I fly BA long-haul in the club suites at least twice a month, I’m Gold Guest List and I travel almost exclusively from Heathrow Terminal 5, meaning I check-in at the First Class wing, and I go straight to the Concorde Lounge. I used to be upgraded to First class a lot, but nowadays less and less of my flights actually have a First Class cabin, and if they do, there’s no First Class service. But anyway, that’s my basis for comparison. VA helpfully have a gold membership match program, so on my first VA flight I was Gold with their rewards program. The routes I usually fly on (LHR-MUM, LHR-DEL, LHR-JFK) all have both BA and VA choices.
I am sitting on VA’s flagship plane, a new A350-1000, in their Upper Class suite from London to Delhi, and wrote this on my ipad on the flight. In case anyone doesn’t know, Upper Class is VA’s top tier, they don’t have a First Class.
I realise most of my issues are first world problems, maybe even inconsequential to most people, but I thought I’d share my thoughts about why I’m unlikely to fly VA again. I’ve graded each of my observations with + or -, and +/- where I think it’s a draw.
Hope this helps someone.
+ Check-in - presumably because a LOT less people are flying VA, their check-in in Heathrow’s terminal 3 takes seconds, unlike the BA first wing. There’s only a few check-in desks for Upper Class, but there was literally no-one in front of me.
+ Security - again, far less people means the dedicated Upper Class security was completely empty, so you are through in seconds. The BA First Wing security usually has a queue whenever I use it, and I’m often advised to use the normal business security outside instead.
+ Seat/Bed - the mattress and seat is slightly more comfortable than BA, slightly more padded, and VA make the bed up for you, much like BA First did, when there was First….
+ Amenities - very, very similar to BA’s White Company pack, VA call theirs a “goodie bag”, but it’s all recyclable paper based, with moisturiser and lip balm, etc all from REN, and a lovely wooden biodegradable toothbrush. You also get a sleep suit, like the BA First Pyjama’s (again, not in BA business).
+ Staff - every single person I interacted with was cheery, happy to engage in conversation, and eager to help. Even when I was complaining about the suite’s facilities, they were happy to listen, probably for the millionth time that week. When I arrived at the lounge, a lady from Customer Services came and found me , greeted me by name, and seemed genuinely interested in knowing why I was trying VA, and what I thought so far, something BA never ask me. On the plane I had a lady come over and welcome me by name, whereas the BA GGL welcome greeting hardly ever happens anymore.
+/- Wi-fi, £16.99 for the flight, £6.99 for an hour, similar to BA. Download was 14Mbps, upload was 1Mbps, but lots of latency as you’d expect (ping time was 900ms). Usable.
+/- VA Clubhouse at Terminal 3. Not as refined as the sometimes slightly stuffy and unfriendly Concorde lounge, but much, much more spacious, much more funky (with pool table, peloton, similar quality menu, much larger bar), and much more friendly. I sometimes find the staff at the Concorde Lounge very standoffish, and the food portions a little too “haute cuisine” for me (when I want burger and chips, I don’t want 5 chips, lovingly laid out in a lattice).
- Terminal 3 vs Terminal 5. Hardly VA’s fault, but terminal 3 sometimes feels like the exercise yard from Shawshank Redemption. There is a lot more fake tans and stag party flyers than T5, and the terminal itself is more crowded and tired than T5.
- Upper Class Suite - almost identical to BA’s Club Suite except Virgin’s is encased in sort of a glossy white melamine, like some futuristic pod from 2001 Space Odyssey. The TV screen seems the same size, maybe a little higher resolution (I might be wrong though), with a similar amount of films. Instead of the wired remote with BA, you pair your device to the TV and use that, or use the touchscreen like the BA screen. There’s a large foldout table big enough for dinner or laptop, just like BA. However, for me, there are three big deficiencies in VA’s suite over BA’s:
- storage. There is absolutely no storage in the suite at all, not a single cubbyhole or pop up lid, no place to store your phone, ipad, headphones, glasses, etc. The tiny shelf next to the seat, about 6 inches wide, is all you have, apart from a tiny shelf for your can of complimentary water. I know BA doesn’t have a massive amount of storage, but I certainly manage to store my ipad, phone, glasses and headphones securely on each flight. On VA this isn’t possible, which means you’re going to be getting up and down to your bag in the overhead quite a lot, and if you’re under a duvet and a seat harness, with a table out and the seat back, this is a bit of a procedure.
- door. Like BA there is a privacy door, which like BA doesn’t really offer that much privacy, as anyone walking past looks over it. However, for some unfathomable reason, the VA door only slides about 8 inches, leaving a 2 ft gap, so it’s not a door at all really. You can still get in and out of the suite whilst it’s closed, so I don’t see the point of it.
- coat hook. There isn’t one (after running my hands over every inch of the surfaces, I finally asked the steward to confirm). Coupled with the complete lack of storage, your options are to have your jacket taken away and hung up, or scrunch it up and put it in the overhead. If, like many travellers, you carry your phone, passport, wallet, visa forms, glasses, pen, etc in your jacket, this is going to result in even more getting up and down.
Conclusion
The service and whole experience on VA is definitely better than BA, but the suite lets the whole journey down. It’s as though it was designed by someone who doesn’t travel regularly, who never thought you might want to use your phone or ipad rather than the in-built entertainment, or that you might need your passport and wallet to fill out the visa forms, or your glasses to read. If all you’re doing is sleeping, with no activity at all, and you’re not going to watch downloaded movies, or play sudoku on your phone, or read a book or a kindle, then it is probably OK, as long as you’re happy with your jacket being elsewhere. And OK having nothing near you. For me, it just made the experience awkward and I found myself scrabbling on the floor looking for things that had fallen off the little shelf, or getting up and down to the overhead, again and again.
Virgin Atlantic seem to consider their Upper Class to be between BA’s Club and First, and it does have some BA First things (pyjama’s, making up the bed), but the rest of the experience is pure business class.
As I say, the problems with the suite are all first world problems, but if you’re doing this every few weeks like I am, I think I’d prefer the longer check-in and security times with BA over a badly designed space to sit in for 10 hours or so. So, I’ll fly back VA (as I’m already booked), but I suspect my next trip in a few weeks will be back with BA.