bromleygirl

I'm in the process of trying to book our flights for the move in June from LHR to SFO. Virgin Atlantic has a sale on right now but as with anything the really good fares have gone already so I'm now stuck with paying more than I wanted or looking at a cheaper alternative with United.

Ideally I'm looking for a direct flight as I'll be on my own with 2 kids and 6 pieces of luggage, carry-on's etc.

Can anyone tell me what their experience has been with either of them??

AdobePinon

Never flown Virgin, but United is always crap.

tonrob

Virgin are (usually) great. Every plane I've flown on recently has on-demand seat-back entertainment with literally dozens of films and TV programmes to choose from, plus a few video games. That should keep the kids quiet. And there's free booze on the trolley (I think United charges) so if it does all go a bit Pete Tong, you won't care anyway!

peteandvanessa

Our experience with Virgin has always been very good. The in flight entertainment is pretty good as well. It's been a long time since I flew with United, but in my opinion United is just sort of ok rather than good. I'd go with Virgin.

md95065

Pretty much all airlines are crap.

Certainly United has done a lot of "cost cutting" since they emerged from Chapter 11 a few years ago which translates into bad service and charging extra for everything that they can think of.

I still usually fly United though - mostly from habit because I used to do a *lot* of miles (over 100,000 per year for about 5 years) with them and that at least meant that they were polite and helpful when they screwed up - but also because they happen to fly essentially all of the routes that I need.

Juswus

I loved flights on Virgin. I always wanted to fly in their Upper Class and sit a tthe bar they have on the plane

I've flown BA the last few times thought as they've been cheaper. But if I chose just on the flight alone I'd chose Virgin again.

Patrick Hasler

Virgin is always a great experience compared to others. I have tried a couple of other airlines but always return to them. The entertainment for long haul flights is vastly better than any other airline and they are usually cheaper.
I also will NEVER fly across an ocean on any plane with less than 4 engines

Only Virgin promise you never will

chartreuse

I've only ever been up front with Virgin. FWIW, it rocked. I can't comment on coach, but as others have said, United is shit.

We'll be going business class with Delta, only because they'll let us bring the kitten.

chartreuse

You haven't been paying attention to the 777 ER trials, have you?

Chrissywissy100

Double check the total Virgin price against BA, cos they are crafty with their "sales" and dont include the taxes surcharges etc until you get to the checkout, but BA's is included in the first cost you see. Ive only ever flown BA to SFO so cant comment, but have heard good things. That said my brother said that he thought BA flight to sfo was better value for money than Virgin, since there wasnt much difference really.

Giantaxe

My preference for this route is Virgin / BA / United in that order. United's service is significantly worse than the other two for transatlantic routes, imo.
Having said that my next trip to England will be a frequent flyer ticket on United because the other two charge fuel surcharges on frequent flyer awards whereas the other two don't.

Juswus

oh you lucky clucky!
I promised myself I would do that when I moved over here, but my sale of my house didnt go through in time to spend that much money. One day......

bromleygirl

Thanks everyone for the responses - it seems that Virgin has it! I've also heard that Virgin doesn't have a customer service telephone number but I wonder how true that is...
I suppose if I'm going to spend the money for Virgin I could just look at BA as well.
If anyone has any more comments/suggestions I'd love to hear them as I want to secure the flights in the next couple of days

Moonshadow_Girl

Too bad you aren't flying sooner. BA is having a great sale through the 29th of Jan. We just purchased a roundtrip ticket SFO to LHR for my DH in mid February for $529. (That's dollars, not pounds).

I've only ever flown BA for the SFO/LHR route, and always World Traveller Plus, and have always been pleased with their entertainment and the service.

AmerLisa

Have flown Virgin, but its been awhile, they were fairly good. We flew United last year - have to agree it was pretty crap.

Just thought I'd add that we flew Virgin America last year for the first time, they were really good for a domestic flight!