Review: Virgin Atlantic A330 Upper Class New York to London

Thanks for the review... I'm not eager to try the 4 across herringbone layout... Is there enough overhead space for the cabin given the lack of middle compartments?

FDW

@ FlyingDoctorWu -- That's a great point and something I forgot to mention. Overhead bin space was REALLY tight.

It still seems like too much of a coffin to me. Also they don't face the windows which is annoying. Supposing one wants a view of something other than feet?

Did the rough approach bother you? I mean, since the Royal Jordanian experience?
Just asking because we hit the worst turbulence I'd ever experienced on our Christmas flight to England. (though it was quite short and I know rationally that it was nowhere near "severe"). That has has revived my fear of flying a little bit. Luckily I've been on a few more uneventful flights after that, so it's still at the level where one drink is really all I need to relax enough. Just wondering what your experience was.

@ Jamie -- Surprisingly enough it really didn't. I have full confidence in Virgin Atlantic pilots. Sorry to hear about your rough experience!

That lack of window access really would be annoying. I love having a window seat but if you can't look out the window, what's the point of having them?

Wow, much nice lounge at JFK than the Alitalia Michelangelo Lounge.......Might have to redeem some skypesos for this.

Dang, that is quite a bit of privacy sacrificed.

Lucky, I think in the case of VS, if you're flying out of New York, you may as well just eat an extremely full meal in the lounge and sleep right after take off. With an abbreviated dinner service, you're really not missing much, and it seems the food in the lounge is much better anyway. This way you can gain an hour or 2 of sleep.

Anyone else notice "Titanic, 1912" marked on the flight map?

I really like the A340 as well, but I actually prefer the two-seater aisle. I felt that facing the wall made the flight feel extremely claustrophobic. The caveat to that statement was that the flight was nearly empty. The two seater aisle might feel cramped if you had to look at someone.

@eminere haha good catch re the Titanic!

Ben, after seeing this report I agree its a sexy cabin but I just can't get onboard with the heringbone layout. Looks claustrophobic too close to others and makes traveling with a companion tough. Your point about the bed reminded me one reason why I always stuck with BA. Having no ability to recline 50% is a bummer, though I hear the comfort of the bed is good.

Oh and I'm guessing the water picture was a callout to the brand, but I can't understand why a business class cabin is serving waterbottles that probably go for $0.25 at Costco. BA does the same in even First! Evian should be the minimum standard. Even if its all marketing, still looks tacky for a $3000+ flight.

Perhaps seats work better in practice but they appear to be pretty tight. Seats facing away from windows work on this overnight flight but still... 🙁

The seat configuration really doesn't look nice. In some way it offers even less privacy than a coach seat 🙂

Is that Brian (TPG) in the second picture, right of the aisle? 😉

@ Charlie - If I'm talking about the right picture, he's not the only 6'7" in the world.

The Virgin in-flight map displays a plethora of locations of Sunken Ships. I took a picture my last trip because after listing 3 or 4 of them, you're starting to seem a bit preoccupied with the subject.

We flew in upper class MCO-LGW on the 747 and MAN-MCO in the A330. I also preferred the 747 given we both had row 1 and it felt as if we were on a private jet.

Given you don't get the Virgin Clubhouse out of MCO (they contract the Sky Club), it was a nice flight and I think you're the only Americans on the plane so immigration is a breeze.

I know the conventional wisdom is that you should try to fly first or business from NYC (or BOS or DCA) to London overnight so you can get some sleep. However to me it seems like it makes sense to fly these routes in coach after eating a big dinner on the ground. Get on the plane, put on headphones and sleep in a window seat. Hopefully then you get four or so hours of uninterrupted sleep. It seems better to fly the longer, daytime routes back from Europe in coach or business when you are more likely to be awake and taking advantage of the service

I concur the A330 Virgin Upper Class looks great but can be a bit of a disapointment. Seats seems more cramped than the A340 (or maybe I am fatter!) but it's the facing away from the window that really spoils it for me. The best thing about being in a plane is looking our the window and if your travelling with a friend or partner your out of luck. Don't get the sense the cabin was designed by someone that loves flying.

Is dinner served in semi-darkness if most of the cabin skips dinner and goes right to sleep? I'd find it eerie as the only one eating and in a quiet/dark cabin at that.

@ Claire -- Yep, they keep the cabin dark since most people are sleeping.

@lucky - I booked a Skyteam flight returning back to JFK from CDG on AF to LHR to transfer onto VS (with a 5 hour layover) on the A330. Which Seat do you recommend? I was considering 8A. Do you think the noise from the Bar is a disturbance? Since reading your review I have decided to check out VS for the first time. I visited the Virgin Clubhouse at JFK, (flew on delta metal and Diamond Medallion free usage when flying to LHR) which is spectacular!!!

Hi Lucky -

For companion travelers, would you recommend being across the aisle from each other, or two in the center?

Thanks,
Tom

@ Tom -- I'd definitely recommend window seats behind one another. That's the closest you'll be to sitting next to one another.

Alas, even aside from configuration issues these seats are just too cramped laterally. Definitely not on par with BA Business Class (Club World).. more like somewhere between premium economy and business. Not doing VA any favors imo

I am about to book and am toying with booking upper class. My quandaries is should I book premium economy instead and save the cash. Anyone had both experiences to compare

@ simon -- Without knowing your financial situation, what the prices are, and which products you've flown, I think it's really tough to provide an "educated" answer. Upper Class will of course be MUCH nicer than Premium Economy, though whether it's worth the premium for a short flight is the question...

Do I see an overhead air nozzle?

I flew Upper Class on VS11 from LHR to BOS having not flown Virgin for a few year. The cabin was very cramped and they boarded through the front and many people could not pull their luggage through since the isle is so narrow.

It was a disappointment that the seats face away from the windows. The main problem with the seat is the foot rest which is not very big and being rather tall my foot stuck out and was knocked into several times when I was trying to sleep. There is less space than the old upper class and the seat is more narrow. Not sure by how much but it makes a difference.

I prefer the BA bed but the Virgin food and service is much better and the Clubhouse amazing.

And yeah, an overnight to LHR from the East Coast is a pain. Too long to be easy, not long enough for a good night's sleep (or anything close). Lucky people live on the Left Coast. I fly to midway points of origin like ORD or DFW just so I can get some sleep!

Thank you SO much for posting your photos and comments, even when some parts of the report were not easy or convenient. We have traveled on the older VA Upper Class and found it to be wonderful. It was probably the 340 with the three seats across. It was Very roomy. Back in those days (maybe 2005), they offered a massage during the flight. (We flew during the day) We left out of NY and the breakfast in the club was fabulous. I never knew you could make eggs taste so good. The chef personally came out to take our order. The food on the flight was average or below, so I agree with one traveler that if you can eat in the club house and forgo the flight meals, you might be better off. We are traveling on one of these new planes and I am very concerned. My husband is over 6 foot and both of us are over 200 pounds. I don't think VA likes overweight Americans. These new spaces certainly look claustrophobic. Based on what I have read, there is no ventilation, the bed is hard, there is definitely less room and little room for storage. The design does look very cool, but comfort was apparently not the goal. We plan to bring self inflating camping mattresses to compensate for the hard bed. Even an airline stewardess told me that might be a good idea. We have an 8 hour flight from Chicago to London, so hope to go to sleep fairly soon. We will take the advice of others and eat earlier and just get to bed. Hopefully, something safe will be available for breakfast. Too bad you can't sit like a recliner. Some say once you have gone to bed, it's really difficult to eat or drink anything. Even sitting up, the tray is not very well placed. Walking through the aisles is tight and you do tend to hit other people's feet. Now, that's annoying. I am also not crazy about having to look at the glare of televisions through the opaque glass. Guess you either tolerate it or wear you eye cover. Looks like it won't be a completely comfortable trip. One other blogger said these designers much not have spent 9 hours sitting in them before the final design was made. Now, Virgin is stuck with them for awhile. Sorry they felt they had to add even more seats. Anyway you look at it, there are too many people in Upper Class in the amount of space given.

Ugh...just flew this configuration again, and for the last time I'm afraid. As JoeC says above, if you are tall your feet will stick out into the incredibly narrow aisle. Then, every single person who passes by, whether pax or cc, will bang into your feet and wake you up (if you're lucky enough to be sleeping that is). This happened to me even though I tried to sleep with my legs bent at the knee. Hard to do in such cramped quarters. No way is this worth a premium price.

Have flown with VA UC a few times now. The center seats are shorter by 5 inches so if you're tall, i suggest a window seat. I'm 6ft 3 in and the window seats are fine and long enough for me to stretch out in. One of the pro's of the dream suite is that the bed is a lot softer and much more comfy to sleep in. The con's are that they have squeezed more seats into a similar space. upstairs on the 747 is the best UC seat in my opinion. Good for the red eye flights where you just want to get straight to sleep.

I flew Virgin Atlantic in their A330 Dream Suite recently on their new Atlanta flight, and had a very similar experience with an "indifferent crew". Overall a good flight, but maybe I overhyped it too much based on their marketing, or am spoiled by the Asian carriers. 🙂 ... I posted my thoughts and photos here: http://www.pointsinstyle.com/#!single-post/cu6k/B89F636A-CB02-4C10-9A9E-00B983B8C62F

Thank you for the review

Amazing how, in my opinion, Virgin can get their ground services so right yet their on board product so wrong! All that black leather and frosted glass looks terrible and all those feet sticking out into the aisle just looks downright bizarre. Seems very cramped and uninviting.

No matter how much the service side of BA continues to decline, the hard product offering wont having me jumping ship to the bearded side anytime soon.

Thanks for your post. I see virgin are still scrimping to save money even though one is paying top whack by pouring coca cola out of a litre bottle and cabin crew sticking there hands inside a large bag of crisps without wearing any gloves and putting guests a few inside a little bowl. Virgin really are that mean they can't even give you a little bag of crisps or your own little can of pop. I just take my own supply on board I think there approach is so unhygienic.

This is an honest review which is nice to see since many out there might be considering the value of upgrading to Virgin Atlantic upper class. I'm a native Californian who moved to the UK a few years ago. I get home about twice a year and started using miles to upgrade my flights because Virgin discounts upgrades by allowing miles for money meaning you spend money and miles to get upgrades. Until my last booking, I was receiving miles for my flights which I kept using to upgrade etc. Then I was surprised to find out it had all been an error, years worth of miles were accidentally awarded to me. I found that when using the miles for money option, you aren't supposed to receive mileage. Ok...then they told me, I could keep my 85k miles and to check out their fares without the discount. I did and found them fairly affordable compared to competition.

Here's what's wrong with that. First, VA's upper class is also considered its business class. I asked what first class was then, I was told, upper class. So, really, this is an overrated business class. Proper first class is lacking on VA. British airways and others still have a four tiered class system; economy, premium economy, business and first. So, for the money it's an acceptable business class cabin. I think overall I do prefer VA because it's the cheapest way to endure that long flight from London to LA and back again, in comfort. I usually do book a seat facing a wall, which is nice. That said, the man next to me drank half of his body weight in booze and never shut up about his ability to guess where in the UK the crew were from, individually... Sigh.

I felt the staff were leaving a bit to be desired and sadly, the more senior crew seemed apathetic and never cracked a smile or asked if I needed anything. I also had to ask four times for my bed to be made on one trip. That was one out of many flights though so might have been my flight attendant having a bad day.

I will continue to fly with VA. Overall, service is good. Sadly I've only noticed better service since I started carrying a lot of miles and booking the same route, repeatedly. I was told by my flight attendant recently though that they are upgrading upper class. This was when he apologised to me for my iPad not charging on their existing system. Apparently you have to remove your battery for charging to work...something that was never mentioned while the other attendant went out of her way to get the adapter, take my iPad and cord and plugged it all in. The improvement I was told, will mean some type of new screen for entertainment and better connection for our machinery. Haven't found any evidence of this elsewhere so will have to wait and see on my next trip.

I was a corporate travel agent from 1975-98, and loved the perks we got in the early days. Ah, dining in the sky on Pan Am to Singapore! My boss flew Virgin's Upper Class once and brought me a pair of their pajamas. That was probably in about 1995. They've finally worn out. Truly shoddy product, don't you think? Only lasted what, twenty years? Obviously, I"m joking... Actually, they were the most comfy jammies I've owned and I shall miss them... I may cut out and frame the logo from the shirt.

I will never understand this layout. What is the point of having windows if you have to perform head maneuvers reminiscent of Linda Blair in "The Exorcist" in order to look out the window? I'm not quite sure what the new layout will be like on the A300, but I hated gawping at another passenger for 9 hours on a Manchester to Atlanta flight. And there's been more than one flight where I thought someone needs to speak to the cleaning crew because when you open up trays and the TV, there's crap and crumbs that fall out. The "oh, yeah, the seat's not working properly" excuse has been used on the last three flights. I'm not sure what Delta was thinking when it code shared with an airline that has clearly given up trying to be the best at business class. Delta has done a fantastic job of upgrading their business class to the Delta One model. I like their seats, I like their food, and I like their flight attendants. And I know this could be a small minded observation -- but for me it's the little touches that matter -- but I like the fact that Delta if you wish will prepare a sundae ice cream at your seat with all the fixings. Virgin? A cheap tub of ice cream from the ice age with the tiny plastic spoons that you have to wait 30 minutes for the ice cream to thaw a little bit before attempting to eat, so the spoon doesn't break. All in all you can tell I don't like Virgin's product (their premium economy is better) But I have no choice if I want to fly transatlantic with Delta..... I get shoved into virgin. But BA shoves you into American. United shoves you into Lufthansa, I believe. It's like bait and switch. BA (really, really small print flight operated by American Airlines.)