Comments on: Is Virgin Atlantic Outgrowing “Boutique” Label?

By: Sean

Sean — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 18:42:00 +0000

I wouldn’t say it’s easy to connect into Europe with Virgin Atlantic. Unless you’re heading to Paris, Amsterdam or Bucharest theres not much else from Heathrow with Skyteam on the short haul front unless you double connect.

By: James

James — Thu, 15 Jun 2023 07:59:25 +0000

Virgin Atlantic has 44 airplanes. Can you list another airline with so few?
I cannot find any lists that go down to Virgin Atlantic’s size. Uncertain how one cannot use the term “boutique” given they don’t fly most places.

By: Cal

Cal — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 18:55:19 +0000

I used to fly Virgin from New York to London, I’d spend a couple of days in London, then head off to Hong Kong for a few days and finally arrive in Sydney Australia. all on Virgin. And I would do it all in Upper Class. It didn’t take me long to achieve elite status. Once I even bought an around the world ticket thru Virgin, the last leg flown on air New Zealand. As I remember, they couldn’t sustain that growth. Maybe they’ll get back to something like what they had in the past but I think the partner airlines fill that role for now. But I miss the simplicity of doing real long hauls with just one airline to deal with. I wish they’d go to Rio, and back to Sydney.

By: PM1

PM1 — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 16:16:26 +0000

Thanks for covering this Gilbert! I have had top level status on each of the 3 US airlines in the recent past and still am Gold with UA & DL. I shifted my business to Virgin this year. Love their service (and esp. the Clubhouse) compared to UA, AA & DL. Hoping to make it to Virgin Gold soon.

By: khatl

khatl — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 16:09:25 +0000

It’s a company that could do with focusing on customer service and systems beyond the planes and airport.

There’s currently nowhere to raise an issue about the service experienced after deplaning/disembarking a plane… unless it’s about something like baggage. Which is just weird.

Further, their loyalty system has continuous ongoing issues. They launched household accounts, but these are no longer available (unless they were created before the stoppage). The problem is apparently due to system maintenance issues that have no timeline for being fixed. I wonder if they are coming back, as they have also disappeared from the benefits page. And that apparent system issue comes just months of going on a year of another issue where Flying Club members were not being able to view account activity for another apparent system issue, again an issue that had no time resolution of being fixed and which persisted for an huge extended period of time.

So while the onboard product is great, the lounges are great, the staff generally are great, I’m sure there are many like me who are frustrated with Virgin’s customer service and systems.