Virgin Atlantic trip report 9 to 16 March 2006

R Shah · Post by **R Shah** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 9:27 pm

Flew economy with Virgin. In general were decent flights.

Outbound, you can check in online 24 hours before the flight. Do it!! Means you avoid the queues at Gatwick (basically you just go to the fast bag drop). You get to avoid the really long lines at Gatwick. Also means you can get to Gatwick just 1.30 hours before the flight.

Virgin use a 747-400 for their flight to Tobago (which carries onto Grenada). Its one of he older 747's in Virgin's fleet. This means the IFE is one of the older ones. Basically you get a choice of about 12 movies. The selection on the way out was pretty good. However many people were having problems with the headset sockets resulting in the FA's having to use duct tape. The food was fine. However I found the FA service a bit rushed and impersonal. Also it was a pretty fully flight.

On the way back checked into Tobago about 2 hours before the flight. That was fine. Went across the road and had a few drinks with Porridge. Tobago airport has not really got much going, but Crown Point is pretty close by. Flight got delayed by 2 hours, no-one was told this so were just waiting around. Also was annoying that the Excel and BA were supposed to be flying out all within 5 minutes of each other. As a result a very busy airport!!!

Flight back was pretty fine as well. Watched one movie (movie selection on the way back was poor) had some food and fell asleep. Note, Virgin, headsets poor. I had two broken ones and lady next to me had a broken one. Again, full flight, food ok and service impersonal.

Danny Miners · Post by **Danny Miners** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 11:06 pm

Thanks for the info about checking in earlier!!,it means i don`t have to carry the surfboard around London,i will take some head phones also.
2 hour delay? fly monarch and try 6hrs delay and too many passengers and not enough seats and o boy were they not interested in our conection back to cornwall.
regards Dan.

Carrie W · Post by **Carrie W** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 11:21 am

How did you find the seats? Were they comfortable and is there decent room etc?

R Shah · Post by **R Shah** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 8:03 pm

As econ seats go, nothing special, they were fine. Seat pitch of about 32 inchs.

A great resource on all thing Virgin Atlantic is at http://www.v-flyer.com/.

With Virgin you can preselect your seat, meal preference, etc once you get your booking by going online. The online check in is only avaiable for the flight out to Tobago, not on the way back. When you check in online there will be more seat availability.

At the front of econ there is a "mini-cabin" that is just behind Preminum Econ. If you can get that, its fairly quiet, compared to the main cabin.