Virgin Atlantic began service with their very first A350-1000 in September of this year. The airline has a total of 12 Airbus A350s on order. Not only is the A350 a great plane, but what’s probably most exciting is that these planes feature Virgin Atlantic’s brand new Upper Class seats, which are a huge improvement over their old ones.
Virgin Atlantic A350-1000 Upper Class
Currently the airline has scheduled the A350-1000s to fly up to 4x daily between London and New York, though as they take delivery of more planes we know they’re also planning on expanding the routes on which they fly them.
In this post:
Virgin Atlantic’s New A350-1000 Routes
Last week Virgin Atlantic announced some updates to their 2020 summer schedule, and as part of that they announced an additional four routes for the A350-1000. Specifically:
- Johannesburg will get the A350 daily from March 2020
- Los Angeles will get the A350 daily from April 2020
- San Francisco will get the A350 daily from May 2020
- Lagos will get the A350 daily from August 2020
At the time the airline hadn’t published the exact start dates for the A350s flying to these destinations, and they also didn’t publish which exact flights would get the plane. Well, we now have all that info.
London To Johannesburg
As of March 29, 2020, Virgin Atlantic will operate the following flight daily with the A350-1000:
VS449 London to Johannesburg departing 8:05PM arriving 8:05AM (+1 day)
VS450 Johannesburg to London departing 8:20PM arriving 6:05AM (+1 day)
As of that same date, Virgin Atlantic will be reducing frequencies in the market from twice daily to daily. Previously the two flights were operated by 787-9s.
London To Los Angeles
As of April 19, 2020, Virgin Atlantic will operate the following flight daily with the A350-1000, replacing a 787-9:
VS23 London to Los Angeles departing 3:45PM arriving 6:55PM
VS24 Los Angeles to London departing 9:00PM arriving 3:15PM (+1 day)
London To San Francisco
As of May 15, 2020, Virgin Atlantic will operate the following flight daily with the A350-1000, replacing a 787-9:
VS19 London to San Francisco departing 11:35AM arriving 2:35PM
VS20 San Francisco to London departing 5:50PM arriving 12:05PM (+1 day)
London To Lagos
As of August 1, 2020, Virgin Atlantic will operate the following flight daily with the A350-1000:
VS411 London to Lagos departing 10:30PM arriving 5:35AM (+1 day)
VS412 Lagos to London departing 10:05AM arriving 4:50PM (+1 day)
Other Virgin Atlantic Network Changes
That’s quite some route expansion for the A350-1000, and seems to suggest that they’ll be taking delivery of these planes at a fast pace early next year (I know they’ll be getting all 12 of them by 2021).
Virgin Atlantic A350-1000 onboard lounge
While not A350 specific, Virgin Atlantic has also announced some other new flying for 2020:
- Virgin Atlantic will launch a second daily flight to Delhi as of March 29, 2020, which will go on sale as of November 23, 2019
- Virgin Atlantic will retime their new Mumbai flight to instead be an evening departure from Heathrow
- Virgin Atlantic will add a new once weekly flight to San Francisco on Fridays, complementing their existing service
Virgin Atlantic A350-1000 Upper Class
Redeem Miles For Virgin Atlantic Upper Class
Virgin Atlantic is pretty good about making Upper Class award seats available, including on the A350. See this post for everything you need to know about redeeming miles for Virgin Atlantic A350 Upper Class.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles are so easy to come by. The program is transfer partners with Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou, and Marriott Bonvoy. On top of that, we see transfer bonuses from Amex and Citi to Virgin Atlantic every once in a while, which makes these miles even easier to come by.
Lastly, the Virgin Atlantic World Elite Mastercard® is a great card for earning Virgin Atlantic miles. The card offers a welcome bonus of up to 80K miles, and benefits that can make it worth holding onto. There are so many reasons to get this card.
Bottom Line
It’s interesting to see that Virgin Atlantic plans on flying the A350 to five different destinations by next summer.
I wondered if they might try to go for all-A350 service on the New York JFK route, though it looks like that’s not in the cards for now. Quite to the contrary, the A350 is “only” scheduled to fly to JFK two to three times per day next summer, compared to four times per day this winter.
What do you make of Virgin Atlantic’s four upcoming A350 destinations?
Do you think VS would upgrade their A330 to A350 on the TLV route to compete with BA, which has decided to do so?
"The A350 is like the 777, it’s at its best when flying long distance. That’s why you only see A330’s and 747’s flying to East coast USA and A350’s and 777 flying to the West Coast."
But they're flying it to LOS, which is slightly less distance-wise than it is from LHR to IAD...
surprised to see they didn’t upgauge their HKG route to compete with the 5x CX and BA’s 2x 77W & A380 flights.
As a BA F flyer from LAX-LHR-LAX i am intrigued vs the 747 but not sure I will switch from the A380. But I am going to try it and see if I like it. BA A380 F is tough to beat for me. :/ Even though I am not a fan of the times and prefer the 747 times. Great to see though.
@John Page, that's the lighting reflecting off the seats
Good news. But are the interiors really that awful purple color, or is that just a photography effect?
That will put SFO-London up to 7-8 flights a day on VA, BA, UA, and Norwegian. That's... a lot.
I wonder where they're going to move those 787s. I agree with @Darin. PE on the 787 is noticeably better.
@Jim - they alternate between an A330 and the B789. I'm on a 789 flight later this week actually. Same cabin, but at least a newer plane than the A330
I wonder when they will fly them to Orlando to replace their 8 Gatwick based 747's. I've seen up to 5 Virgin 747's at once at MCO and it would be so cool to see that with their A350's (but i doubt they would make all of their past 747 flights into A350s, since they don't have that many).
@Ben Wondering how UA will respond on their LAX-LHR route as it’s currently being served by Fauxlaris on the 787-9. Wouldn’t be surprised if they up-gauge to the 787-10 or 777 with the new configuration to have a more competitive product on this prestigious route.
I fly LHR to SFO 5-6 times a year on Virgin in Upper Class, so this news is seriously exciting! Woohoo!
I hope LAX-LHR still has the 787-9. Premium Economy on the A350 is nowhere near as comfortable. Just flew PE on both aircraft last week and it’s a noticeable difference.
The A350 is like the 777, it's at its best when flying long distance. That's why you only see A330's and 747's flying to East coast USA and A350's and 777 flying to the West Coast.
Pretty surprised to see Boston still stuck with the A330, which is really starting to show its age, especially as Boston is now a Delta hub.