Generally agree on the airport thing, until last year when my brother treated me to a Club Class flight to San Francisco. Not that I could afford to travel like that all of the time but **** me what a different experience 'Leave your luggage with us sir and our concierge will escort you to the club class lounge, where you will find an assortment of complementary food and drink whilst you await your boarding' You board the plane right from the lounge, and then a Steward is like 'This way sir I'll show you to your seat, would you like a glass of Champagne or Orange juice while you settle in. I'll give you a few minutes and then I'll bring you the Menu' Could get very used to that lol
It was **** in the past. Nowadays i dont mind so much. Whip my phone out,put on a series or read not606
I've done midclass, only because they had some offer on, it was with the airline that no longer exists, Monarch who went bust in 2017. Otherwise I've always been cattle class and yes you do notice the difference by far. Airlines finished me off though long haul, can only ever see me doing Europe now, but who knows what the future holds.
I've done quite a lot of long haul flights now and generally even economy is decent on the larger aircraft, unlike the short haul 737s which economy is about cramming as many people in as possible. But the difference with club class/business on those long haul flights is like night and day compared to economy. A seat that turns into a bed, full 3 course menu for breakfast and dinner, drinks and snacks whenever you want, club lounge either end, priority boarding and luggage collection, and staff falling over themselves to help you at every stage of the journey. It just makes the whole experience so much smoother. All very good if you can afford £2.5k each time you fly lol
I've done more long hauils than I care to remember, generally BA or Virgin, well the only two really for long haul and Monarch. Might have been another airline I done but can't remember now. Also done internal flights with American Airlines or was it the other one whose name I've forgotten, United I think. Generally if you can get exit seats it's more leg room. If you got a baby, try and get front middle seats because I think they have cots or baskets. Just odd **** that I remember lol.
Virgin are very good. Even got a glass of complementary Champagne in economy on a flight to New York lol. A couple of other good long haul carriers were Norwegian (although since covid I think they just do short haul now) flew with them to LA and they obviously had a brand new fleet of aircraft, very nice and comfy. The other was Air Transat, budget Canadian outfit, but very good. Flew with them to Vancouver for some ridiculously cheap ticket. The best / most memorable flights I've been on though were in Venezuela where I did a fair bit of travelling in my youth. The distances there are so huge and the roads are crap and dangerous, so a lot of people fly. It's cheap and quick. Some of the aircraft there were proper old rickety buckets though. Flying through the mountains and you'd get those scenes from a movie moment where some old South American woman would be saying her Hail Mary's and clutching her worry beads as the plane was bouncing around lol.
I did BA business class earlier this year, when I went to Vegas. Great experience and if you can afford the £2.5k each way, then worth it. Going to be tough going “bucket and spade” class on any future long haul flights.
Middle-aged Greek bloke in a West Ham shirt at the coffee shop this morning which seemed an odd combo. Big Mavropanos fan maybe. A couple of kids in Newcastle shirts spotted as is compulsory on a foreign holiday, trip to Greggs, baptism etc. Mum and dad not repping the city which is poor of them.
Did business class on Virgin to New York in 2002 (the red-eye) and BA to India in 2014. ... both were great experiences but Virgin had the edge - more regular flyers were saying it was akin to BA first class. Apart from the lounge bit, two things have stuck in my mind from the Virgin experience ... Flight attendant came up as we were sitting on the runway to take my in-flight meal order- was a choice between fillet steak and Dover sole - I opted for the steak and she said "what time would you like it served, sir?" ... wtf... "you mean I can have it any time I like?" ... "yes sir, and more than once, if you want"... The other was 'in-flight massage' - there was a ballot and if your seat number didn't get picked you got a guarantee for the next time you flew. I wasn't, but my then boss, in the seat next to mine, was - but when the masseuse turned up my boss was fast asleep so the masseuse asked me if I'd like the appointment - after that then spent hours at the bar ... coz I was just buzzed and couldn't sleep... ...could never have afforded it myself, so great experience. India with BA was good too ... but you always remember your first time!
Very good selection of bottle and draught beers but just fancied one of these, not had one for a long time. Great summer drink
Bringing memories back reading people's experiences... We use to belong to the Virgin frequent flyer, not that I can remember you actually got anything for that, but I just knew they were always good with the kids on the long haul flights. They use to give them back packs, with stuff in but again nowt particularly special, but it kept little minds occupied for a short while. But we noticed the service decline over the years and we eventually switched to BA. What forced the decision was Virgin ****ed up on one of our bookings for along haul flight one time, well in advance, so it wasn't something we couldn't work around. I think the error came because they sold something they didn't have, the problem was that locked up our payment. Now after much debate I established that Virgin worked with really old computer systems and there was a delay between old systems and new booking systems talking to one another, which then locked the payment in for something we didn't receive. Different arms of the booking all blaming one another. It didn't matter for us because we had plenty of funds to still go ahead with a new booking with BA. It was more the principle of the thing, as our payment got locked up for something like a week before it was released, and many people in that situation would have been completely ****ed. Anyway as fate would have it, BA were better, so we switched and never ever flew with Virgin again. I'd say the best long haul flight ever was Monarch, so it was a shame they went under, but my guess is when you try and outplay the big boys, it's eventually going to come back a nd bite you. Also isn't Terminal 5 virtually all BA flights...I think Virgin were something like T3. Although I prefer Gatwick, because the M25 round Heathrow is a ****ing mare, or use to be.
Virgin don’t have a true business class, it’s called upper class so you are correct in saying it’s more akin to other airline first class products. Pretty disappointed with the last Virgin Atlantic flight I took, seems like they have taken there eye off the ball, particularly around how they cater for children.
