BA flight on-board service as good as Virgin?

jon18uk · May 28, 2015

We've booked with Disney for late September 2016, but will soon be time to book flights.

We have always flown with Virgin Atlantic and I find the service on-board fantastic, particularly getting ice cream and snacks during the flight.
However this time a friend may be able to get us a deal with BA, but I've never flown long-haul with them, how is the BA flight to Orlando? Has anyone done both BA and Virgin and compared?

chocolateMinnie · May 28, 2015

Eight trips - one package holiday, two BA flights, five Virgin Atlantic. Most recent flights were last year (august) flew BA.

Our thoughts are check in desk/night before bag drop - nothing to choose between them. BA were marginally quicker but very little in it.
Planes - VA obviously larger for our Gatwick MCO trips but both comfy, clean, new looking.
Food - BA much, much better plus more branded drinks than sometimes available on VA.
Frequency of drink service - much the same.
Snacks on board - we never eat the onboard snacks but these were not offered on BA so if you like your ice cream then you will no doubt prefer Virgin.
Entertainment - Virgin wins hands down. Although the entertainment system on BA was much better this trip than our last one with them in 2009 it still doesn't offer the up-to-date films that Virgin does.
Check in at DTD is obviously only available with Virgin and we do like that.
however, we have never had local communication from Virgin but when our BA flight was delayed coming into MCO on the day of departure we did have more than one email from them with estimated time of departure changes. They opened their check in desk late which was a pain but at least we knew that the flight would be delayed before we got to MCO.

If money wasn't an issue I would probably go with Virgin if only for the complimentary papers and magazines (and kids pack when they were younger) but they are so close to call that I wouldn't pay anything extra at all to fly with one or the other. Next year we are booked in August and will be going with whichever one works out cheapest.

wilma-bride · May 28, 2015

To be honest, I think chocolateminnie has summed it up very, very well. I have nothing further to add.

Kath2003 · May 28, 2015

Flew both transatlantic within a year. No significant differences onboard. Both were late (>1 hour). We avoid either if possible, but we do have another flight with VA and BA booked - only on the grounds of convenience.

scoobydooby · May 28, 2015

I would never fly BA again as their customer service was appalling when we had a flight delayed over 24 hours. Let me be clear I don't want to fly on a broken plane I get these things happen, but the way they dealt with it was shocking.

Elise79 · May 28, 2015

We had a bad experience on BA in 1997 - it took until last year for me to fly with them again. Unfortunately they disappointed again both in customer service before departure and on board.

My biggest concern was the lack of care for the safety items that the cabin crew are on board for. I was truly shocked at the disregard for it. We will not be flying BA again in a hurry. I would rather fly indirect for more money than risk a BA flight.

For what its worth IFE is better on VA, food and drinks about the same on both.

hogwartsdropout · May 29, 2015

I flew BA this year for the first time (and I've flown Virgin many times). I thought BA were excellent, the food was great, staff were lovely and I felt like the entertainment system was exactly the same as Virgin's offerings. I don't remember any ice creams though but could be wrong.

saintrob · May 29, 2015

Virgin all the way! We've flown with BA a couple of times although not on the Orlando route (to New York) and I wasn't that impressed. Service and food didn't compare to what's offered with VA and the general overall feeling of the flight just didn't do it for me.

Minniesgal · May 30, 2015

For me a big difference is in the consistency. We live temporarily in Australia but our family home is in Scotland and my two teenagers are at boarding school in Scotland so fly back and forward and we are DVC members so you can imagine we clock up a lot of miles.

With BA we find for every good experience we have we have one awful 1. We haven't had any really bad experiences on Virgin. BA have some newer modern planes but they have some older not so nice ones.

Also the only airline that we have ever had luggage issue with is BA. And it has only ever happened when flying through Heathrow but it happens every other trip for us. Always get them back eventually but it is a pain.

allwritemel · May 31, 2015

To be fair, I've mostly flown VA and only had ONE problem with them. The middle flights were Thompson and were a NIGHTMARE (again, to be fair, probably more to do with the errors and problem than with Thompson flights themselves - why can't they let us know that the flight is delayed coming back though - we had to ask when we were boarding and they said, 'Oh, in about 3 hours?!). What happened on that trip is irrelevant (except to say the inflight entertainment and food were awful). I will only EVER fly with VA in the future .

The ONLY time I've had a problem was on the last flight back ... looking back, my reaction to the issues probably didn't help (I am never very sweet tempered when I am going home after a holiday because I know it will be a minimum of 4 years before I can come back). However, GENERALLY speaking I have nothing but praise for Virgin - the staff have provided excellent service throughout the whole flight, snacks (I'm diabetic and found that if my sugar level dropped, even if they were not serving snacks at the time, they would give me something. The coffee going was apparently free flowing (coming back was a very different story). The in flight entertainment was also excellent. I have certain disabilities and sitting can be uncomfortable but the seats on Virgin were extremely comfortable. I love the hot towels they give you at the end (or they certainly did last time!)

Recently I was offered free flights on BA for my (hopefully) next trip in August (long story) ... I turned them down in favour of Virgin. Incidentally, I also liked the rep service that we receive from Virgin ... when I went with Thompson I ... wasn't impressed. Anyway, to stick to the point (I'm terrible for going off at a tangent - my apologies) for me it's Virgin all the way.

Kath2003 · May 31, 2015

Virgin didn't let us know the flight was delayed last time we flew. We knew because we knew the incoming flight hadn't landed when we dropped our bags, it was over an hour late. Even when we were still waiting at the gate, 90 minutes after our flight should have departed, VA hadn't made any announcements and the flight was still listed as "on time"! We wound up checking the Gatwick arrivals on the websites to find out when we actually were likely to get home.

VA don't serve coffee on night flights. They serve instant hot chocolate instead. I'd rather have had a coffee.

1nfrequent · Jun 1, 2015

I'm a BA loyalist but my friend (who goes out to Orlando twice a year) ducks and dives between the two based on price. He actually prefers Virgin for the service and he also thinks the fact that they go earlier than the BA flights can give you an advantage when running through immigration. I honestly think you should go on price but I bow to the opinion of others on this Thread.

1F

cheryl.UK · Jun 5, 2015

Last year with VA, they texted me in the morning to say that my evening flight would have a one hour delay which was really helpful as we got an extra hour in the park :love:

disney2014plan · Jun 7, 2015

I also had a text in Dec 2014 re: flight delays on the day of departure, allowing the party extra time to do fun stuff instead of sitting in the airport.

scoobydooby · Jun 7, 2015

I had a text in May 2014 telling us our outbound flight was delayed an hour. It wasn't!!!!!

tinkerpea · Jun 10, 2015

Virgin have always been amazing for us, the only thing that I feel let's them down is the food, the breakfast is a joke! And I always find the main meal a little rubbish.
Although better on the way home then out going flight.

bigdreams · Jun 26, 2015

We have always flown virgin, and is our airline of choice, however i feel they have hiked up there prices recently. BA always used to come out as more expensive when i had looked before but now they are coming out cheaper than VA. We will be booking flights once they come available for august 2016 and i think if BA is cheaper we will go with them.

Pootle · Jun 26, 2015

I've flown with both many times, and I could not choose between them for on board service or customer service - happy with both normally - however, the only time I fly in economy is BA within Europe, not across the Atlantic. But in premium and business, I'd say there's nothing in it - and my last Virgin 'ice cream' was of the Skinny Cow (ie hardly any calories and does not call itself ice cream, quite rightly!) variety and is not great IMO. DTD check-in is useful with Virgin. I also go with whoever offers the best deal - Virgin last month but BA next January, so absolutely no loyalty.

BA flight on-board service as good as Virgin?

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