Virgin Atlantic Is a UK based airline, most of us are familiar with Sir Richard Branson( knighthood was bestowed upon him) who runs the airline, not many of us are aware that **49% of Virgin Atlantic is owned by Singapore Airlines. **
It operates long-haul routes between the United Kingdom, North America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. After carrying 4.9 million passengers in 2006 Virgin is seventh largest UK airline based on the number of passengers carried, but in terms of distance traveled it is second only to BA- its biggest rival right from the start.
So far there have been three instances of **serious emergencies **in Virgin Atlantic flights due to failure of landing gear, fuel transfer failure and a tailstrike but none of them resulted in any injuries to passengers.
**Virgin Atlantic offers three different classes of travel –
**
**Economy** – Basic seating with ordinary meals, drinks and in flight entertainment.
**Premium Economy **– Separate check-in, priority boarding, additional services.
**Upper Class** – Virgin claim to have the biggest fully flat beds as compared to any airline, access to upper class lounge including massages and other personalized services.
Virgin have one of the** best in flight entertainment services** with ample choice between movies, tv shows, music, news, positioning system, games and quizzes on a dedicated 10.4” screen for every seat including economy class.
* The most impressive thing is that they had around 50 movies to choose from which you could pause, rewind and stop at your leisure and carry on from that point. Also the selection of movies is fantastic, from Hollywood Blockbusters, Arthouse, Foreign and Childrens which were all engaing to watch.*
Also you recieve a flight kit, containing eyecover, blanket( which usually stink only in Virgin), pillow, earplugs, the usual. Phone services from your seat to the world down below(@$4.50 per min).
Coming to personal experience with the airline, I have always enjoyed flying with them, **check-in staff** is usually friendly except for the odd grumpy agent at the desk, they are usually **flexible on baggage weight**(within reason), the **crew** members were helpful and courteous every time. I have personally always liked the food on Virgin Atlantic.
I have read reviews about knee locking seats in economy class but never seen any in Virgin Atlantic. *Although I traveled economy class on British airways once and completely hated the cramped seats with hardly any legroom and the attitude of the flight attendants(I hate being mean but seriously those glorified waiters and waitresses need to be reminded what their job is), never had any such issues with Virgin Atlantic. *
The planes are newer(or at least look newer and cleaner) in comparison to BA and other European Airlines like KLM, Alitalia etc. I like the slightly different touches in Virgin Atlantic’s flight interiors like the seat fabrics, chrome handles, aluminum finish panels on top etc.
When flying out of Indian airports, they do all announcements in English and Hindi like all other airlines, perhaps they could look at getting someone to write down their standard announcements in proper Hindi because the girls who announce in Hindi on their flights usually dont seem to have a clue what they are saying.
Flights that I took with them have been more or less on time- so no issues on punctuality.
On flights from India to UK and the US, they are marginally expensive as compared to BA and some others but I still prefer paying a little bit extra and knowing that I will get the good service that I am accustomed to receiving from them.
**Hope this review helps and please do not forget to RATE and COMMENT on it. **