Great Premium Economy
Written: Oct 14 '06 (Updated Apr 14 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Best Premium seat transatlantic, availability of mileage upgrades at checkin.
Cons: Power port design on old Premium seat (now being progressively replaced)
The Bottom Line: Virgin Premium Economy is a great product, but upgrade restrictions are a disadvantage compared with BA. California-UK, Virgin Premium is the best value seat you can buy.
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| dgwright99's Full Review: Virgin Atlantic |
I fly LAX-LHR 3-4 times per year, and Virgin Premium Economy is the best deal at a reasonable price transatlantic.
Premium economy is midway between coach and business ("upper") class both in terms of service and the seat. For me, the most important thing on a 10-12 hour flight is the seat. In Premium, the seat pitch is 38", with the width at 20"; this is a heck of an improvement on the 32/17.5" pitch/width in coach ! There is increased recline as well; this is definitely a seat you can sleep in with reasonable ease.
Unfortunately, they do mess up the seat width by putting the laptop power and entertainment control in the side of the armrest, rather than the top/front. The power port is a paricularly bad piece of design - when you have an adapter plugged in it sticks 1-2" sideways out of the armrest - straight into your thigh. Even the entertainment control would be an annoyance if you have even moderately wide hips. I hear that they have a new Premium seat design being rolled out, so hopefully they have fixed both of these design mistakes.
The entertainment system is one of the best I have seen - comparable with anything I've used on Business or even first class on other airlines. There is a wide movie selection, some TV shows, plenty of games and a vast music collection. The movies are on-demand, so you can start, stop, pause at any time; this is very much better than the "rolling" schedule on most airlines. The screen is large and has good contrast/brightness control and an excellent viewing angle. My main criticisms here are the lag in the controls - it seems to take a couple of second for button presses to register when navigating through the menus, and the menu system/controller are somewhat non-intuitive.
The flight attendants are attentive, and available; I don't like the kind of stuffy formality you get on BA, but Virgin are a little too far the other way - a sort of failed attempt at the friendliness of a small-town diner.
The food really isn't noticably better than what you'd expect in coach on any airline; it's edible, but nothing more. All drinks (including alcohol) are free, and although they only come by a couple of times, they will happily give you more if you ask.
Unlike other airlines, Vigin seem to have finally woken up to the fact that you can buy tobacco and alcohol more cheaply in Albertsons or Vons than the in-flight "duty free" prices most airlines offer. Virgin offer lower prices transatlantic on cigarettes, gin, vodka, etc than they do on other routes, which actually makes them a reasonable deal.
I have flown Virgin coach a couple of times, and do NOT recommend it unless you are pretty sure that the flight will be half-empty; Air New Zealand has the best seat pitch/width LAX-LHR in coach, but if you do find yourself in Virgin caoch, be warned that the bulkhead/exit row seats have reduced effective seat width that make them not worth the extra legroom. Also, there are no power ports in any virgin coach seats.
I have flown business ("upper") class once [update - several times now]; this is a fantastic product, certainly better than with BA's (see my BA review). But despite the name, it is very much a business, not 1st class product. The menu is great, the wine selection is fantastic, and there is a bar that you can go sit at, rather than being confined to your seat the whole flight.
If I have to fly in the seat I've paid for, I would pick Virgin Premium over BA. However, here's the rub; on BA you can upgrade from discount Premium to Business for 25k miles - and 9 months of the year, there seems to be plenty of availability. LAX-LHR rtn will get you ~15k miles, so the net cost is only 10k miles. Virgin upgardes cost 40k miles (~25k net), but Virgin have fewer US partners to help you make up the difference (eg you can get 25k miles just for getting the BA credit card) - but you can transfer American Express points. All this means that if a mileage upgrade is available when I book, I fly BA and upgrade Premium to business; otherwise I book Virgin.
Bottom line - Virgin Premium is a very solid product, and great value for money.
UPDATE
The new Premium Economy seat being progressively rolled out, and is even better than the old one, with the design annoyances I mentioned ironed out.
Also, as far as upgrades, I have discovered that you can upgrade with miles at the airport, with no capacity controls - IOW, if there is an Upper Class seat open when you check in, you can upgrade into it.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
dgwright99
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Reviews written: 19
Trusted by: 0 members
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