Virgin Atlantic Upper Class Seats and Cabin. Luxury Airline Experience

by Gary Bembridge · February 22, 2012

Virgin Atlantic Upper Class Cabin and Seats

Virgin Atlantic Upper Class

Virgin Atlantic originally pioneered the idea of having a cabin that was better than the usual business class but not quite First Class, but was inspired by some of the touches associated with travelling First. As time has moved on, other airlines (especially those based in Middle East and Asia) have gone even further, especially when introducing their A380 planes. But Virgin still has a different offer, even today

Virgin Atlantic Upper Class has been in the current format for some years now, and it still remains one of the more innovative and unusual layouts, with the herringbone layout so every seat has aisle access. This is a positive as unlike other airlines business class where you get someone climbing over you when lying down, inevitably they kick you and wake you up.

Overall the seats in Upper Class are very clever as you have one side that you sit on (as per the picture above) and then when you want to sleep or lie down, you push a button and the seat flips over and turns into a flat solid bed. You then are given a mat and a very comfy duvet.

Like most business class these days, on Virgin there is an on demand movies, TV shows and games service. There is a very large choice of movies, and both recent and new releases.

The food, for me, is more hit and miss. There is a choice of starters and main courses. There is usually a big choice of wine. I think overall the food on some other airlines in business is better, but Virgin have made much noise recently about changing their approach on food and so this may improve. It is not that the food is poor, it is more “ok” than great.

In Upper Class there is also a bar area where people sometime congregate, and so a tip is when choosing seats is to avoid getting too close to it as if you have rowdy group it can be a bit distracting, especially if you are travelling on routes that are also popular as tourist destinations.

When selecting seats and travelling by yourself, my tip is to choose one that is in the section where you do not have seats opposite you. These tend to then be very quiet and private. You face into the back of seats and so you don’t have anyone looking at you and so feels more private.

The downside of the layout of the seats overall is that if people are travelling in a group or family, to be able to talk and interact they need to shout across to each other across the aisle, or over the sides of the seats. The layout is definitely ideal for solo travellers but less so for couples or groups travelling.

One additional feature of flying Virgin Upper Class (if you paying the regular fare) is that you get a limo pick-up from home (or the office) to take you to the airport, and on arrival another one to take you to your destination.

The big plus of the Virgin Upper Class if you are travelling out of Heathrow is that you get driven to a special check-in area – so no queuing up as they greet you out of the limo. This then leads to a dedicated Virgin security channel and so you really do get through it fast. Then you get access to the amazing Virgin lounge at Heathrow Terminal 3. This is really quite something and worth making sure you allow time to enjoy it. It is without a doubt the best airline lounge anywhere. I encourage you to read my review posting about it: click here

It is interesting comparing the travellers on Virgin Upper Class versus other airline business classes. I find the travellers tend to be younger and less “stuffy”, which make sense based on the Virgin brand and style of service. I travel frequently also on BA and United and the traveller profile is very different. Guess this shows that different brands appeal to different types – and also likely due to the corporate deals done by airline!

Overall Virgin Upper Class is impressive and comfortable. The crew are informal and chatty.

Also read: Virgin Upper Class Lounge at Heathrow: The Best Airport Lounge in the World.