Is Virgin the only airline you would fly with?

[alliebaba]

Trying to book a hols to NYC... are the other airlines as good? help me please, my magic carpet is out of action

would be nice..

We had a bad experience with continental & would never fly with them again or reccomend them.
Only flew with virgin once (7 years back) & wasn't that impressed - but know a lot of people swear by them, so maybe they are a lot better now.
We had our best flight on a BA plane.

We've flown with BA, Virgin and American Airlines. Of the 3, the best was American Airlines. Much more room and much bigger seat.

Have flown many times to the US without children and with a variety of airlines (BA, Virgin, United, Continental). Didn't like BA at all - very unfriendly staff. Most recently flew with Virgin and thought they were good. No complainbts about the others either. Checked out the tv/videos available for kids on Virgin and was impressed (in the unlikely event we are ever brave enough to take all of ours on a long haul).

Have only ever taken kids once and that was with United about 7 years ago. Only specific problem I remember was that they had allocated a baby meal for dd (jars etc) and she was 21 months old and obviously far beyond purees. They had no kids meals left so we had to give her bits of an adult meal (and another vegetarian passenger kindly gave us the large box of raisins she had got with her meal.)

With hindsight it's wise to take some snacks of your own in case of delays, etc

I have flown them all at one time or another and swear by Virgin - particularly with kids. We are off to Florida with them in a month and I just got off the phone with them about getting a kids meal for my under two year old (he has a seat). They were very accomodating and sorted everything out for me. No airline is perfect, and travelling transatlantic in coach class with children is a nightmare whatever airline you go. But I find Virgin goes that little bit further (particularly for the kids) with what they offer and it makes a huge difference.

flew with virgin to the US a few years ago on the oldest, creakiest plane ever. The PA didn't work in our part of the cabin, so we couldn't hear any announcements, let alone emergency ones. The lights over some peoples seats kept flickering, so the cabin crew switched off all electrics to our part of the cabin, so we all had to sit for hours in darkness - couldn't even read a book!
At the end of the flight an overhead locker got stuck shut, so a steward got the fire axe out of the flight deck and levered it open.
Needless to say, I wrote a letter to Richard Branson, and he very generously sent me £40 vouchers towards my next flight.I haven't flown with them since.

thanks again all! I love Dicky, used to work for Virgin and they are v good usually. Just want more shopping and eating dollars when we get there, rather than spending it all on flights!

Hi IlanaK,

I have read your comments with great interest.

Hopefully you will get a good set of aircrew both ways next month when you fly with them. In my experience of them over the years they do seem to be very much hit or miss (no middle ground). The good aircrew are very good (they were very professional at dealing with an air-rage incident I saw on a flight of theirs) but the poor ones to my mind need retraining in working with pax (rather than just barely tolerating them or just looking down their well made up faces at you). Also their aircrew's average age seems to have come down perhaps to make them look more hip 'n trendy. I can remember aircrew in their late 20s now it seems their average age is young 20s. As few if any of these have children many of them unsurprisingly have little understanding of them.

Even my friend who works for them think that they have become more complacent over the years. When they first started as an airline their primary core business was the airline - now there's Virgin trains and other services. A whole lot of cash has been ploughed into these services rather than the planes and aircrew. Other airlines have gone onto copy and in some cases supercede their original ideas. They have not moved on much since their early days. Their seat pitch on the newer aircraft in economy has also come in for some criticism.

I feel that Virgin's only real advantages these days are a separate line for their premium economy pax (BA do not have this), their direct service to Las Vegas and their V Port system (when it works properly its very good but not all aircraft have this).

The reason I like Virgin so much is what they offer kids. I suppose it totally depends on how old yours are. But when we have flown with my ds1 (who is now almost 5), the under 5's tv channel has been a lifeline. The little touches like the icrecreams during films are also good. The seats are small, but the kids don't care. The give the kids backpacks on the outbound journey and little kids lunch boxes on board.

When we flew to Oz when my ds1 was 3 and my ds2 was an infant, Virgin did not yet fly there. We flew Singapore Airlines on the recommendation of many many people on how child friendly they were. Well, we did not find this the case - which was entirely due to what our definition of child friendly was. Yes, the air hostesses were extremely friendly and took the position that the customer was right no matter what and would have bent over backwards to help us. But that did not help entertain my pre-schooler for the many hours we were on the plane. No kids channel and no suitable kids meals (they were not western), made for a pretty horrible trip. So, if you are looking for frienddly staff, there may well be better airlines that Virgin now. But I have not found another that beats them when it comes to keeping the kids entertained.

"The little touches like the icrecreams during films are also good".

I remember them handing out choc ices a few years back, that was the best bit re the meal!. The last time we flew with them though they did not hand out any such items.

We have always had icecreams. And the guy I spoke to on the phone today when I ordered the kids meals specifically mentioned them. Perhaps you were unlucky?

I remember now, it wasn't a choc ice - it was something else (I recall their choc ices with much fondness). They handed out an orange "mivvi" lolly - the one with ice cream in the middle.

P.S Do not drink their Virgin cola - its vile!!.

I agree about the cola - I am a diet coke addict and on any other airline you can get it. But of course, on Virgin, there is nothing but Virgin cola! Still, its a very small price to pay for keeping the kids entertained.

I have always found airlinequality.com a very useful website for fiding out how airlines are doing from a passenger's perspective,

i'm not ignoring all these wonderful tips, just v busy! thank you