British Airways or Virgin??

[ConnorTraceptive]

Who is better for a transatlantic flight?

I've never flown with either

Have flown with Virgin a few times and always been very pleased with the planes and the sevice. Virgin from heathrow is the best, but have flown Virgin from Manchester and Gatwick too and both been good.

I wouldn't trust BA staff not to be on staff so would avod them completely at the moment.

I would say Premium Economy Virgin is better but economy (esp to New York) BA is better. Virgin just seems really really cramped. The Virgin staff are a bit more 'glamorous' that seems to be only difference. (Strikes aside of course).

CT - we flew Virgin from heathrow to JFK this summer and it was great.

Another vote for Virgin here - why risk a strike ruining your holiday? Have flown with them twice and was very impressed both times. Just planning next year's holiday and going to spash out on PE :)

Connor this is an excellent approach to take! That way, less room for disappointment and complaint about being herded in like a battery hen!!!!

I used VA when they first started around 20 plus years ago and they were truly innovative and ahead of their game at that time. However, they have sat on their laurels and other airlines have caught up and have in some cases superceded their original product.

Nowadays they (like many other airlines) have cut costs to the bone but on VA in particular it shows markedly. They were better even five years ago compared to present day. I do not personally think that only one drinks run constitutes a full service particularly on longhaul flights. I have come across many good and poor aircrew on my travels over the years but I have to say in all honestly the most unfriendly bunch with attitude were on VA (I do not want to hear about their next party or the state of their relationships!).

As for BA and UNITE it needs to be stated again that the vast majority of their longhaul flights did fully operate last time around.

We need competition and we need both VA and BA to be around.

Usually I would say that flying with either Virgin or BA would be fine, so I would opt for the cheapest. But because BA keep striking I would probably avoid them.

I've flown with both and they're equally good. Avoid US airlines at all cost.

Having flown both Transatlantic in last year would say BA was far more comfortable in economy than Virgin, and the food was a lot nicer.

We were disappointed with Virgin's supposedly superior entertainment system (they couldn't get it to work in economy for half the flight...) and also they didn't offer any kiddie packs or choice of kids' mealsetc.

I found the staff friendlier on BA too and the whole experience much more pleasant.

But I wouldn't book BA again now until the strike situation resolved....

We've also flown American Airways and US and found both of them pretty good (except the food is dire on American). Continental from Birmingham to Newark was truly awful though...

Am hoping to be off my face on prescription sedatives tbh but would like DH to have a reasonable flight as I certainly won't be much of a travelling companion!

no brainer

Virgin

every time

BA lost my baggage and made no effort to find it. They kept us waiting five hours without any announcements, apologies or cups of tea. And this was flying Newcastle to Heathrow.

Virgin kept us waiting one hour, gave us drinks, and a discount of our next flight. San Francisco to London.

I will never fly BA again.

For ten years we had to fly our regular transatlantic trips on American because of my DH's job. Awful. He changed jobs a couple of years ago and I have become really loyal to BA. The staff are always friendly and have a sense of humour but I am with Anonymousbird - they are pretty much the same really. When I last flew Virgin about a year ago the entertainment was better but the food was dire. BA's long haul flights were not affected during the last strike.

Virgin give out icecreams with the afternoon movies

No ice cream was served on the last VA flight I took. Feel that the service overall has gone down on VA markedly in recent years due to cost cutting and emotional immaturity of aircrew (some are still good, many of them require retraining to my mind).