economie

I flew on Virgin Atlantic from New York to London in economy for the first time. It’s now one of my favorite long-haul rides.

August 20, 20240

I flew Virgin’s A350 in economy from New York to London for the first time in July.

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I took my first daytime transatlantic flight in March, and I’m never going back to red-eyes unless I have no choice. Both of my daytime flights have been around the same price as the overnight options.

My Virgin flight took off at 8:20 a.m. ET and landed in London around 8 p.m. local time, providing the easiest way to avoid jetlag because I could go straight to the hotel and sleep.

The check-in was surprisingly efficient.

The lounge featured Virgin’s staple red branding with decorative finishes, a bar, and à la carte food.

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I have a Priority Pass membership through my Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card, which costs $550 a year but gives me free access to hundreds of lounges worldwide. Since I travel half the year, it’s easily worth it.

There are several options at Terminal 4, including Virgin’s lounge. Eligible business class ticket holders and those with loyalty status can also enter, but my priority pass allows me to enter with an economy ticket.

I was among the last to board and headed to aisle seat 52G.

I felt I had more than enough legroom, but I’m small and fit into virtually any airline seat.

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Virgin’s regular economy A350 seats are in a 3 × 3 × 3 layout and offer 31 inches of pitch and 17.4 inches of width. I had plenty of wiggle room.

Taller travelers may consider upgrading to an extra legroom economy seat, which offers up to 34 inches of pitch but the same width.

The padding was plush, and I appreciated the adjustable headrest and recline.

The seats came with linens and headphones.

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Virgin provided a pillow and blanket for the long-haul flight. I was surprised to see the blanket featured little wings to drape over my shoulders to keep it in place.

It’s a small but smart detail.

The seatback had an 11.5-inch screen loaded with good in-flight entertainment.

We could watch the view of the plane from the outside via the seatback screens.

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A flight-following app on the seatback screen included an outside camera, allowing passengers to see the plane’s surroundings in real time.

I didn’t realize the feature existed until we were descending into London, but I watched during the landing and taxi to the gate.

The food was better than most competitors, and I was happy the breakfast was simple.

Virgin’s WiFi cost nearly $9 for one hour of browsing. A messaging option was also available for $3.95.

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Virgin charges passengers for internet access and messaging. And, according to the airline, its A350-1000 WiFi can’t support streaming, so it’s only good for emails, messaging, and browsing.

Competitor JetBlue has free WiFi, while Delta recently rolled out complimentary internet on select international flights and intends to make it fleet-wide in 2025.

I paid the $3.95 for messaging, which worked fine.

The plane landed in London on time, and I waited only 10 minutes for my luggage.

I could use the adjustable tray table to watch pre-downloaded content on my Kindle Fire 10.

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In addition to Delta and Virgin, I’ve flown across the Atlantic on American Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Germany’s Condor, Iberia, JetBlue Airways, United Airlines, and no-frills carriers Level, French bee, and Norse Atlantic Airways.

Virgin lands near the top of that list regarding overall experience. However, it falls short of JetBlue and Delta, which both have better food than Virgin and offer better in-flight connectivity options. Norse is the closest in overall experience if you consider its low-cost competition.

Still, Virgin is a reliable option on the ever-popular New York-London corridor, and I’d highly recommend the A350 specifically for noise. It’s the quietest plane you can fly, and combined with Virgin’s headrest, linens, and padding, I’d easily sleep if I’d flown the red-eye.