That's Entertainment

This week, my wife, the kids and I returned to the UK after a holiday in Florida. This was the second time in four months that we've flown Virgin Atlantic out of Gatwick, and I've got to say that I wasn't impressed with the service they offer. Now, I don't know if the problems I encountered were confined just to their aircraft out of Gatwick, but on three of the four flights, the crew had problems with the entertainment system which meant several reboots of the equipment were needed before everyone on the plane could watch a movie. I must be the only person in the world to have watched Cowboys and Aliens four times and never managed to actually see the ending.

However, since getting home I've heard that Virgin Atlantic are in the process of changing both their seating and their entertainment systems on all their aircraft. So let's hope the problems we experienced won't be repeated.

In the past two or three years I've mainly travelled to the USA with British Airways and after being a stalwart Virgin Atlantic fan for the past fifteen or so years, I found myself having to grudgingly admit that cabin changes to BA flights over recent years had left Virgin trailing behind. I don't know how many of you reading this would have flown with Virgin Atlantic in the early nineties, but they were a breath of fresh air in those days. So it was sad to see their economy service become inferior to British Airways both in terms of seat pitch and food and entertainment. However, to their credit, Premium Economy is still far superior on Virgin and their Upper Class (Business) service is unrivalled across the Atlantic.

But after three paragraphs of griping, I have to say that both Virgin and BA, beat the airlines from the US into a cocked hat. The services offered in economy and even Business class on Delta, Northwest, or US Airways are woeful compared to the British airlines.

Stephen Felstead