Virgin Atlantic Arvostelua 

My disabled elderly parents, my aunt and I were scheduled to fly on Air Canada to Toronto on Saturday 16th August to see my Sister who was at the end stage of her life with her battle with cancer. We were told she had only 1-2 weeks left, so we wanted to go asap. Then Air Canada had a strike and my Mum was very upset, she really wanted to go. The only flights we could get due to this Air Canada strike (cos they don't pay their staff properly) were going from LHR to YYZ on Virgin on Friday 15th August, we only got the tickets at 11am and had to get to their airport for 3pm. The only tickets available were on business class and coming back via NYC in economy. The cost per ticket was £5.5k. We decided my Mum and I would go, due to the extortionate costs, and someone had to be able to take care of Mum, that was me. This is a massive outlay for us - ripped into our savings for this!

Going there was fine, esp. from the airport drop off in business class and going through business class security with a wheelchair and to the Virgin lounge. When boarding the plane, the staff were super helpful to my Mum, helping her get onto the plane and taking her to her seat.

For an elderly person, business class seats are terrible, they are so low, there is nothing for her to grab to pull herself up, to get to the toilet, I had to go help her up each time and take her to the toilet. And for me being 6'3'' the business class seats were terrible, so low and I could not stretch my legs comfortably onto the foot rest, as the my legs over shot the foot rest and the only place to put my feet were on these two hard plastic lips coming out the top the footrest and my legs were too long. All that money for stupidly designed seats.

Staff were over attentive and very hospitable in business class.

Coming back was a nightmare to begin with. At YYZ we had to get a Virgin partner airline, Delta, to JFK NYC. Four times the Delta staff were told my Mother cannot walk any stairs, she needs to be taken onto the plane. I told them twice, it was indicated on our reservation at the time of booking and also the Toronto airport assistance team told them twice. We only had an hour and 5 mins when we landed in JFK NYC to make the connecting 10pm Virgin flight on Tuesday 19th August to LHR.

Delta did not bring a ramp for my Mother to get on the plane, she was forced to wait on the tarmac, in a wheelchair in RAIN!!!! Delta finally brought their rickety old ramp that looked like it was about to collapse the moment you touched it right at the end and took my Mother up to the plane, she then had to made to feel embarrassed as she got onto the plane and I helped her to her seat - which was right at the back of the plane - where the toilet did not work - so she could not use the toilet for the whole flight!

We managed to make the connecting Virgin flight to LHR with 10 mins to spare before boarding. This time they were sensible to take all the disabled passenger and board them first. Now here's the difference between paying money for business class and going economy. When trying to get onto the plane in economy, my mother struggled to get onto the plane - there was nothing for her to grip - I was carrying her and my hand luggage in one hand and had our passports and boarding cards in the other hand, so I could only offer my elbow for her to hold. Now in business class, two cabin crew helped her onto the plane and one went and got her seat all ready with cushions. In economy, the Virgin cabin crew just stood there and watched while my elderly disabled mother struggled, to get onto the plane. I guess money buys human empathy and decency at Virgin not in economy. They were too scared getting their bright red uniforms crumpled and their hard gel nails cracked I assume!

The airbus A350 Virgin uses has this vent grill on the ceiling above the aisle seats on the window side of the plane. Water drips on the passenger in the aisle seats on the window side of the plane. I should know as I sat in seat 49C and routinely had water dripping on me - what a silly design in the plane - esp. since the whole flight is just freezing cold!

The entertainment system is also not very intuitive for elderly disabled people. Virgin go on about all this DEI crap and inclusivity and whatever new genders society invents these days to make feel included - clearly they are happy to EXCLUDE a decent human flying experience for elderly disabled passengers!

But hey, they have attractive staff in highly visible uniforms and a great marketing budget which makes everyone forget issues like I have raised!

We were a family of three and purchased three Premium seats. Unfortunately, when booking, it was not possible to select seats together, so we ended up with seats 26A, 26C, and 26D.

Once onboard, just before departure, we noticed that seats 26E and 26F were free. We asked the cabin crew if we could be reseated so that we could sit together as a family. We were told to wait until the doors were closed in case those seats were taken. However, despite there being at least eight empty seats in Premium, a passenger from Economy was upgraded and placed directly next to me.

This meant that my wife, son, and I were unable to sit together, even though we had paid for three Premium seats and there were empty seats available. To make matters worse, the passenger who was upgraded refused to swap, leaving us separated for the entire flight.

We had been excited to fly with Virgin Atlantic, but this experience left us feeling very poorly treated. We paid a Premium fare and reasonably expected to enjoy a family seating arrangement, which is particularly important when traveling with children.

I had flights booked and my flight was cancelled by virgin and moved to an alternative day which did not work for me , I had pre-booked seats on my flight and requested a refund for this and I have had no response at all weeks later. As has another family member who also booked with us !!! Not even a response to emails!!!

I had an experience of unprofessional behavior and great rudeness at the Virgin Atlantic Lounge in LAX. I hold a Mastercard card that guarantees access to the lounge until 13:30. I did not choose this airline, but under the existing agreement I had every right to enter.

Despite this, I was rudely thrown out by an employee named Trinity, while I was trying to explain that I was fully within the allowed terms. Instead of clarifying the situation, she behaved in a rude manner, making me feel completely embarrassed and disrespected in front of other passengers.

This attitude was unjustified and absolutely unprofessional, especially from a company that claims to put customer care at the center.

This is the worst airline ever I cannot express how terrible this airline and their support is!!! Compared to emirates for example this is night and day absolutely shocking. It took me 2 hours on a call to change a simple date of my flight, then they charged me twice by accident and refused to accept that I was charged twice despite me showing my bank statement with evidence. They then cancelled my flight all together “by accident”honestly horrible experience

Had an OUTSTANDING experience with a Virgin Atlantic customer service representative and wanted to be sure to give them praise…

LUKE EVANS in the Customer Service call center is an absolute gem. Professional, thorough and incredibly kind.

Standout customer service unlike I’ve ever experienced. Thank You Luke!

Checked in at Heathrow Airport asked to speak to your manager called Diane it’s extremely unhelpful very cold very uncaring with a child asked if we could sit side-by-side to be told no you have to take an aisle. Ask a question 15 years I fly it I thought was gonna be the same it wasn’t. After 1.9 reviews I can see why it’s changed a shock

I recently had the absolute pleasure of flying with Virgin Atlantic on the VS007 flight from London Heathrow to Los Angeles on the 14th of July 2025, and I felt compelled to share just how exceptional the experience was—from start to finish.

From the moment I arrived at the airport, I was met with warmth and professionalism. Rachel at the desk greeted me with such kindness and efficiency—it truly set the tone for the journey ahead. At check-in, Mollie and Seabus were equally wonderful, making the process seamless and stress-free, with a genuine sense of care and attentiveness that is so rare these days.

A special thank you must go to Reece from Customer Service, who I spoke with on the 13th of July. Reece went above and beyond to assist me with an upgrade at a great rate. He was not only incredibly helpful but also patient, understanding, and kind—he turned what could have been a complicated process into a delightful one.

Onboard, the experience was nothing short of stellar. James Cooper, who manages Upper Class, was outstanding—his professionalism and calm leadership were evident throughout the flight and it was a joy to chat to him about his life with his husband. The cabin crew, including Annie, Anya, Samuel, Lisa and Candie, created a truly luxurious and welcoming atmosphere. They were incredibly attentive, warm, and supportive, ensuring I was comfortable and well looked after every step of the way.

Flying with Virgin Atlantic is always a treat, but this journey was genuinely special thanks to the extraordinary people behind the scenes and in the sky. Every team member I encountered went the extra mile, and their kindness, care, and professionalism made all the difference.

Thank you, Virgin Atlantic, for setting the gold standard in customer experience. I’m already looking forward to my next flight.

Warmest regards,
Lois N

Dreadful flight experience. Main issue was the lack of leg room in Economy seats. I paid a premium price compared to other carriers because I didn't research it properly (using this site, for instance). The seats were so tightly packed that in my center seat, it was impossible to access my bag beneath the seat without either laying my body on my neighbor's legs or asking them to get up. Also, the seats are narrow, and if there is a large person next to you, as there was in my case, your body and their body will be in constant contact for the duration of the flight, an unwelcome intimacy. There was little service on the flight. There were no lavatories at the rear of the plane. One lavatory forward of my seat was fully out of service, and the other had no running water. I assume the toilet flushed, but there was a bowl of individual packages of hand sanitizers in the sink! Also, in the name of sustainability, meals were served with cardboard utensils, that quickly bend, making them useless. I had to eat with my fingers. It was the most uncomfortable flight experience of my life.

Booked a holiday to Antigua with Virgin, first time not flying with TUI in 15 years. Flight times were changed 7 times between booking and holiday then outbound flight cancelled all together. Was asked if we could go a day earlier and Virgin would cover hotel costs. Flight out was actually on time, food was ok but not premium quality we had paid for. Only 1 drink service on 9 hour flight and miserable staff. Coming back 1 hour delay in Barbados?? Absolutely inedible food served for evening meal, again only 1 drink service but was looking forward to breakfast before landing as was starving. Was told they ran out of English breakfast when being served and decided to wait till home for eating, only for them to serve 2 English breakfasts to the couple in front of me. Absolutely livid. Over priced, shambles of a company. If I hadn't already booked another holiday with them in November it would have been my first and last flight with this terrible company. Will stick to TUI in the future as never had a bad experience with them

Complaint regarding lastminute.com & Virgin Atlantic

Dear management at lastminute.com @alessandropetazzi & Virgin Atlantic

I urge you to please act on this issue swiftly as we’ve now lost 6 flights due to poor service! What extremely frustrating and disappointing service by both these companies. We booked flights for my parents to come visit us and to meet our newborn son, and it has been a nightmare from the minute we were meant to make any flight changes on lastminute.com Not one of these companies willing to take responsibility for their mistake made on their behalf…and no one was ever informed about changes not approved or done.

We’ve lost over £3000 due to this issue, sat on calls with Virgin Atlantic for over 4 hours, was assisted with changes, paid admin fees and the night before their flight, we are informed by coincidence by both lastminute.com and Virgin Atlantic that there are no flights that were rebooked even though we received confirmation emails, check in emails and flight cancellation emails from Virgin Atlantic

With lastminute.com to date, we have just been met with poor service, no accountability, no sympathy, no help for flights where a request to change was made 24hrs before my parents flight. I have been met with an attitude of unwillingness to change the flights and constantly redirected to deal with Virgin Atlantic
We only found out the night before by chance, that the flight that was meant to leave for Heathrow with Virgin Atlantic was cancelled due to operational issues as received via my email. No communication about this in the days leading up to the flight. Virgin Atlantic confirmed that they communicated to lastminute.com to contact me but have received no email or phone call.

lastminute.com Virgin Atlantic it’s time to take responsibility for this big mess and ensure that my parents are still able to spend time with us very soon.

While trying to book a flight, I saw a decent deal from virgin on google flights. I followed the link to their website, but unfortunately due to an error in Virgin's website or their API which they provided to google, it switched out origin and destination cities. I unfortunately didn't notice this right away (within 24 hours), because when I checked the receipt, the cities and days were correct. I mean who would expect a website to switching your origin and destination cities? Not only did this cost us hundreds to change, but the error on their website switched out ticked from refundable (as listed on google) to a non-refundable ticket with somehow even fewer protections. These protections were the sole reason I even purchased a ticket through virgin's site rather than somewhere else cheaper. I contacted customer service and was informed I was SOL despite being able to show and reproduce the glitch. "it's your fault for not noticing earlier" I was told, and my choices were pay hundreds more, or lose literally the entire cost of the tickets. I will NEVER be flying with virgin ever again and would advise everyone else to do the same.

Booked 3 fully refundable Virgin Atlantic flex return tickets from London to Boston. I cancelled all three of them 10 days before my flight date. As per Virgin Atlantic's regulations, I was entitled to 100% refund within 14 working days. One of the tickets was indeed fully refunded. The other 2 tickets were not refunded. I live chated with Virgin Atlantic one month ago and they told me the following : "What happened is that you requested a refund very shortly after requesting a change. As our ticketing team hadn't processed your new ticket until the 5th of May, our refunds team had to cancel the requests on these as the tickets had changed. It's all cleared up now, but it could still take a further 14 working days, even though I've requested that this be processed on priority." It's now 1st of July, 2 months after cancelling those 2 flexible tickets and I still haven't received any refund. Latest update: finally after 2.5 months from the date of cancellation and a couple of telephone calls, live chats, escalations after escalations, I have now received a full refund for the last 2 remaining tickets. That has been a full time job for me and a real torture. Never again will I ever trust my money and valuable time with Virgin Atlantic......

Flew to Las Vegas with son.
Paid £160 pound extra for seat allocation to ensure we were sat together on 10 hour flight as this was a celebration for his 21st and finishing his degree.
Night before flight we were moved 10 rows apart without being contacted or an explanation.
Took an hour on the phone to rectify the issue, but we're sat in awful seats.
Email sent to customer services and no reply...Awful.

On the return journey the app / my account not updated with ourselves and boarding pass..had to queue for over 30 mins at boarding gate to resolve issue.
Very stressful....Will go back to B A...

I would give it zero stars if I could. My parents were stranded at Dulles airport for two days straight, with one disaster after another (cancelled flights, delays, missed connections), but the worst thing was that they were all so mean, the customer service people just kept passing the buck and acting like it wasn't their fault, and no one had any empathy. They are soulless and uncaring and I will tell everyone I know to avoid them like the plague.

Rakhi was amazing so approachable so patient really made my journey start with a smile . She is an asset never let her go

I attempted to book a flight for 5 days! While reading the terms of carriage, the website decided it could no longer carry me at the same price, then it was one technical difficulty or another for 5 days.

I finally gave up and decided to phone in, only to find my flight date had been changed by the website and the person on the other end wanted another £150 without any of the extras i had selected.(and no reward points either).
I then decided to go elsewhere and presto got a flight in 5 mins, paid with my air miles awarded!

I used to like virgin atlantic, but if your website is kicking your customers out, refusing to accept payment from valid credit cards and your prices are too dynamic for Joe Average, I suggest you do something about it.

15 June 2025

Normally Virgin Atlantic has been one of the best in aviation on many levels. Yet, I purchased 5 tickets for my current trip for my son and me and in the last two days had the worst experiences ever on Virgin Atlantic flights. For VS 0004 a passenger who was sitting in front of me hiit me twice with his seat.

The plane was getting ready for take-off. So his seat should have been in the upright position. I leaned to get a bottle of water and he used his body and the seat reclining mechanism to hit me with the seat.

I alerted a male attendant who agreed it was wrong but did not correct the man.

Then the pilot made an announcement saying there was a brief delay due to a software issue.

Once that was resolved and the plane was preparing again for take-off I alerted another attendant. This time the female attendant scolded me on how he was entitled to have his seat reclining.

Yet, she then corrected him. Yet, now he realized he had the upper hand so after the attendant left the passenger reclind his seat again. During taxi he even stood-up anThe d proceeds to walk but the male attendant corrected him.

The man smelled wretched and keep playing games with his seat so I asked if my son and I could be seated elsewhere. Another attendant said there were no other seats together.

It was a horrible. In total the man had to be corrected 5 times. Yet, I was treated unjust by the flight attendant all because they were afraid to correct the man who was wearing a turbin etc.

I spent thousands on this trip and still have three more flights with Virgin Atlantic. I assure you once these travels are over I will not ever, ever support this airline again.

I am an aerospace engineer. I am fully aware of safety procedures on all aircraft. This was utterly unprofessional and just trash.

The flight the day before was similar. A man kept his charger and his laptop out all the way until the last minute while taxing on Flight VS 137 (London to New York). On that flight the woman in charge of the attendants in the rear of her plane was herself on a tablet during take-off. I even took a picture of the man on that flight.

People who travel often like me are now subjected to harassment and unsafe practed by crew and passengers and required to pay thousands for such harsh treatment. Unreal! Absurd.

On 14 Jun 2025, at JFK the man who was checking us in for the New York to LHR VS 4 flight was picking his nose while handling are passports and luggage. Disgusting spreading sickness. The whole event was insane.

Premium economy JNB to LHR. Seats are OK but not exceptional, crew were pleasant. My issue is with the 'Fasten your taste buds' supposedly Premium food. It takes exceptional talent to render the 'Cape Malay Crusted Hake Fillet' inedible but they managed it. A mouth full of kapok would have been more palatable. Cooked to extinction and then boiled again to make certain. Possibly passed through a press to extract any remaining moisture. The breakfast offering was swamped by powdery baked beans rendering it unpleasant. And what's with the absolutely NO Brandy in the spirits selection? On offer TWO Rums, Whisky, Bourbon, Gin, Vodka ....but no brandy? Travelling from a country that produces some very fine brandy? Why is this? My taste buds were in lock-down, never mind 'fastened'! Extremely disappointed in a very mediocre experience.

I was looking forward to my first VS flight for a long time. I had booked a premium economy as well. Everything was looking up, the flight left the gate on time. Only to sit on the taxi for 4 hours before finally being declared as cancelled. I was automatically booked on a different airline on economy class with a fare class which didn't allow me to upgrade even when I was willing to. Post trip, I reached out to the customer service and given a run around and now 2 months later, nothing has moved, no updates. Very disappointing from such a glamorous luxury airline.