VA or BA?

Delboy

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jun 19, 2009
Messages
107
HI All,

Who is best to fly with?? BA or VA??

BA are slightly cheaper at the moment but we like the DTD check in the VA offer,

We flew with VA in Feb 2009, was good, apart from the food trolley falling on my leg as we had exit seats!!
 
A common question this one, I cannot answer because we always fly Virgin, British Airways do not fly direct from Manchester so I cannot envisage us using them.

Your best bet maybe is to search on the forum as I have seen similar questions many times.
You will probably find opinion is split.
 
After years of reading this fourm and this question coming up time and time again as Johnny says opinion is split right down the middle,
I have only flown BA from MAN~NYC, worst transatlantic flight we have done but that was a few years ago and I believe their MCO route from London is better.
Both airlines do what they have to, not luxury but get you there and back direct.
Just about everyone decides on convenience and price between the 2.
 
In Economy they are very well matched.
Virgin have two flights daily, BA one
BA's on time performance is better than Virgin's
From September 2009 the luggage allowance is the same
The seat pitch is the same

Virgin currently use 747's
BA currently use 777's

It really does these days come down to price (and that is the same in Club World vs Upper Class, PE Vs WT+ is now with the lugagge allowance changes the same also!)
 

In Economy they are very well matched.
Virgin have two flights daily, BA one
BA's on time performance is better than Virgin's
From September 2009 the luggage allowance is the same
The seat pitch is the same

Virgin currently use 747's
BA currently use 777's

It really does these days come down to price (and that is the same in Club World vs Upper Class, PE Vs WT+ is now with the lugagge allowance changes the same also!)


that would settle it for me - 747....
i much prefer flying across the atlantic in a plane with 4 engines over a plane with only 2...

since both of them can actually fly on 1 engine, the 747 has a lot more backup...

;) (worst case scenario is my middle name)....
 
I had the same question myself this weekend when I realised it was £100 cheaper for me to cancel the Virgin Holiday (and lose the deposit) and book direct with BA and Dollar instead.

Personally for me I prefer BA which helped sway the decision, but when coming up with the pros and cons to convince DW we initially said loss of Downtown Check-in was on the negative side but ended up turning it round. Who wants to be there at 8am just to avoid an hour long queue. I'd much prefer to get up at leisure on the last day.

We're going to find an internet connection the day before checkin online to get our seats, we can then leave cases at the hotel during the day and just pick them up on the way to the airport. I know some people would prefer to have cases out the way.

Incidentally we ended spending the £100 we saved upgrading outbound to WT+, only £80 each at the moment :thumbsup2
 
The only thing that would concern me right now is the threat of industrial action with BA as the cabin crew have turned down either redundancies or pay freezes.
 
Our last Virgin flight into MCO was so bad (rude and inconsiderate cabin crew, 8 hour delays, seats in poor repair and entertainment systems that didnt work) ... that I swore I would never fly with them again into Orlando.

BA on the other hand we have travelled about 20 flights with and all have been great.
 
I'm making the same choice myself for next year. The 2 big negative factors for me are:

BA - inability to book seats until online check (I'm booking PE and do not want to end up in the middle 4 when there are just 2 of us)
Virgin - their poor on-time record. I've suffered a few big delays with them and it puts me off. Just checked the flight stats for the period 1st May to 30th June and see they have not improved (BA 77% flights on time leaving LGW, Virgin only 40% on time).

The actual flights have been fine with both airlines; no complaints at all.

Decisions, decisions .... the pain of the delays is receding and I'm leaning towards Virgin even though selected seats are not guaranteed by any airline.
 
One thing that was noticeable last year when we flew with BA (LGW-MCO) was that they fly from the North Terminal. The North Terminal was a lot more pleasant than the South, mainly because it wasn't anywhere near as busy. I suspect this has an impact on their punctuality as it is a lot easier to get the aircraft loaded and away.

We have flown with VA many times and have been generally satisfied, but BA just edged it for me, although we are travelling with Virgin Holidays this year, so are tied to VA and we also have loads of reward points to use up, so may be a while before we try BA again!

As already stated though, because there really isn't a huge amount of difference between the two, price should really be a good factor to consider first.
 
The only flights we have had with BA were in Economy years ago and were dire.

We are unable to fly Economy any more because of DH spinal problems - he can't sit for long as he loses sensation - so we have to have beds. We've never flown Club with BA, but we're very happy with UC, so I'd have to say VA.
 












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