Flew Virgin Atlantic lots of times on the Mumbai London and London Nigeria sectors. The ground staff are very efficient, polite though I think that they are just a wee bit too nosey about the nature of journey and stuff like that. No one at immigration asks as many questions or requires you to produce proof as ground staff on Virgin. The boarding was handled in a much better way than other airlines I have flown with. The trouble on Virgin starts the moment that you board the aircraft. The FA’s seem to be the worst stereotype of cabin attendents that you can imagine.
They think they are doing us a favour by doing only what their job requires i.e. to make sure that the passengers are comfortable. I have never seen ruder staff(especially on the MUMBAI LONDON sector) on any other airline and I have flown quite a few. On one of the flights the headphone of a passenger seated across the aisle wasnt working. She called the flight attendant who was so rude that she provoked me into getting into an argument. Instead of replacing the headphone she kept saying that these were tested before being handed over to the passengers and it stopped working because of something the passenger did. I have never had an experience like this before.
In case you need a drink of water in the middle of your journey, be prepared for the furious looks from the cabin crew when they decide to come to your seat. The cabin crew isnt so bad on other VA sectors but mumbai london is the worst. The food is not that great: they should try and learn from Emirates. Would not recommend VA for the Mumbai London sector. Emirates, Jet and even Air India come out with flying colours when compared to Virgin Atlantic.