Airline Review: Virgin Atlantic – Business Class (Airbus A350-1000 with Lie Flat Seats) : Los Angeles – London (VS 142)

Flight: Virgin Atlantic VS 142 from Los Angeles to London Heathrow

Duration: 10 hours

Equipment: A35K (Airbus A350-1000)

Class: Business

Seat: 1 D – 1G (Middle Aisles)

Seat Specification: Flat bed seats with seat width: 20″, seat pitch: 82″

This was the first time ever we flew on Virgin Atlantic. This carrier flies various aircraft between USA and Europe. There is the old Boeing 787 herringbone configuration seats (which are terrible to fly in per most internet forum reports) and there are newer business class seats on Airbus A330-neo and A350-1000 aircraft. Virgin Atlantic is also notorious in swapping the newer A350-1000 aircraft with Boeing 787, so was relieved to find that this was not happening as our travel date approached and seat map still showed the Airbus for our flight.

Virgin Atlantic Airbus A350-1000 Business Class

Virgin Atlantic Airbus A35K aircraft has 11 rows of 1-2-1 seats in Business class.

Virgin Atlantic Business Class on Airbus A35-K

Upon boarding the mood-lighting can get overwhelming for some

IFE pops out of the frame in front (left), Seat storage (right)

Pre-takeoff beverage (left), Plenty of leg room for the bed (right)

One unique thing I found on Virgin Atlantic Business Class is that the tray is stowed on what usually is the space for IFE on other carriers. The tray was huge and made for very comfortable dining space.

Virgin Atlantic Business Class Dining Menu

Virgin Atlantic does have an extended dining option menu for business class travelers but interestingly they don’t advertise it that much and not available on the “My Booking” page. However, you can actually pre-select your main entrée before your flight. I went through the available choices and nothing looked appealing to me so went with special meal (Hindu Non-Vegetarian meal HNML). I had read that Virgin still serves vegetarian on HNML and in hindsight would have just went with onboard menu.

Karen’s appetizer: Prosciutto and Buratta with balsamic glaze, My appetizer: Marinated shrimp & *Dhokla*

Karen’s entrée: Chicken stuffed with boursin cheese and chorizo with asparagus and barley risotto, My entrée: Okra curry, lentil with *naan* and rice

Karen’s entrée was good and mine was very unimpressive. The curry did not have much flavor but at least the naan tasted good.

Karen dessert: Warm carrot cinnamon chocolate chip with vanilla sauce, My dessert: Raspberry cheesecake with chocolate mousse

We both loved our dessert though.

After dinner, I went to sleep on the bed. Virgin provides mattress padding to fit to the seat and adds a bit of comfort for sleeping.

Meal is again served before landing.

Karen’s breakfast: Classic french toast with strawberry compote, My breakfast: croissant, *paratha*, *vada*, chickpeas and semolina

In hindsight, I should have stuck with onboard menu. The paratha was dry and hard and the only tasty item on breakfast was the semolina.

Bottomline:

Seat: ****1/2

Service: ****

Food: ***

The business class seat has plenty of legroom and having no footwell means free movement of legs while sleeping. The bed is long and comfortable to sleep in. The crew was very courteous, prompt and friendly. The only negative for this flight was the food choices and catering.