Originally Posted by
CO DCA
I agree with you. In the back, at least in flights to IAD, it's truly awful: the IFE is worse that UA's, the food is nasty (and there is no second meal before landing, just a Popsicle), and their rules are draconian. When I talk to people who are thinking about flying VS, I always say "it's all marketing - they want you to think you're cool by flying them, but the product is on par with Aeroflot 1991."
Can't agree more. The flight we took back from LHR to EWR on a 340-300 was just brutal a few weeks ago. Plane was coming in from New Delhi and did not get a full turn around. Not to sound 'stereotypical' or anything, but the plane really did reek of curry. My gf's seatbelt was coated in the dry sauce that got on her clothes. We had to move seats. Next seats were not much better. Extremely cramped and the 'magazine holder' was stretched out on almost every seatback I saw when I looked around.
Bathroom haflway through the flight when I got up to get tissues was absolutely a disaster in our part of the cabin. I would have refused to use it if I needed to.
When I got on we walked through part of F and it just looked old. Coach wasn't any better. This plane has seen better days. I have heard a lot of great things about Virgin, but you're right. It may be from the advertisements.
Service was fair- the fa's were loud and brash- and kept waking people up who were trying to sleep on the night flight.
As far as the IFE goes- this little baby needs some work. We had the Odyssey system which is supposed to be much better than the other systems they have according to Seatguru. Choices were fine- nothing major. I think the choices on a 757-200 AVOD are maybe a tad better. But in reality its the navigation. "Our" AVOD is a million times easier to use than what virgin has. It's a funky SNES controller (circa 1996) that just doesn't have a convenient way of navigating the menus. Everything just seemed backword and incoherent. Power would have also been nice, even DC power in Y. Nope.
The OLCI that VS uses is basically useless when buying through CO. I made the purchase with miles back in April and was not able to confirm our seats on any of their aircraft even up until checkin whatsoever. I called their general line a few weeks out, was transferred to the middle east, and they were not much help. Basically I was unable to confirm any seats for us until 24 hours from the flight time, which means taking time out of the vacation to get on the phone and get that done.... not a big deal but for others this could be a problem...
Make matters worse on a personal note, I got sick on the plane and caught a nasty cold which I'm still getting over. Ugh. I remember flying VS years ago to London and back in 1994 and thought they were great. Not so much this time. But it very well was likely a one off situation on an old plane...
I longed for CO on that flight - even a 737-500 would be fine. It would have been cleaner.