Upper Class minus the Pizzazz (MAN-MCO August 2023)

That Upper Class Feeling

Virgin Atlantic’s onboard First Class or Business Class is called “Upper Class” it is designed to offer the traveller unparralled service from the moment your leaving home, to the full airport experience to onboard luxury and comfort, this could include a chaffeured vehicle to get you to the airport, business class lounges at the airport to relax and indulge before you fly, followed by a large flat bed seat onboard the aircraft, fine dining, an onboard bar to sit at onboard, this service is offered on all Virgin Atlantic flights at the same cost, but is it all it’s cracked up to be? Lets delve in and see based on my flights and experience.

It isn’t cheap to fly on one of Virgin’s upper class seats, when I pay a lot for something I expect all the bells and whistles that go with such an extravagant purchase, stupidly I read all about the upper class product from a review from somebody who flew out of London Heathrow with Virgin, believe you me its significantly different, and from what I’ve read and seen on videos passengers flying from Manchester get a much poorer deal than those flying from Heathrow, and lets be clear, Virgin charge the same prices whether it be from London or Manchester, to show as a comparison if you went into a Bentley dealership in London and bought a car you get everything included, yet if you bought the same car in Manchester it would come without an engine and no interior or wheels, thats the best way to show the London/Manchester Virgin comparison.

So straight from the get go, there was no chaffeur service offered anymore, this applies for both London and Manchester, no mention of this at the time of booking? So a round trip cab was chosen as my mode of transport at an additional cost, but hey ho off to the airport we went, now having read extensively about the upper class products, I was waiting for when I arrive at the airport the concierge service to guide us to the upper class desks, the red carpet (literally) at the dedicated check in, the Virgin team to whisk my luggage off, then make my way to the Virgin Clubhouse to enjoy its treats, then onto my flight to my luxury seat. By this point the mood was excited.com!

Terminal & Check-in

I wasn’t prepared to be dropped back to earth with such a bang but let me explain, remember I said I want to get everything I paid for well let my explain the substantial differences, as we walked into the terminal and made our way towards the Virgin check in desks, there was no concierge service, we could see a group of staff dressed in the bright Red Virgin uniforms but no meet and greet, no nothing to be honest apart from one staff member waving their arm shouting “what class are you flying?” I responded back by shouting “Upper Class!” to which she waved us over, there was no Red Carpet, treats for young flyers, no assistance with luggage absolutely nothing whatsoever, there seemed to be more staff mulling around the economy check in area, than there was at the Upper Class desk, now where I have said “the Upper Class Desk” there was no desk at all, it was a check in agent in a Virgin uniform sat on a high office chair with a PC on a stand that was it! Now she was very polite and informative about the check in procedure I was surprised that I was not asked a single security question, but hey ho we carried on with the check in, once done and our boarding cards were printed she advised me that I would have to move all my luggage around to another set of desks where I needed to place them onto the conveyor belt, so began the struggle of moving six cases as well as my hand luggage to another desk with a belt system, I carried some, I kicked some and went back for the others but got there in the end, the check in agent told me to put them on the conveyor, he tagged them and off they went. Sorry Virgin but really poor I paid for a level of service which unfortunately cost considerably more than an economy seat, so far two little additional luxuries to the travel experience have been garbage, no chauffeur service and no check in experience whatsoever certainly not seen anything to warrant the thousands paid for the Upper Class seat.

Virgin Clubhouse nope sorry there isn’t one!

The pictures above are were taken inside the Virgin Clubhouse at London Heathrow, a state of the art lounge where you can fine dine, drink old malts, relax, work, take a shower, even work out on Peloton Exercise Cycles pretty much everything is catered for in it’s own exclusive environment, sadly this is only for those flying from Heathrow, as I was flying from Manchester using exactly the same product and cost as those in London, passengers in Manchester are certainly short changed and then some, there is no lounge at Manchester for Upper Class to enjoy exclusively instead you are invited to the 1903 lounge in Terminal 2, this isn’t an exclusive lounge anybody can pay to use it if they so desire at a cost of £49.99 per person, so everything but exclusive, now it does say if you want to book the lounge on their site that children under the age of 18 are not allowed in, we booked the upper class experience as a surprise for my 14 year old son, he paid no attention at check in, not that he would of realized it was Upper Class anyway as explained, so we intended to keep the surprise going, as we approached the lounge, I handed our boarding passes to the lounge attendant it clearly read Upper Class! The rules for children are different when booking Upper Class they are automatically allowed in, but the attendant didn’t bother reading what was in front of her, instead she immediately asked me how old my son was? To which I told her he was 14 years old, she then said abruptly that he was not allowed in the lounge as under 18’s weren’t permitted, I tried to point to my boarding card quietly that he can go in as we were Upper Class, she then looked at the passes realized her mistake and said directly to my son ” your OK to come in I can see your travelling Upper Class” surprise gone !!!

1903 Lounge used by Upper Class Passengers

The lounge is nice please don’t get me wrong, it was clean, comfortable, spacious, great array of drinks and snacks on offer, the staff (all two of them) worked very hard and were very polite explaining how the lounge worked etc. My partner fancied having the Poached Egg with Avocado on Toast, she was told they had run out of Avocado (it was only 0830am) so instead she opted for the Poached Egg on Toast LOL. It wasn’t busy when we first went in a few people sat working away on laptops, few older couples enjoying the ambience with a cup of tea and a cake, but it did start to get busy more people coming in, in shorts and football tops, small groups of girls small groups of young men, the volume started to go up, as the alcohol area became very congested and busy, then all the selfies started so we chose that this was a good opportunity to make haste and wander around the shops before making our way to the flight, if I had to mark the lounge experience from 1 to 10, with one being the lowest and 10 being the highest, I’d score it from we first went in a steady 7 out of 10, but as time moved on sorry right down to a 2 out of 10, I’d score it a one but I would feel cruel on the staff who worked their socks off (bless them). Again not great Virgin yet another win for London Heathrow and a big fat loss for full fare paying passengers in Manchester.

The Virgin Fleet

Virgin operates four different aircraft types they are as follows

• Airbus A350-1000 average age 2.0 year, 10 in the fleet
• Boeing 787-900 average age 7.5 years, 17 in the fleet
• Airbus A300-900 average age 1.5 years, 4 in the fleet
• Airbus A330-300 average age 12.0 years, 10 in the fleet

State of the art aircraft in abundance upgraded cabin on three different model types within the fleet, but as you probably guessed by the tone of this piece Manchester did not get any state of the art aircraft sadly, although if truth be told one sole A350-1000 is based at Manchester (I have flown on that A/C) now from Manchester you can fly to Orlando International, New York JFK, Atlanta, and Bridgetown Barbados, all are flown on the older Airbus A330-300 aircraft! All the other newer aircraft solely operate out of London offering LHR passenger unrivalled luxury and comfort on new generation aircraft, sadly not Manchester, so once again yet another loss for Virgin clearly showing they want to charge the same as London passengers but offer a considerably lesser product.

VS75, MAN-MCO, 26.08.23 A330-300 G-VGEM

As we meandered to the gate which incidentally at Manchester is a trek, we were in an element of calm coupled with intrepidation, wondering what lay before us when we arrived at the gate? What were our seats going to be like? on arriving at the gate we heard the call for Upper Class to board the aircraft, we presented our boarding passes and down to the aircraft we strolled, as my party approached the door to the aircraft, we was greeted with a very friendly “good morning” and a huge smile that went with it, so far so good.

We were guided towards our seats we had 9K, 10G, 10K & 11G my seat was 11K as you can see from the pictures they looked OK fairly spacious, comfortable looking but most of all the ability to stretch out on a 9 hour flight, as everybody was taking their seats and stowing their baggage, I could see that in this particular cabin there was only one empty seat by the window on my side I’m thinking possibly 4K maybe, so quite well sold to be fair, I settled into my seat and explored what was on offer, big screen check! USB points check! duvets/pillows check! all looking good played about with the seat controls a little all seemed to be working, at that point I was greeted by one of the crew offering me a choice of Water, Orange Juice or Champagne naturally Champagne was the tipple for this occasion I sat back and enjoyed my drink, as I was reading the menu and supping my Champagne I dropped my phone down the seat, quick search and it was located along with a menu from the inbound flight, a half drank water bottle, a used napkin and one sock! urghhh I gathered the bits up and asked the crew to dispose of them, I did advise where I’d found them to which she returned with a smile and said “OK” that was the end of that ?

The doors closed and we was advised that a video would be played advising the safety procedure’s for the aircraft (I always pay attention) after the video had finished another announcement was made which was a slap in the chops, when you fly on a Virgin aircraft in Upper Class each one either has a bar area you can sit at or a snug you can sit at during the flight, another little bit of luxury, the announcement very quickly extinguished any thoughts of enjoying the bar area! We was advised that the bar area would be closed for the entire flight, due to something to do with the oxygen masks in that area, I will honestly say I was gutted, its a brilliant little luxury that really enhances your Upper Class experience, but for this flight it was a no no and covered over with a water proof cover really disappointing (see picture below)

The menu on board looked really good plenty of choice for all dietary requirements, the menu was handed to you as soon as you got yourself comfortable in your seat shortly after they come around to take you meal order as well as your first drinks after take off, below was the menu for our flight outbound to Orlando.

As you can see there was something for everybody, I can not in anyway fault the service with regards to drinks and to meals it was grade A+ superb, the food was tasty and very hot which is unusual for inflight food as it’s normally lukewarm, the drinks were cold and the crew were extremely attentive to my needs constantly strolling past asking if I needed anything etc. was really nice. But remember when I made a point of mentioning the empty seat? Well there was a reason for this! Onboard this aircraft there was 31 Upper Class seats 30 of those seats were occupied by full fare paying passengers, the one empty seat near the front was adjacent to an older couple, who clearly had various family members seated in economy, yet for the duration of the flight a succession of people from the back would bump past you to sit with the couple talking, not quietly either, one young lad came passed about 20 times every time he did he bumped every bodies seats, feet or whatever else was there to be bumped, oddly the crew allowed the continual visits without any concerns even served drinks to all the visiting family members? I hate to sound snobby but I paid for my seat as did 29 others yet a group of passengers from the back continually came up disturbing everybody in the cabin and enjoyed the drinks and snacks, I think the daughter of the couple I’d say she was in her upper 40s sat in the empty seat for a while and had a nap? I mean come on Virgin really seems a tad unfair to take thousands of pounds from me for my seat in the cabin when others are allowed to frequent the cabin for the entire duration of the flight from Manchester to Orlando, I know one passenger spoke to the crew about exactly what I’m explaining now, the crew response was short and sweet “Sir they aren’t causing you any harm are they so what is the issue?” The issue is we probably spent £7k more for the cabin use that’s the issue! But regardless of what was said the family from the back enjoyed the cabin at the front we had to sit back and accept it.

Arrival was very good first off the aircraft, straight through US Customs then on to the baggage reclaim hall, really refreshing when all our bags came straight out all together, no damage, very fast well done Virgin and MCO airport staff.

My Conclusion on Upper Class

If your flying from London Heathrow with Virgin Atlantic using their Upper Class service and product, then be prepared to be blown away, they’ve catered for everything from entering the airport to getting off the aircraft on the other side, seamless, flawless and worth every single penny you have paid be it a frequent traveler or a family saving up for a trip of a lifetime, Virgin Atlantic London Heathrow is all your wishes rolled into one. Sadly not so for Manchester I’m afraid so please be warned when booking Upper Class, you do not get a fraction of what is offered at Heathrow, substandard check in experience, under par lounge facilities mixed in with regular bucket and spade travelers, older tired aircraft, length walks to the aircraft, older cabin configs, sub par onboard facilities all for the same price you pay for the all seeing all dancing product at Heathrow, If I had to sit in front of Shei Weiss the CEO for Virgin who in fairness has steered the airline incredibly well, and give him in my opinion a price to price comparison for the same flights in Upper Class, I’d say the Manchester product should easily be at least £2500 cheaper as you simply do not get at all what you pay for which is sad, if you have saved up for a long time to enjoy this service, I’ve had the opportunity to fly business class from Manchester and London with numerous airlines including Delta Airlines, American Airlines, British Airways, Etihad, Emirates, Lufthansa etc. sadly by for this is the worst from Manchester, which is a shame as Virgin does very well out of Manchester with regards to passenger numbers, freight etc. so as a conclusion please Mr. Weiss before me and my family fly Virgin Upper Class again which will be New Years Day 2024 Man to JFK please look at your product and share with us some of the love you give to LHR instead of giving us high priced dregs.