Virgin Atlantic Avis 2 214

I have taken Virgin Atlantic for the first time ever from LON to NY return. I was not impressed. Just a regular carrier no better or worse than Ryanair, for example. And I think this is where I have an issue with them. On both flights the toilets were dirty and not maintained clean during the flight. Flight attendants have their own bathroom separate from customers and that is probably why they don't care about cleaning them and maintaining them. Soap was missing, floors were with pee all over, paper towels were all over the place. And the smell was like being in a dirty street public toilet.

I generally like the Virgin brand, and with my family, have been a loyal customer since 1989, however, recently things appear to have declined in way of standards!
Having pre booked Premium seats to go to Nashville for my wife’s 60th, she’s not the best flier and likes us to sit together, virgin decided it would be ok to check us in and give us separate seats nowhere near each other! When I spoke to the flight service manager on the plane, we were told our seats were faulty, even tho other passengers were sat in them!
An obvious lie with no apology or other of a refund.
Flight marred what should have been a great birthday experience!

During another recent trip to Vegas, I booked upper class for our flight home, but our connection between Vegas and Atlanta was delayed 24 hours, and Virgin then decided it was ok to seat in economy for the flight home the following day, but no provide a refund for the upper class tickets, which were not cheap!
I understand there may have been no room in Upper Class, but a refund would have been nice to receive for the difference!!!
All of this has now put me off the brand, never to use it again, and have to donate the many hundred thousand air miles my wife and I accumulated to charity!
So long Virgin Atlantic- Not the customer focused company you once were.

We fly Upper Class with Virgin Atlantic around twice a year, but the experience has deteriorated well beyond what we’d expect for a premium cabin.
Our biggest issue is the repeated aircraft “bait and switch.” On multiple occasions—most recently just two weeks before departure—we’ve booked flights specifically for the newer A350 or A330neo, only to be switched to older A330-300 or 787-9 aircraft with the outdated “coffin” seats. When you’re paying Upper Class fares, the seat and onboard experience are a major part of the decision, so these last-minute changes are incredibly disappointing.
More concerning, however, is how poorly dietary requirements have been handled. On a previous flight, I pre-ordered a vegan meal and clearly flagged an egg allergy. Despite this, I was served a brownie containing egg as part of that meal, which left me very unwell for the final two hours of the flight. The response afterward felt dismissive, with minimal apologies offered, which only added to the frustration. For an airline of this calibre, allergy handling should be far more robust.
The onboard experience has also slipped. The crew, once a standout feature of Virgin Atlantic, no longer feel as consistently warm or attentive, and the food offering in Upper Class has become underwhelming—to the point where we now bring our own meals onboard.
We have one more flight booked, but after that we’ll no longer fly Virgin Atlantic . The inconsistency in aircraft, decline in service, and lack of confidence around dietary safety make it difficult to justify choosing Virgin Atlantic over competitors.

I paid a premium to reserve specific seats on a long-haul flight with Virgin Atlantic. Those seats were a crucial part of the arrangements for my adult son, who has autism, and this was clearly communicated when I booked my seats through a travel agent.

Three months later, Virgin Atlantic cancelled my seat reservations without notification or refund. I only discovered this by chance but two of my seats had already been reallocated to other passengers.

After a considerable amount of time and effort, I was offered alternative seats and a small compensation payment. However, when I requested confirmation of the new seats, I was told that the replacement seats were only provisional and would not be confirmed until 24 hours before departure.

This creates significant uncertainty and stress. After nearly two years of preparation to help my son manage a long-haul flight, not knowing where he will be seated, or whether he will be close to the rest of the family, is simply not workable.

I have raised this through Virgin Atlantic’s Customer Support and Accessible Travel teams but have been unable to find a resolution.

All I am asking is that Virgin Atlantic either honours the original seat reservations that were cancelled without notice, or confirms the alternative seats that have already been offered.

At the moment, it is difficult to understand why this cannot be resolved, particularly given the circumstances and the fact that these seats were specifically purchased in advance.

If I could put zero I would because I see no way your request a refund due to faults on their side and it s now taking more than a month

Would give Virgin Atlantic zero stars if possible. I booked return flights to Saudi Arabia via Ease My Trip (yet another incompetent agency). We were due to fly out on 1 April early morning and return on 13 April 2026. Virgin emailed at 13.05 on 31 March to say that the return leg on 13 April would be cancelled officially only on 7 April offering no alternatives and forcing me to book a return full flex tickets with another airline to ensure that we were able to return safely and not be stuck abroad. I would cancel these if Virgin could offer alternatives. Virgin was not able to offer alternative flights and hence they are obligated to refund customers for cancelled flights with no alternative options provided. I have contacted the agent and was told that Virgin will take 5-6 weeks to refund money and I am not even told what the refund amount is. It is quite appalling that Virgin can cancel flights a few hours before flying, not offer alternative safe passage and then see fit to hold on to customer money for weeks with no updates. Avoid them at all costs.

Had an awful experience with customer service baggage claim department. Been out of pocket since my luggage never turned up for my journey. Been 5 days and no response. Been emailing them a d still nothing!!

Rude airport staff. Used foul language looking at me because my ticket was booked with first name as surname and vice versa. We were travelling UK to Bangalore. It was mistake of the website. I couldn't check in earlier. Upon reaching heathrow, raised it with the VA staff and a man arrived and used foul language like who is (my name) and then said bloody hell looking at me. They said if it was flight to US, they had cancelled it. The way they dealt it was really very rude. It gave me anxiety and almost a panic attack. I was travelling along with my child. Very disgusting.

Do not use Virgin Atlantic if there’s an alternative airline flying that route. We took off over 4 hours 15 minutes late on outbound and were kept onboard during this period because of a fault on their plane. Understand delays happen but very little information given, their only concern they had was to make sure we landed before 4 hours late to limit compensation.

Then on inbound flight over 1 hour late and told at last minute, there’s no inflight entertainment in my seat on a 9 hour flight. Paid extra for bulk head seat both ways, was told no other seats available, which was a lie as people moving seats after takeoff. There apology was to offer a derisory amount of a few Virgin points. Absolutely useless if I don’t want to be inflicted with having to use Virgin again.

Tried contacting customer service but cannot get through to an advisor. Used to believe Virgin was a creditable airline but not anymore, will try all I can never to use again and would implore others to use as a last resort.

I used to use Virgin a lot, however I won’t be any more.i used to do long haul a lot since lockdown stuck to short haul.

We few from the Maldives to Heathrow, charges twice to sit together and that’s the start.

When boarding I reported my seat as broken. They got an engineer to look and said it was safe. I complained and was told “you have 2 choices , sit down or get off the plane”

With the current flying situation and as I was with my family we had little choice.

Later on the flight we discovered the main reason the seat was broken was because a seat cover had been put on the seat.

The cover was there hiding the fact that the seat was covered in excrement.

We have written to Virgin and had no response.

I used to think Ryanair were bad but after this Virgin take first place.

Rip off points system means I will be looking back to BA. If you are the partner of the person who booked the flight, getting your points credited can be a real struggle. To claim points that they have failed to add automatically (which has happened to me before and is now happening again) you need the e-ticket number. By the time you realise they haven’t credited the points automatically, you have to scrabble around in old emails to find the e-ticket number and on some of the confirmation emails if doesn’t appear. Then when you find it, oops, ‘something went wrong please try again’ and in the end you lose the will to live and forsake your tens of thousands of points. Which seems very convenient for them when all the data they could possibly need is booking ref, date, name and flight number. So actually it feels intentional and scammy.

I have nothing negative to say about VA. I don’t know why there are low reviews because my first time flying with them from Heathrow to JFK and one of the best flight experiences I’ve had.
- They keep you up to date constantly with any delays and make sure you’re ok.
- Their customer service is 10/10 for friendliness and confidence.
- Their plane food is GOOD quality!
- Smooth, comfortable and affordable flights.

Just a lovely experience as a round trip. They work hard and always providing service with a smile

Virgin Atlantic review

The luggage allowance was no fuss at no point was our luggage weight checked. We all had hand luggage and that was very easy to get on board

Online check-in was a bit tricky, as it wouldn't register our Esta, so we had to get assistance from staff in the airport. We could not check-in before the day of the flight. We were all allocated our seating prior to check-in? And all the children and the family were kept together very good

The food on board was excellent, it just kept on coming. I felt as if I was being fed non-stop throughout the flight
We were given afternoon tea, given a meal and then Later on we were given another snack and then we were given another meal 90 minutes prior to arriving at our destination. Each meal also came with a free choice of wine or beer.

I felt very full and well fed well done Virgin Atlantic. Service was good. However, there was one member of staff serving us, i Don't think smiled, or greeted us throughout the flight. Sometimes you don't really understand what the reason for that is, but generally the staff and the service was good. There doesn't seem to be any allowance for children in the queuing system. We With our six-year-old and 9-year-old were in group 10, which was the final group. I'm not sure why that is
Even if there's only 2 groups. Surely you can put those with children in the first group and those who are just adults and healthy and a couple or single, and in the final group

However, Virgin Atlantic performed very well, we were able to obtain our flight tickets in the January sale, so we got a very good price for direct flights to New York return, and the service was good. We will certainly be using Virgin again, if there is a sale and it's affordable to us

Charging for seat selection is a crime!

Booked my flights, economy classic, not light, they want to charge for selecting seats. Robbing gits!

I just arrived in Heathrow from Miami flying Upper Class (business class) and have to say the experience doesn't come close to the hype on the website. In a nutshell, it's a candy coated cheapo airline with a super premium price tag.

1. Check-in at MIA was terrible. The agents were lazy and had a poor service attitude. My agent held my processed passport and boarding passes for 5 minutes to engage in a conversation with her coworkers.

2. The Upper Class cabin is tight. Its barely a step up from domestic first class without reclining seats. The seats at "full recline" were about 15 degrees from vertical. To convert the seat into a bed, the back folds forward like the back row in a SUV. Privacy is non-existent with narrow cocoon. My view was the galley.

3. The food and wine were unremarkable. Sir Richard's wine supposedly from his own vineyards tasted like watered down vinegar. The pre-ordered meal was fair but gave me severe indigestion.

4. Cabin service was average. The flight attendants were polite but seemed to be continuously distracted and couldn't remember what was on the menu as they went seat to seat to take the food and drink orders.

5. The Club in the Heathrow Airport is great. Food, service, and amenities are all top tier. The drinks are mediocre.

I still have another long leg. I have no idea what's awaiting me at the other end.

My experience with Virgin Atlantic was extremely disappointing.

My trip to Bengaluru was shortened by two days because both my outbound and inbound flights were cancelled, and no proper explanation was provided. This caused a great deal of unnecessary stress and significantly disrupted my travel plans.

What made the situation even worse was what happened on my return journey. At check-in, after all the disruption I had already experienced, I was asked whether I wanted to upgrade my flight for “only” £900. I found this completely inappropriate and frankly offensive. After cancelling both flights and disrupting my trip so badly, the last thing I expected was an attempt to upsell me. At the very least, I would have expected more sensitivity, or some gesture of goodwill.

I understand that disruptions can happen in air travel. What matters is how an airline communicates and how it treats its customers afterwards. In this case, the lack of explanation, the poor handling of the disruption, and the tone-deaf upgrade offer left a very negative impression.

Based on this experience, I would not choose Virgin Atlantic again.

They separated all of us from the same booking to different parts of the plane for a 14 hour flight and doesnt even give the option to change as there is not enought availability. We are checking in exactly 24 hours before!!! For that one seat option to change from one economy to another economy seat is at least £50. HONESTLY WORST

I booked a package holiday with Virgin Holidays which was cancelled due to the conflict in the Middle East. I was due a full refund of over £3,400.

While most of the refund was eventually processed, I am still owed £230.45. I was told this would be paid within 14 working days from 23rd March, but this deadline has now passed and the payment still hasn’t been received.

Despite repeated attempts to resolve this, there has been no ability to escalate the issue internally and I was simply left waiting for the payments department with no clear ownership or accountability.

I would not recommend or book a holiday with them in future — worth bearing in mind for others who are unsure which company to choose.

As a comparison, the same holiday booked via British Airways, our friends received a full refund within 4 working days.

Overall, the experience in trying to recover an agreed refund has been frustrating, slow, and lacking basic follow-through on a confirmed payment timeline.

Absolutely fantastic flights to and from America. Clean friendly and most importantly, good leg room without the need of an upgrade.

Dont bother emailing, they will give you one half hearted response then ignore you. Our flights to Dubai are booked via virgin but on an emirates flight, emirates have included our flights in the dates to cancel /amend due to the ongoing WAR!! But virgin are doing absolutely everything to cling on to our money and refusing to cancel our holiday? How do they expect us get to a destination to stay in the hotel with no flight?
Ive even got a doctor's note saying the stress of this situation is causing harm to me and my unborn baby and Virgin could not care less. I will never ever use this disgraceful company again. Avoid at all costs!!!! This was meant to be our honeymoon and now we wont be having one due to virgin keeping hold of our money refusing us to give it us back. By the time we get the money back( i highly doubt the holiday will be going ahead) I will be too far along in my pregnancy to fly.
AVOID AVOID AVOID