configuration where there is no place to safely stow valuables. Shame on VA. To all female travelers: be aware and guard your purse!

To all female [and male, and X gender] travelers: be aware and guard your purse! and be SANE and don't carry $4500 cash in you purse/waller/pocket. OMG! You're not an Albanian mobster boss to carry $4500 cash in a purse.

1. WTH carrying $4500 cash. That was your foolish decision to leave in your purse. I would have put that in my bra .... and I’m a man who doesn’t wear a bra!

2. I would have demanded that the police meet the flight at the gate. I’m not sure how you could’ve proved you had that much money with you. I’m not sure how the police could imply that another passenger or crewmember with that much money didn’t bring it on board. But I would’ve raised holy hell!

3. The description of the seats is the reason I won’t fly Virgin!

Ben

I know you like the last (or near to last row) but you should know that in VA Upper you should be nowhere near the bar. A frequent commenter here (thenicepaul) has said many, many times on this site how much he hates proximity to the bar. You mention only 10A and 11A were free, but you don’t mention the availability on the K side. I know the A side is best but surely given the choice between 11A and 5K, row 5 has to be the winner?

The “on behalf of Richard Branson” comment was odd. Was he doing it to be self-important I wonder? As in, “Richard personally asked me to say this.” I don’t think this should become a thing...”On behalf of Alex Cruz...”

Whenever I fly VA, and they announce the number of passengers onboard, it’s never that many. They should really keep a low load to themselves.

And finally, I hate this seat so much. But I’m keen to try the VA A350 on my next transatlantic out of LHR.

I took the LHR to SFO route and loved it. The flight attendants were personable and the cabin was great. The bar is nice for socializing with your other passengers. All in all a great flight. My only reservations is that I find SWISS to have better food and larger restroom.

While the cabin is woefully outdated, you cannot deny it’s an extremely classy cabin! One of the most beautiful.

I'm just gobsmacked with the amount you eat 🙂

“Virgin Atlantic does even offer hot breakfast, which many airlines don’t on such a short flight.”

I am pretty sure that the ‘bacon butty’ shown on the Breakfast Menu will be hot Lucky. It’s once again showing the different terms in the transatlantic English languages.

@ Frederik -- To be clear, I was saying that they *do* offer hot breakfast, unlike some other airlines. Unless I'm misunderstanding what you're saying?

Looks like a fun flight for under 6 hours. They EVEN serve Aberfeldy Scotch which I've never seen on a plane or in a lounge. While not super premium, I like it a lot.

@Frederik @Lucky The wording of that sentence is odd. How 'bout: Virgin Atlantic EVEN offers hot breakfast?

I just flew this product (albeit on the A330-300, same exact seat otherwise), and I would agree with you about the seat. It’s really a shame because Virgin does a fantastic job with the end to end experience otherwise. My typical intl business goes to UA but based on routing we flew Virgin and the airport experience at LHR, flight attendant professionalism and friendliness, quality of the soft products including food, on board bar experience all exceed any US carrier.

I am 6’1 and my biggest issue with these seats is that they don’t allow you to fully lie down without bending your legs- they’re quite short. As you said, storage is extremely limited which is a bit challenging, but I find the overall privacy and direct aisle access is great— I also like the openness of the cabin vs. reverse herringbone or other 1x2x1 configs.

RE: Fast track cards when landing in London, Stansted Airport has introduced a fast track lane to the E-Gates, I'm guessing this is to allow the Emirates 1st and Business passengers to jump the queue if they land around the same time as 10 full Ryanair planes.

It will be interesting to see if it gets added at any other London airports.

@ Ben -- It is remarkable that they have these horrible seats on this beautiful aircraft. AM's 787-9 has the same seat as AA's 777-200, which makes for an awesome experience. Now, if AM would just improve their food (and tear down MEX and start over).

I find the layout of the seats kind of odd, and the mood lighting to be annoying.

Was that lighting that horrible in person? It looks like you were eating under a blacklight. Somewhat lurid. Not sure I could handle that seating. It’s not like their fares are discounted for the bad seats or anything. BA seats At 7 across in Club World look better than this.

@Lucky not to turn this into a grammar blog, but to Frederick's comment, the more efficient sentence would've been "Virgin Atlantic even offers hot breakfast..." - the "does" is unnecessary 😉

That aside, I enjoyed the review, thanks!

Looks like a W hotel. Trendy looks, completely nonfunctional design and lukewarm service. Pass.

Can't stand those seats pointing away from the windows. Is the lighting like the inside of a brothel during the whole flight?

So there’s an episode of Murder, She Wrote (The Corpse Flew First Class) where Jessica is flying BOS-LHR in first on the “Champagne Supper Flight” and of course, someone gets killed. It’s actually one of the best MSW episodes.

@Lucky
Yes sorry my mistake. And it is good they do on a short flight, BA I got a full meal after takeoff but then only soggy roll, fruit and yoghurt/muesli thing for breakfast returning from New York early last year. Although I understand that they are improving Club and First catering and return from Miami 8 weeks ago it was a much better full hot breakfast.
I just wish Virgin would become a full SkyTeam member, although with the new Flying Blue CodeShare they are almost de facto.

@ William

Yes, if I recall it’s first class without direct aisle access from every seat and not a flatbed- that’s the real horror here, not the corpse.

@anna tseng. BS. you were travelling with someone else and yet somehow another person was able to rummage at that location for your bag , remove a large amount of cash and put it back again In the same position. If you are going to lie it should be more plausible. Airlines aren’t liable for cabin bags. You should have a money bag you can strap round your torso

Otherwise it looks pretty pretty good. On my recent flight to Hong Kong , strangely I didn’t notice anyone use the bar.

"For the main course I ordered the cauliflower steak"

Basically, grilled cauliflower 😉 But that bowl does look good...

Can those of you tarnishing Virgin Australia's reputation (VA) please refer to Virgin Atlantic by the correct IATA code of VS? I was beggining to think VAs fleet had expanded and product gone done hill. PS, Lucky any plane on heading back to Australia any time soon?

I will be travelling to Africa soon and will be going Upper class, so I shall surely feedback on my experience. Thanks for your tips, sure helps.

many people prefer a firmer bed to sleep on and that is why the VS bed was designed to flip over in this way - softer for sitting and firmer for sleeping.

Yes some people prefer a softer sleeping surface but you can’t please everyone - they went with the needs of the majority.

iIRC the beds in the A350 are full recline with no need to flip?

Do we really need 3 pictures of the moving map? You said a few weeks ago formatting the pics took a long time so you could have saved some time by not including 2 of them!

Comments re lighting - photos make it appear worse than it is with the natural eye - especially if just using a phone or normal day to day camera.

@Anna - so did you report it to the police? Insist the VS cabin crew have the police meet the plane? How did this thief know you had that amount of cash on you? We’re you flashing it? Talking loudly to your hubby about it? Why didn’t you have a lockable bag to put it in? What did your insurance company say when you claimed off the ? But basically why were you carrying such a large amount of cash in the first place?

@ Nick

Sorry! Had a poor week of sleep due to watching the Australian Open tennis all night. I’ll be shaper next week.

Sharper even

I wonder how much food is wasted? They should have a full menu with dining in the club and no on-board dinner for any flight leaving after 9 p.m. That's crazy there was all that food for a flight of under 6 hours.

Thanks for the picture of the hot towel, most instructive.

I was on a short 4.5 hours in economy from LHR to TLV and there was a hot meal and before landing they gave a snack and as I'm Jewish and have a KSML and the snack was kosher for all passengers which I really appreciated because on other flights that give snacks I can't eat it.

And no other airline that I was on this route gives snacks.

Like NZ these seats are just not good enough in 2020,heck they weren’t even good when they first introduced them - it’s like a dormitory and at biz fares it’s just not on - they obviously know how bad they are and try to excel in other areas so that’s great but when there’s a choice - NO!!!

To me, the seats just look like the love child of a Japanese capsule hotel and a shop window in Amsterdam's red light district.
And how unappetising that lighting makes the food look....
So tacky. Style (?) over substance.

Same wacky seat as Air New Zealand. No privacy whatsoever! “Mood lighting” doesn’t fix this major Business Class flaw.

Used to fly VS once or twice a week between NYC-LON. Got so tired of travels, just made them a quick overnight trip...arrive in the AM, do my meetings, and leave on the PM departure.

VS always great.

I flew also very often on BA services, and they were also good, but VS always was special.

Both VS and BA had to fly me whenever I needed/wanted. Those were the days.

Re Richard Branson, he likes a beer. That’s all I can say. Nice guy.

Looks like a great flight with Virgin. My wife and I flew out of JFK Terminal 4 back in September 2017 to LHR with Delta, and while at JFK, we were able to spend sometime in the Virgin lounge and really enjoyed our time. I would love to try them sometime, even though their J cabin looks very cramped. Food looks good and plentiful for such a short flight across the ocean.

What are the best seats for a couple on the 787 in Upper Class? First time flying Virgin Atlantic, next summer to London.

My way of checking seats: With flight number check seat map on seatguru, and once I got an idea of the layout, find a clip or a few on YouTube.

I agree 1000% about the herringbone seats, they are terrible. In the non-A rows, where I was stuck, it so gross, you are looking at the feet and legs of those across the aisle. The seat as you mention have zero storage. The tiny shelf forces you to be reaching over your shoulder. The weird 45 degree angle torsions the neck on takeoff and landing. It is very awkward to convert to a bed, have to get up and somehow the seatback comes down and you lay on it. Hard, uncomfortable. Crew nice but sense they are trying to make up for this poor product Coming back from London I tried to switch to the later flight / different aircraft to avoid this configuration, but Virgin wanted addtl $2,000+ collection, same day, same route! I swear I was considering going back and taking a forward facing seat in Premium Economy. This was a waste of $6k and I won't fly Virgin again. Air France 777 is far superior, extremely comfortable, privacy, huge storage, and of course superb food and wines. Virgin really needs to ditch these cramped and bizarre seats. Get rid of the gimmicky bar and afford proper business class seats.

You hit the nail on the head! I felt like I was in a styrofoam egg carton being treated with antibacterial lights. Really God-awful seats, the configuration freaked me out. Forced to look at the chubby bare feet and legs of people across the aisle at that weird 45 degree angle. My last trip Miami-Paris was Air France 777 biz class, soooo awesome and real sense of upscale experience, vs being a packed in incubating .

Our experience was awful!! the configuration of the seats is absolutely terrible, you're facing feet during your all trip, the seat does not recline , only when you want to sleep, then you have to wait for the stewardess to make your bed, the bed/sit are so uncomfortable, their is no space to put anything! The food was awful as well. Will never travel Virgin for this reason