Seth is right. No codeshare = no eqms. And strangely enough, only the super late flights (evening) is the CO Codeshare. All other flights are not co coded.
Also, booking the flights on CO.com is significantly more expensive that directly from Virgin (by several thousand, in Business) Books into almost full fare business class.

I tried this trick. It used to work better, before CO added the additional late LHR flight.

ah..but after you've pigged out in BF on the better CO food and slept, you get to heathrow immigration without a fast track pass like you get on VS:) plus i like the direct aisle access on the VS seats. eastbound, you can grab a nice meal in the VS JFK clubhouse and snooze the entire flight. westbound you have a much wider choice of departure times. if your main criteria is meals on board, go with CO. otherwise IMHO VS is worth a try.

Many on this board would COnsider that bonus points for CO.

Treating everyone equally is one of CO's strongpoints. ;)

The food onboard CO is much better than the dog chow on VS.

However, the food on the ground for VS is better than CO's BF food and you can eat it and not have to screw around with the executive meal, so I guess if you want to a decent sleep on your way to europe, you'd do better to fly on VS.

I agree with most of the statements above. The food is terrible, which is why I ate the passable food in the clubhouse before getting on the plane. I will admit thought that I don't fly to eat, I fly to drink, and I really did enjoy my flight because of the unattended (read: self-service) bar. The flight attendants were saucy when they were around, but they have a well-deserved reputation for disappearing soon after the meal service and never being seen again.

I also liked the 1x1 herringbone setup upstairs in the 747, and prefer it to the 2x2x2 or 2x2 of CO BF. It felt really private up there, and was a good retreat when I wanted to relax and watch a movie (with my drink, of course).

Do they still do the massages on board? It's been years since I last flew them. On that flight (LHR-EWR) was one of last to board and didn't get the massage, so they gave me a coupon which guarantees I'll be first on the next trip. If still valid, I might check Coupon Connection to see if its worth anything. Of course if they've stopped this feature, I can just toss it.

on board massage is long gone - you can toss the coupon. you can get a massage in LHR Club but first come first served

You can make a reservation for the massage through VS.com....:-:

VS: Where to begin....
 

I was VS Gold for 5 years when I lived in the UK; almost once to twice a month UK-US in PAID J/Upper Class [or on my backup UA].

The product back then (1996-2001) was quite good. Seats were OK for the time, IFE was good (ok still same crappy sw problems back then and still on newer systems today). Meal service was quite good along with the service side of it.

I moved back to the US (Bay Area) and flew UA more and more [all those times as a VS Gold I still held UA 1K as they were my backup airline]. Then I moved to Germany and flew LH more (crediting to UA)... so VS was gone for me.

I've had the chance to fly them 3 times since I stopped flying them often. My experience (last time late last year)

Check in: OK/Non Curbside Check in at Heathrow is poorly line controlled; had Y and Premium Y pax trying to use the Upper Class check in

Security: Fast channel was very poorly marked

Lounge: Good; but surly employees running around outweighed the nicer ones.

Onboard: Seats were wonderful. Food service was pathetic - I make fun of UA's Biz offering not being as good as Asian Carriers Y offering - but this was worse. As noted dry/overcooked meats; rubbery prawns. Poor choice of sauces with meats. Dessert was OK and the midflight snacks (bacon sandwich, etc). Service staff; Sorry but VS has "nice looking guys and gals" but they were as thick as a dingo; the customer service attitude was poor - and I'm NOT demanding. I go to the galley/bar when I want drinks/snacks - it was just the regular stuff.... Serve me a meal and ask me about wine ; but then don't come back with it for 10 mins??

VS Flying Club: Pathetic; OK almost; Redemption is good; I had Amex points dumped in (I had 5+ years of 100K flown points a year so I'm not an Amex freeloader). My issue is their lack of joining an alliance.. but worse off is they don't partner with their own sister airlines well. Still can't get a straight answer if flying V Australia counts towards VS Flying Club EQM's... If they were a HELL of a lot more clear I would get to VS Gold from just my V Australia (and dump United on that route).

Bottom line is: For the fare (if it's a paid fare) VS is NOT worth a premium over other carriers. In Y FOR sure, In J; it's subjective as other list.... But Y, NEVER EVER pay a Premium as I can't see that product being better - more a marketing hype (as it's always been) - but this time without the substance.

One has to consider too when one is flying.

If one is taking the last flight out on CO/VS usually sometime between 10.30 pm and 11.30 pm depending, I find it hard to see how a meal comes into the picture. If one wants to enjoy CO stellar meal service, one would be eating dinner around 12.30 to 1.30 am. When I have been in such flights, my observation is that many pax decline to eat. In the case the great advantage of CO over VS is gone. If the flight is delayed and leaves say midnight then the meal becomes an even greater non-issue. Honestly also eating on a table in the club is much different (better) than eating on a cramped airline seat, even if the food may be average (is it?)

To me for a late night flight, VS trumps CO because you can get to JFK early. Have dinner 9pm which is a more normal hour. Get on the plane and sleep (or work or whatever) and dont have to bother about VS awful meals. However, on the daytime return, I would rather be with CO because one can savour the superior service.