VS6 MIA-LHR

May 22nd, 2024

Posts in this series:

Introduction - A Random Jaunt to Europe

Review - Virgin Atlantic Premium Class A330-300 Miami to London Heathrow

Review - JW Marriott Grosvenor House London

Review - Imperial Riding School, Autograph Collection, Vienna

Review - Grand Hotel Kempinski High Tatras

Review - Austrian Airlines Business Class A321 Vienna to Frankfurt

Review - Lufthansa Business Class B747-8 Frankfurt to Miami

Check-in:

To kick off our quick trip to Europe, we flew Virgin Atlantic from Miami in premium class - Virgin’s premium economy. Virgin commands a strong brand recognition in pretty much everything it does, so I was pretty excited to lose my Virgin virginity😛. Because we booked our tickets within the week of departure, upper class was entirely sold out. Sadly, it meant I had to fly across the Atlantic in a seat that did not go flat😭. It’d been quite a few years since I was in economy on a long-haul, so I wasn’t sure if my old bones could handle it. Even though we were in premium economy, I was preparing for the worst.

Virgin Atlantic used concourse J at Miami International, which was the last concourse at the airport. Virgin Atlantic recently joined SkyTeam alliance, but it used the LATAM Lounge, given both airlines were partially owned by Delta.

Premium class passengers do not usually receive lounge access. However, I had Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Gold status, and Singapore Airlines partnered with Virgin Atlantic. Alternatively, your SkyTeam Elite Plus status would also do the trick. I was quite glad my KrisFlyer status came in handy, as the PriorityPass option (Turkish Airlines Lounge) in this concourse was at capacity.

Lounge:

The LATAM VIP Lounge was located just past security. Two sets of escalators later, you’d find yourself at the reception. I actually flew with LATAM and visited this lounge before it was remodeled. If you’re interested, you can check out that review here.

I’m not sure what the deal was with the group standing by the reception. One of the staff just waved at me to come up, and we were admitted in no time.

I think the layout of the lounge largely remained the same. The furniture felt cheaper than what was in the old lounge. For a continent known for architecture and interior design, I found it disappointing that the new lounge embodied none of that.

At least it wasn’t uncomfortably crowded, which is really all you could ask for from a lounge these days.

In the center of the lounge was a small buffet, with 3 hot dishes (chicken, pasta and something else), soups, sandwiches and salads. Along the wall were the liquors, packaged snacks and desserts in the fridge. The sparkling on offer was Chandon (not Möet).

My favorite was the OJ squeezer.

Another thing I loved about the lounge was the bottled Perrier. It actually had both plastic and glass bottles, but for the ease of transport we took the plastic ones😉.

2 glasses of freshly squeezed Florida orange juice later, it was time to board. I thought the lounge was fine. I certainly wouldn’t get there early for it.

Boarding:

We boarded around 15 minutes past the scheduled time. It was puzzling to me that Virgin called group 1 & 2 simultaneously, then why not just roll them into one group, lol?

We were greeted at the door and pointed to the right. Ugh, who knew turning right could feel so wrong?!

Awaiting at each seat were a pillow, a blanket, an amenity kit, a pair of headphones and a small menu card. The amenity kit was more like an amenity paper bag, and it only contained eyeshades, earplugs and a dental kit. The rest of the amenities felt on par with those in regular economy.

The seat itself was reasonably comfortable. It was well padded, and the recline was generous. Unfortunately, the legroom was more in line with what you’d expect from domestic first class in the US, rather than the B737 Max 8 business class on Turkish. An underrated feature that I wish more airlines have were the footrests, which were present here.

Shortly after settling in, a FA came around with a tray of welcome beverages, including prosecco, water and OJ. We went for the prosecco. I didn’t see the bottle, but I had a feeling it was Bottega. After all, these were Brits we’re talking about here.

The short menu reads as follows:

Inflight:

Service was quick to start after takeoff. There were two FAs taking care of premium class. They served the cabin clockwise from the rear on the port side and looped to the rear on the starboard side. A round of apéritif preceded dinner. I chose beer, while my partner had the canned white wine.

Dinner was then served on one tray and all at once. I was rather impressed by the quality here, as I’ve had catering on multiple airlines departing Miami, and none was nearly worth eating.

Virgin also allowed pre-ordering for premium class, so I selected the chicken tikka masala for myself and the salmon for my partner. Oh, and look at how cute those airplane salt and pepper shakers are!

After dinner I tried to get some shuteye, and I was mildly successful. The cabin was kept quite cool, thankfully.

This flight went by a lot faster than I expected, and soon we were only an hour away from Heathrow. Kudos to the crew for delaying breakfast to the last possible minute. Many airlines will turn on all the cabin lights 2.5 hours before landing to serve a cold plate for no reason.

Equally impressive on Virgin’s part was offering a hot breakfast on a transatlantic flight. Although Miami is one of the longer flights across the pond, I’ve been on many business class flights where continental breakfast was the only choice.

I didn’t want breakfast, but it was impossible to sleep through it with lights being turned on and the noises. My french toast was decidedly inedible. I failed to examine whether the white stuff was unmelted cheese or coconut shaving. Either way, the texture was rather unpleasant. My partner had the “English” breakfast, but I compelled him to relinquish it in favor of a proper one once we landed.

I did ask to try the oat latte on the menu, which was a lot more agreeable.

Wifi was available, and the pricing was reasonable as well.

On Arrival:

I can see how people rave about Virgin Atlantic. The FAs worked hard - it was no easy task for two of them to serve the entire premium class cabin. While there were a couple instances where they forgot about our requests, I think their positive attitude more than made up for it. Not to mention everything took a lot longer when the use of proper language was observed. There were so many phrases such as “pardon my reach”, “I am so terribly sorry. Would you mind…” or “what can I offer you with…”. On most American airlines all you get is “trash?”.

A330s aren’t new planes to any airline, however, the Virgin one was incredibly well maintained. Whenever I visited the lavatories, they were always in good order. Not once did I see a drop of liquid or a piece of rubbish on the lavatory floor. I hadn’t flown in many premium economy products before this flight, and I was curious about its value prop compared to that of regular economy. In the case of Virgin, I’d say it’s very much worth the premium. Now I need to expedite an upper class review to the agenda.