I'm not expecting prime rib sliced seat-side. The food is just badly prepared. Flavors are bad. Meats are dry. I've not had a good meal on their aircraft and the food in the lounge is only slightly better. The drinks in the lounge are great, but I can only drink so much without some food to help soak it up.

I only flew in coach on AC but it looked pretty nice up front. I enjoyed my coach meal more than the VS UC meals I've had.

In both cases it is also quite difficult if you are flying with someone else because of the way the seats are arranged. You're not at all close to your travel mate.

I agree with this as it relates to the onboard product. The food has been consistently below average whenever I've taken a VS flight in C.

I have had some good food in the lounge though - particularly the breakfast in the arrivals lounge in LHR.

I've only ever flown westbound with them so it has been afternoon food. The snacks/sushi is fine but not "special" by any means. The prepared entrees are overcooked and bland similar to the on-board product. Just MHO

Really the codeshare was most beneficial to CO of old. They had no flights to Heathrow at the time from EWR, so codesharing on VS gave them "flights". It also gave them flights from various big US cities where they had no presence to LHR. Now, however, UA/CO serves most of those cities from LHR (SFO, LAX etc) and can feed efficiently to others.

I suspect it will eventually go away.

Well let's see how the products stack up:

VS Clubhouse: 10 pts. Probably my favorite lounge in the world spa treatments, full high end bar, lovely seating areas. CO lounges: 2 points. Crowded and frankly cheap, limited bar, poor seating, no spa treatment.

VS Lounge Food: 5 pts. While not great, it is certainly far superior to CO's (1 pt) lounge food (processed cheese, potato chips, wrapped apples).

VS Seat/ Co Seat -- push.

VS: Pajames (10 points), CO (0 pts).
VS: Turn down service (10 points), CO (0 pts).

In flight food. Sure CO is better here. I'll give them all 10 points just and VS none just to be sporting, but that's not really fair.

Attractiveness of FAs, bar on plane: VS 10, CO 0.

When it's all said and done VS product is much closer to international F than CO's BF.

The VS ownership picture is somewhat in flux right now, with rumors of sales, so I wouldn't bet the farm on the SQ connection. Meanwhile another arm of the Virgin brand empire, V Austraila, is snuggled up to DL / SkyTeam with a JOA. So it's hard to say how this will all sugar out.

The 747 lower deck, center two seats with the divider removed is not bad for two persons travelling together. Calling it a "double bed in the air" is a bit of a stretch, but those of us who fly CO should be accustomed to this sort of marketing hype.

I've only had the A340 experience with VS. Glad to hear there is a better option on the 74s.

What is CO doing for arrivals in LHR vs. VS's arrivals lounge?

I agree with you on all counts, as the food is truly lame on VS and their seat is getting a bit dated....but I still prefer the VS experience overall.

Personally, I am more responsive to looks than substance (which is why I abhor the photos of the crappily-painted and chipped livery of some UA and US planes) and VS is one of just a handful of companies that at least attempt to make the travel experience "sexy" or "hip" ...just the lighting around the VS inflight bar area makes a difference (as opposed to the different temp fluorescent bulbs I saw installed on my last UA flight :rolleyes). The LHR Clubhouse is an experience in itself...and I don't know...they are just cool...

If the OP has never tried VS UC, than go for it and experience it at least once...^

CO has the Yotel.

CO has a better IFE system IMO.

I'm not saying that VS is a bad product, but there are a number of areas where it comes up short. If a set of PJs are what makes the flight for you then they are 1000% better than CO. If you want a good chance at a decent meal in-flight then I wouldn't go with them.

No offence , but I wish people would stop equating a single relationship with one airline with a relationship with the alliance that airline happens to be in . Yes, VA/DJ is trying to get approval to "snuggle up "with DL , but by the same token they already have approval for a joint venture with NZ on the Trans Tasman route ( the biggest single international market for Australia ) and with EY for the Middle East /Europe , so presumably if we follow the DL=Skyteam line of reasoning it could equally be claimed that they are "snuggling up " to Star Alliance or "Snuggling up" to being unaligned .

Flew VS lhr-lax up front over Xmas. The food was disgusting and downright unedible. Old IFE and a ammenity kit that was a total joke, if not embarassing. I would never choose a VS flight again. Even the 343 I was on was a dinosaur.

I agree the clubhouse is probably the only shining star in VS's world. Then again I want my experience to be good in their air...not 2 hours in a clubhouse waiting to board my flight. I didn't think their flight attendants were even remotely attractive I did like their red uniforms. They were very nice looking.

That's all I am saying -- it is hard to know how all this will sugar out.