A Flight Full Of Glitches: Virgin Atlantic 787 Economy Review 

I fly Virgin Atlantic a lot, as a lot of my work is done in London. Before I started to have to fly to London, I thought it would be a drag to fly all the way there because of the long flight time due to living in Los Angeles. However, with work paying for Upperclass, the Virgin Atlantic crew being almost always spectacular, and the fact that LAX-LHR is usually served on the wonderful A350-1000 means that flying to London is usually a positive experience. Except one time when we were onboard the plane and the jet-bridge collided with the engine, requiring fixing (I think the engine colors are still mismatched on that A350 to this day :) One thing to point out is that Upperclass on the 787 and A330 SUCKS! The seat is not very good, which is the main reason why I’m very glad that LAX-LHR is served on the A350. Also, because I fly Virgin so often, it’s so nice when I come onboard and the crew remembers who I am! I would also like to point out that the meals on Virgin Atlantic are better than Delta, my second most frequent airline. Virgin Atlantic aircraft that I have flown on include the Boeing 747-400, Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, Airbus A340-600, and Airbus A350-1000. I have also had the pleasure to fly on the British Airways Airbus A380, which is an amazing aircraft with a horrible business class :) Unfortunately, my frequent Virgin Atlantic flying will be coming to end, as Delta will soon launch an LAX-LHR route on the Airbus A330-900neo, and I earn more miles with Delta because of my Diamond Medallion status. I’m excited for this because I love Delta’s new[er] business class, but I’ll miss everything Virgin Atlantic has to offer!

I flew on a Virgin Atlantic 747-200 in march of 2001. The plane also seemed kind of beat-up, but I got a fun bag of goodies (pens, notebook, etc). There was certainly no seatback entertainment. I was amused and disturbed that instead of locking bins overhead, it was just a shelf with a mesh netting like on a pirate ship!

I flew with virgin in April and it was amazing! I flew from JFK to LHR on their a330 300. It was great. Many drinks, snacks, and 1 hot and cold meal. The seat was comfy but the screen was old. Overall I would defiantly fly them again and totally recommend them!!

On older Dreamliner aircraft, when you connect headphones and a USB device at the same time, one of two things happen. Either the audio doesn't work or the USB port doesn't charge. The solution is to use only one of the ports at a time. I learned this on an older Qatar Airways 787-8, and this flyer seemed to have experienced a similar issue. The charger likely started working after the cabin crew collected the headphones.

Thanks for sharing. The food looks awful! I thought Virgin advertised quality in flight catering or similar?

I flew to/from Miami with Virgin on the B787-9 in Premium Economy. On the flight over all the crew I met were fantastic, extremely friendly, I had high expectations but these crew far exceeded them as they were absolutely excellent. On the flight back, a red-eye, the crew were generally friendly, one member of cabin crew was really friendly, the rest seemed tired and lacked interest. Great video as always, thanks for sharing.

Great video! Such an empty plane. Beautiful cabin! ✈

I’ve flown this route! Was very enjoyable for economy. I have and will continue to rebook it in the future for pond hops from the west coast.

The free WiFi was a stroke of luck but the things that'd put me off are less so the non-adjustable screen to allow for seat tilt and more so the bulky head rest that'd potentially push my head uncomfortably forward. It'd be difficult for me to sleep like that. Very good review Long Haul. Very informative. Virgin Atlantic wouldn't be my first choice for a long haul flight because of this.

51% Owned by Virgin Group and 49% by Delta

I've flown on nearly all aircraft types on virgin atlantic from the A320, A330-200, A330-300 A340-300 and 600 787-9, A350-1000 and my absolute favourite 747-400 hope to go on a A330 Neo some day

Flew with them twice first time when we got to Vegas our bags were lost.. luck I kept the engagement ring in my carry on. It was two days later when we got our bags. Second time round we were sat watching the engine being worked on for 7 hours we missed our connecting flight had to go to a different airport an hour away to get our flight back to Dublin. On both occasions we were offered no compensation.

I been happy with the 4 flights I have had between the US and UK with virgin always been on the A330, the only thing I do find is there always seems be be a lot of flight changes in the weeks running up to the flights. The last flight I had with them in 2019 left me with a 6 hour layover in JFK because of these changes.

I NEVER care about air-miles and loyalty programs For the last thirty years I always fly by the cheapest available airfares and the shortest duration flights possible I still come out on top then those dealing in air miles

Sounds like a pretty beat-up and defective airplane for being a new-ish 787!

Looking forward to see Virgin Atlantic to announce their service to YYZ soon 🙌🏼

Top tip: never use public USB charging ports, your device could be quite easily compromised. Always use the power adapter. This is also more reliable for charging on aircraft in my experience. Also, I recommend British Airways from Seattle to Heathrow, around 30% of BA flights in Seattle are on the even newer 787-10, with BA’s new business class suites, which are almost the same layout as their awesome 787 first suites.

I think it would have been appropriate to block out the traveler's name on the screenshot of the website.

Its always been odd they don't offer direct London to Australia flights that would allow them to connect with virgin australia network.

I've not flown on Virgin Atlantic yet. Though, I would love to fly on their Airbus A350-1000 or their A330ceo or neo but not on their 787 Mid-liner (yes i meant it) because of their dimmable windows as briefly discussed at 13:30. After discovering a series of hiccups excluding the Wi-Fi, this would give me something to expect when losing my V-card to them (and no I don't mean the birds and the bees).

may you please post some reports about North African Airlines like Air Algérie & Tunis air & Royal air Maroc & Egypte air

I all want to go to London

❤

5:31

Hate those dimmable windows.

Always nice when problems with technology that “should” work fine is fixed up by awesome employees! I have to say…down there by the IFE box look a little disgusting! Lol

Hello

“The flight will be operated by an eight year old…”

Virgin is all marketing and hype. Actual hardware and service are poor but presented as eccentric

Your reviewer wears cute clothes.