To pay extra to fly on a certain plane

[MozzchopsThirty]

I am a bit of an odd flyer, love it and hate it in equal measure
I could probably save £40-£50 by flying with BA, but it's on an old aircraft and that'll increase my anxiety

AIBU to pay a little more to fly Virgin on the 787

Btw am lone parent so £50 not exactly a drop in the ocean but I think it's worth it

C’mon Mozzy, thought you had decided Virgin to Newark

We flew to LA and back last month on the Virgin 789.

Nothing spectacular. It was meant to reduce jetlag but it didn't. Seats were uncomfy as well. We were in cattle class though.

We didn't like the 3 3 3 seating formation, unless you are premium.

We want 2 and 2 next time, so we can have a row in front and behind.

@PestoSurfissimos when i tried to book the virgin ones last night they ended up being £310 each not the £277 as advertised so I thought I'd do it today when I can give it a bit more time

I'm getting stressed now that I've missed all the cheapies

I would definitely chose virgin over BA, but that's not to do with the aircraft itself.

You probably have cookies. Clear cookies and look again at prices, they go up the more you search for them. Least that's how it used to work.

are you doing it on a private browser? We research on one and book on another to avoid any price changes due to cookies being installed affecting the price offered.

What's wrong with BA?

Genuine question, I've only flown Virgin/Thomson Dreamliner/Ryanair/Norweigan etc so not familiar with BA, although my daughter is due to fly to Berlin with BA next week with school

Norwegian have some super cheap fares

Or did have

There's nothing wrong with BA and from a maintenance point of view they're amazing
However they treat their staff like shit and this often impacts on their customer service

I would only consider EWR for personal trips. JFK for business trips (company paying). I did not enjoy going on the train from EWR to Manhattan. It was too much faff for a business trip.

Is this in economy? If so just think of it as a bus journey. Pick the best times and location. You're going to be squashed up no matter who you fly with.

I wouldn’t book anything based on a Dreamliner. They are having MASSIVE issues. Virgin recently brought an A340 out of storage to help cover the Dreamliner fleet.

If I were flying BA I would select the my flight to avoid the Dreamliner tbh.

The chances of an type change between now and then is quite big anyway.

where is the departure airport?

If it’s LHR you have lots of other options.

Yes lhr

It's your money, there's nothing unreasonable about spending a little more to feel comfortable.

I don’t think I’ve ever known any differences between the planes I’ve flown on... flying with United a few times in a couple of months, are they any good?

I would go on Aer Lingus via Dublin where you pre-clear US customs and immigration

I wouldn't go with Aer Lingus if aircraft type is a consideration. There are so many better options.

@Excited101 They're the worst. Honestly.

The worst?! What’s wrong with them?!

YANBU, my old neighbour who was an air traffic controller used to always pay extra to fly on particular aircraft.

But that was for safety reasons not comfort!

My husband and I have both flown with them many times over the years.

We used to travel a lot for work.

Separately, we both had an issue where our flights had no seat availability other than premium seats. Rather than giving those seats away, we were forced to purchase the economy plus seats. Which is absurd. You book a flight, you book a seat.

The staff have always been incredibly rude ime.

Then there's that incident with the man they dragged off the plane several months ago.

I hope you have a great flight, but srsly, avoid booking with them in future!

I assume that all the planest are the same and are safe. Wrong??
The only time I have paid more to use a specific airline is when we went to Israel years and years ago. Paid £££ to go with El Al as they had lots more security features and at the time, things were quite intense.

Not all planes no
But most of the western airlines have good maintenance records

Airlines like Aeroflot, air China and China Eastern do not

Similarly some aircraft have a better safety record than others