Virgin Atlantic Economy Class Review: Delightful Airbus A350 from Los Angeles to London

Virgin Atlantic Economy Class Review: Delightful Airbus A350 from Los Angeles to London

Today I’m flying Virgin Atlantic, the glamourous second flag carrier of the UK, on a 10 hour flight from Los Angeles to London on their flagship Airbus A350-1000 Often overshadowed by their larger competitor British Airways, we’ll see how they stack up and whether you should consider flying on Virgin Atlantic or just play it safe with British Airways… Virgin Atlantic use Terminal 2 for check-in here at LAX which makes sense as Delta (who partially own Virgin) also operate from here but it is mildly inconvenient as Virgin flights actually fly out of the International Tom Bradley Terminal B which as you can see is actually a bit of a walk plus security at Terminal 2 is a shambles I suppose on the bright side it did mean we get some good views as we walked to the gate but if you have mobility issues it could definitely be a struggle, especially if you get one of the further gates Luckily our gate was about as close as it could have been, and you can see it right here A massive 8 year old Airbus A350-1000 with 335 seats, the flagship of Virgin Atlantic’s fleet Virgin have 12 of these in their fleet, and I have to say I’m a big fan of their red livery We’ll get back to the aircraft in a minute, but first, let’s take a tour of this airport The Tom Bradley International Terminal is the largest terminal at LAX orignally opened 41 years ago for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, this terminal was named after former Mayor Tom Bradley and as the name suggests, is basically used by all non-US airlines plus a few long haul flights for Delta, American and United It has been heavily modernised over the last 15 years, and is quite functional I guess but the restaurant and shopping options are nothing special though they do have Pret A Manger, which I love to see as a British person maybe my favourite thing about the terminal is the plane spotting you can do here LAX gets a boatload of long haul aircraft and maybe with the exception of Heathrow, Frankfurt and Seoul is probably the best place to see the Airbus A380 and Boeing 747 anywhere in the world… so after a bit of plane spotting we headed to the gate and whilst we wait for boarding, lets go over a bit of the history of Virgin Atlantic… Just like this terminal, they were founded in 1984 with the original intention, slightly randomly, to operate flights from London to the Falkland Islands They quickly realised that was a terrible idea and flew their first flight from London to Newark and under the helm of co-owner Sir Richard Branson and all his money from being founder of the Virgin Group they quickly expanded, using the Boeing 747-200 for their first flight back in 1984 and they were also one of the few airlines to operate the Airbus A340, one of my favourite planes Though historically they’ve rarely made a profit, and Richard Branson himself said the airline wouldn’t have survived if Delta didn’t buy a 49% stake in 2015 throughout all that though they have kept their very distinctive brand identity and, love it or hate it, it does at least make them a bit more exciting and differentiated compared to British Airways Virgin Atlantic are also quite rare in that they have an all-widebody fleet, similar to Emirates and that consists of 16 Boeing 787-9s, 12 Airbus A350-1000s, and 14 A330s they also have a relatively small, all long haul network basically just connecting the UK to places British people go for business, leisure or to visit family so clearly, their operations are much smaller than British Airways But they recently joined the SkyTeam Alliance, and have a lot of codeshare routes with Delta so they do have a pretty global reach anyway, time for boarding and we were group 5 of 6 on this flight So did have to wait a fair while before we get onboard, here are the flight route and stats where we would fly straight North-East over Canada and eventually Greenland before coming down to the UK despite a delayed departure we did make up most of that time back in the air arriving just 10 minutes behind schedule also here is the seat map for this Airbus A350-1000 I didn’t want to pay extra so chose the Standard seats in the back which are free to select on the standard fare If you pay about £100 per person extra you can get an “Economy Delight” seat, which includes priority boarding and 3″ more legroom Stepping on board you’re welcomed by the warm mood lighting and a mostly packed plane the pilot announced there were 302 passengers on board (for some reason) and with a total capacity of 335 people that meant the plane was about 90% full Though I do have to mention, as soon as we stepped on board we noticed a strong fishy smell and in the Business galley we saw a food cart labelled cod and I’m not exaggerating when I say we could smell this cod for at least half the flight from our seats in Economy so maybe the food tasted good and the Business passengers enjoyed it but I have to ask Virgin, please don’t load a bunch of stinky fish on the plane it really wasn’t pleasant looking at the seat though, it was very pleasant… it has decent legroom at 31″ of seat pitch, pretty much the standard for long haul seats The seatback pocket also has 3 separate pouches makes it good for storing stuff and the headphones are decent too there’s a good folding tray table, which could have maybe done with a cleaning wipe… and there’s also a normal economy pillow and a bright red fleece blanket which with the seats and mood lighting makes everything feel extremely red and two USB A ports per seat for charging then the tv is a well-sized 11.6″ and also a fantastic view out the window and a nice leather adjustable headrest and I do like the dark red fabric they’ve used on the seats it looks good and was quite clean After boarding completed, we were just sitting around for a suspiciously long time and then the pilot announced they’d just been dealing with a technical issue, which was now fixed but a few minutes after that, he came on with another message which went like this: So whilst we wait for that, let’s take a look at the IFE System… The tv screen is a well-sized 11.6″ with a fast and responsive touch screen and the movie and tv selection is pretty good, pretty much what you’d expect from a big Western Airline but navigation was a bit of a pain, as when you click into movies or tv shows it just gives the whole list to scroll through and you can choose filters to apply to help find what you want, but it is definitely less intuitive than other airlines like their main competitor British Airways One thing I really like is the external camera on the A350, which gives you a really clear picture of the outside very cool to watch during takeoff and landing and the map is quite good, but as you can see, it is really slow and unresponsive to inputs, which was kind of annoying then after a bit more waiting, the pilot came on saying we were ready to leave all told, there was just over an hour delay, but we still almost landed on time thanks to the jet stream The safety video started playing, and it was definitely entertaining and it also references loads of classic movies which I liked Pretty sure this is a Mad Max reference and this is 2001 a Space Odyssey After the safety video finished we pushed back and made a relatively quick taxi to the runway and once again, I have to praise LAX from an Aviation Geek piont of view, loads of cool plane spotting and the runways are pretty much always visible from the terminal I saw this ANA Star Wars plane too… and a small feature of the TV I really appreciate, it has picture-in-picture mode so you can have two screens at once and switch between them really easily great for watching a movie whilst also looking at the map or camera especially in this modern world where people like me don’t have the attention span to focus on just one thing Now buckle up for a pretty impressive takeoff with fantastic views of all the terminal buildings… and you can’t really see it with the haze, but there is the Hollywood Sign… Shortly after takeoff a bag of bbq flavoured corn snacks were handed out alongside a drink then maybe 20 min later the main meal service came out, which was a choice of veggie pasta, or Mexican chicken I’m not sure it was particularly Mexican, but it did taste good, with a caesar salad to start a very average chocolate mousse for dessert, bread roll with butter, and cheese and crackers overall it was pretty good and I got a Fevertree Ginger Ale to drink which was great though the portion was a bit on the small side, and the salad needed more dressing but the main being very good made up for the other stuff being a bit lacking Now about 4 hours into the flight the crew dimmed the cabin to encourage people to sleep but at that point I had just started watching a French remake of the Count of Monte Cristo which came out last year which is a great movie by the way, but unfortunately it’s 3 hours long so by the time the movie was over breakfast was being served, then I didn’t want to sleep in case I missed the landing ultimately giving me some of the worst jet lag I’ve ever had lasting over a week But as we gradually got further North over Canada and Greenland the Sun never actually set making for some incredible views, almost worth the jet lag and the breakfast wasn’t bad either consisting of a yoghurt, some fruit and a sausage and cheese croissant, which basically tasted like a McMuffin but with croissant instead of English Muffin I would of preferred it to be served on a tray instead of a flimsy box though as it made things a bit messy We began our descent into a very cloudy and windy London so get ready for a bumpy landing coming up… but first let me briefly cover the inflight WiFi Unlike British Airways you have to pay to access, starting at £2.99 just for messaging up to £20.99 for unlimited access, which seems expensive but you can use your phone as a remote for the TV, which is cool I guess So anyway, back to the landing… So, Virgin Atlantic… Despite the 1h 15m delay I actually found this flight very pleasant Virgin’s A350-100 has a really nice modern cabin with very comfy seats and the A350 is one of the most modern and comfortable plane out there so is definitely my favourite in their fleet The food was tasty, though maybe a bit lacking in portion size for a 10 hour flight and service from the crew was also pretty good too, though I have to say, in my experience at least I generally find the British Airways crew to be a bit more attentive and friendly Price-wise, I paid for this flight using Virgin Points, and it cost 15,000 points plus $150 for the one way trip which actually I think is a really good deal if you value the points at about 1p per point being about $300 in total so here is my final score, pause if you want to read the whole thing and I would say that from this flight at least Virgin Atlantic Economy Class was actually slightly better than British Airways and I would definitely consider using them again but I prefer BA’s Premium and Business Class, so I’ll give both of them a 7/10 on my airline tier list where I rank every airline I’ve flown on this channel so far based off my personal preference Now coming up in my next few videos I’ll have two flights with United to review, as well as a review of the Royal Hawaiian hotel in Waikiki and the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas and the Amex Centurion Lounge in Las Vegas, so like and subscribe to stay tuned for that leave a comment if you enjoyed this video Thanks for watching and good bye!

Today I’m reviewing Virgin Atlantic and their Airbus A350-1000 Economy Class from Los Angeles to London Heathrow. This airline styles themselves as the glamorous, trendy alternative to older airlines like British Airways or American, so lets see if they live up to the hype…

More videos from me…
– Emirates A380 Economy from London to Dubai: https://youtu.be/PhPMNYVemz0
– Etihad Boeing 777 Economy from Rome to Abu Dhabi: https://youtu.be/l0xhnAyHNGQ
– KLM Boeing 777 Economy from Amsterdam to Dubai: https://youtu.be/-r28fJhYw9A

– FLIGHT INFORMATION –
Airline: Virgin Atlantic
Class: Economy
Aircraft: Airbus A350-100
Seat: 57A
From: Los Angeles Terminal B (LAX)
To: London Heathrow T3 (LHR)
Date: Jun 2025

Ticket Cost: 15,000 Virgin Points + $150

– Equipment –
Filmed on iPhone 15 Pro
Edited with Davinci Resolve

-CONTENTS-
00:00 – Intro & Los Angeles Airport
01:35 – Plane Spotting
01:55 – History of Virgin Atlantic
03:13 – Flight Details & Seat Map
03:52 – Boarding
04:30 – Seat Tour
05:22 – Delay and Pilot Announcement
06:28 – IFE System
07:28 – Another Pilot Announcement
07:55 – Safety Video
08:54 – Taxi
09:46 – Takeoff
11:10 – Main Meal Service
11:55 – Sunset & Ice Over Greenland
12:23 – Breakfast
12:42 – WiFi
13:02 – Landing
13:51 – Final Thoughts
14:35 – Final Score & Airline Tier List
14:57 – Preview of Next Videos