Hot Take: Virgin Premium Almost As Good As Upper Class

My recent review of British Airways’ Premium Economy seems to have sparked quite a bit of interest. Naturally, this raises the question: how does Virgin Atlantic Premium Economy stack up against its British rival? Virgin Atlantic, like British Airways, offers Premium Economy on all long-haul routes.

Over the past 3 years, I’ve flown Virgin’s Premium product several times, and before 2019, I actually preferred it over their Upper Class! In this review, I’ll dive into a recent flight from India, where I had the rare opportunity to experience both Virgin’s Premium Economy and Upper Class twice in same route over two trips 2 months apart.

 This proved an opportune moment to reflect on both products more closely with much food for thought..

Flight Particulars

Route: Delhi – London Heathrow
Flight No: VS303 
Date: 10.02.2024
Departure Time: 02:05
Flight Duration: Blocked 9:50 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 787-900
Seats/Suite: 24A

Virgin Atlantic Premium Advertised Offering

• Extra large seats  (  18.5-21″ wide ! )
• Extra legroom – 38″ pitch
• 2 x 23kg checked bags
• A glass of bubbly when you board
• Pre-order option via Premium menu
• Premium check-in
• Priority boarding

Check-In & Lounge

Check in was efficiently managed at Delhi as was on previous outbound flight from LHR. The experience did indeed seem marginally better than what you would expect in economy.

I have SkyTeam Elite Plus status via KLM – which would ordinarily grant me lounge access, however, this booking was made with my Virgin Flying Club account due to use of Upgrade vouchers on outbound flight. This didn’t matter as I used my Priority pass to use a lounge instead where I enjoyed a lovely Indian dinner.

Virgin Atlantic Premium Economy Seating

Virgin Atlantic Premium is an exclusive cabin right behind Upper Class.

On the 787 aircrafts, this consists of 35 seats in a 2-3-2 configuration…

The A330-900Neo consists of 46 seats and the A350 flagships has a much larger cabin of 56 seats in a 2-4-2 configuration.

Some cabin snapshots of this flight..

Due to late night departure the lighting was kept super dimmed, but you cannot mistaken that you are indeed in a Virgin aircraft !

As described, this is indeed a large, deeply padded leather seat that would certainly fit the Premium tag..

Placed on each seat, you will find contoured pillows, wrapped blanket, wireless headphones and an amenity kit on the overnight flights.

Best Premium Seats

For a couple travelling, this would almost always be a window pair on any side, so you have no-one else next to you.  For families the middle rows may be perfect?

For solo travellers the only thing to try avoid would be the actual middle seat in the middle ! Row-wise some might prefer the first row due too even more leg space, but I would also equally not mind the last row, as then you never have to worry about reclining back whenever you want to !

Prior to 2023, Virgin used to allow preferred seat selection for free, on a first come first serve based. They have now decided to monetize this, with designated “preferential seats” chargeable for advance selection.

For reference, here is what a empty A350 cabin promo shot by Virgin looks like in broad daylight at the reclined position, more on that later !

And a full cabin shot on a Virgin 330-900Neo..

Compared to the 787 cabin, the Neo and A350 feel distinctly less Premium. My favourite configuration here would be the 787’s, which simultaneously has the worst Upper Class !

The 787 Premium seats are not only significantly wider but also recline 8″ verses the 7″ on A350’s. This, you really notice ! The only aspect improved on 350/Neo is the IFE screen being up-sized to 13.3″.

I’m a little perplexed as to what Virgin was thinking there, I understand the cabin is slightly narrower on A330 but for 350 they prioritized adding an extra seat per row than offering the same generous seats on 787. But to reduce the recline also?

Still, I would be very happy with any Virgin Premium seats on day flights. For night flight’s I’d only fly on 787’s or ensure I’m in upper. For what it’s worth, on this 9 hour night flight, I managed a good 4 hours of sleep !

Virgin Premium Economy Menu & Service

Unlike British Airways, Virgin here makes a concerted effort to make the service Premium also. Welcome drink of either juice or sparkling fizz of some variety are offered on boarding.

You can pre-order your meals from Virgin’s Premium menu selection from 7 days out upto 24 hours before your flight.

Otherwise, you still have a Premium menu waiting for you onboard. On this late departure, this was..

And drinks list..

In order to maximise rest on this flight, Virgin offers a late night snack service.

This was a hot chicken tikka wrap, which was absolutely delicious ! It was served alongside a tasty apple crumble and drinks of your choice.

For this particular flight timing I think this was a perfectly adequate meal. On an outbound from Heathrow, it was a full dinner and then followed by full breakfast service before landing. However, I needed to get some sleep so skipped breakfast on that flight.

About 2 hours before landing and I was wide awake from the tantalizing aroma of breakfast service preparation.

There were two main choices here,

Cheese & pepper omelette with potato wedges, grilled mushroom and tomato’s 

or

Paneer burji, palak tikka and paratha

Going by the delicious tikka wrap earlier, I was tempted to naturally go with the Indian option here, but was unsure if it might be too spicy for me as breakfast !

When the crew noticed my hesitation, they insisted I try both ! Virgin always serve with proper china and proper crockery for an altogether premium setting..

The cheese omelette was good, super well done and seasoned, but oh my gosh, this Paneer bhurji was something else ! It was moderately spiced & complemented with the most perfectly done paratha I’ve ever had in the skies ! Even on the ground that would have been an excellent paratha !

I had half the omelette but there was not a tiny spec of food left here. This dish was up there with the best Turkish Menemen’s I’ve had also.

Aside from the main meal services, I should highlight Virgin also offers a great selection of snacks and drinks on demand or to help your self via the “Wander wall” in the galley area.

Every time I’ve used the call button to order a drink or tea, the crew were generally quick to respond and always served in proper mugs used in Business class. Not only that, drinks were always accompanied with some biscuits or snacks.

I genuinely could see no difference to the Upper Class service standard on this regard.

Virgin Atlantic Premium Pricing

A couple of years ago, Virgin used to routinely offer Premium fares to USA for under £600 during sale/promo periods, however those days seem to be long gone and the best fares you can pick up now are generally between £750-900. Or north of £1400 outside of sales.

I would say this is still reasonable, to what has happened to Upper Class fares in the same period. It was possible to book special Upper Class promos for under £1200 to now being rare to find anything under £2k !

There is some good news however, Virgin Atlantic still offers the same fantastic redemption rates for Premium on most routes as pre-covid. Off-peak, it costs just 17,500 points + between £360-400 in taxes and surcharges on Indian and USA East Coast routes. Peak points required are 27,500. On longer West Coast routes its between 27,500-37,500 points. 

By my calculation, if you manage to acquire Virgin Reward Vouchers thorough one of their credit cards, its value can now be anymore between £1-2k, which is quite a substantial rebate to fly Upper Class.

Overall Thoughts

Ok so you may be wondering how can Premium economy be almost as good as Business Class? A reclining seat surely cannot even compete with a full flat bed? Well, yes and no.

You see as stated, these Virgin Premium seats on 787’s are as wide as most Business Class seats and they are supremely comfortable, especially on day flights. In fact, I prefer them with proper window views compared to these old Upper Class.

When a light sleeper like me can manage over 4 hour sleep on those seats on multiple occasions, that is reaching almost the same barometer as Business Class for me.

So this, combined with the attentive and friendly Virgin crew matching almost Upper Class levels of service and catering  ( in all my Virgin flights, I have enjoyed the Premium catering as much as if not more than Upper Class cabin )  is why I consider Virgin Premium almost as good as Upper Class! I mean what more could one need or ask for?