Review: Virgin Atlantic Upper Class A330-300 (MAN-ATL)

I'm finally on the last leg of my flight around the world. I started out in Seattle on the inaugural Taipei flight for Delta, then I took China Airlines to London and connected on KLM to Amsterdam and after a few days I made it to Manchester via KLM again on their older regional plan. Now we're going back home on Virgin Atlantic in their A330.

Booking

I paid for my flight with Virgin Points, it was a part of a total booking from Amsterdam to Atlanta with a connection in Manchester. Due to the insanely high taxes when traveling out of the United Kingdom, you can save a bit by starting somewhere else in Europe and connecting through the United Kingdom.

It saved me almost 50% on the taxes when booking a connection out of Amsterdam rather than from Manchester direction. Taxes if I was to book directly from Manchester to the Atlantic were going to be over 600GRB compared to the 396EUR I paid for the connection.

Check-in

KLM, a SkyTeam airline along with Virgin Atlantic, handled check in and the entire ground experience at the airport. On the morning that I flew out of Amsterdam, it was semi-busy when I was through check-in quickly and off to security.

However, once I got to Manchester and had to deal with the transfer desk for Virgin Atlantic connecting flights, that's where my frustrations started. There were about 8 of us off the KLM flight connecting to other Virgin Atlantic flights. In total, I spent an hour and a half for 8 people to get through the connection desk.

What took so long? It seemed like a mix of only one person working the desk and being slow, and passengers not having the right documentation. When flying to the United States, there are extra security checks that need to take place along with a physical check of the passport. Those in front of me in the line were either missing required documentation or had some sort of troubles with their tickets.

Thankfully I had a 4-hour connection in Manchester, I also had the option of a 90-minute connection and surely would have cut it way too close.

The Seat

Once onboard, I was greeted with the old style herringbone seats. These seats are set up in a 1-1-1 configuration, where the seats on the left side of the airplane are more private due to the fact you have a wall you're facing. The seats on the right side are better for couples or families as you are facing each other and is much better to have conversations.

However, if you're traveling alone it won't feel very private at all.

One thing I dislike about these seats is that they don't motorize into the lay flat position, you have limited recline in the seated configuration. If you want to lay flat, the seat needs to be folded forward to go into the bed position. While I believe this provides for a better, more comfy, bed experience. It's a pain if you like to have some sort of adjustments between the seat and the bed position.

I would also suggest avoiding the last seat in the cabin on either side. It is missing a window and may be more bothersome to the bar area.

Welcome drinks were brought around which, besides the canned water, was a 40th anniversary wine and grapefruit juice drink. It was tart but tasty.

Menu

I was traveling during the start of Virgin Atlantic's 40th year celebration. There was not much fanfare besides a new menu look and a 40th anniversary specialty drink which was a wine and grapefruit mixture, it was quite tasty.

Service

Service started only about 20 minutes after takeoff. And began with some crisps (chips) and a drink. Honestly, I am a big fan of the crisps that Virgin Atlantic serves up. They are usually warm and crunchy and seasoned perfectly.

While waiting for the starters a flight attendant started to go around the cabin offering different options for lunch. We found out after takeoff that catering hadn't loaded the correct number of chicken dishes and was trying to find passengers to take an alternate food choice. Thankfully it sounded like they found the two people they needed to change their options and continued service.

The appetizer was a nice light smoked halibut with a tomato salsa. Fish is always hard to get right on flights, however it was light and flaky as fish should be and prepared perfectly.

For lunch, I chose the breaded chicken with potatoes. Everything was cooked well. The chicken was moist, and the potatoes had a nice seasoning along with the truffle butter sauce.

And if you thought that was enough, for dessert there was a mascarpone and coffee tiramisu with crème and fruit. Both were delicious, but most of the powered topping had chipped off and was lazily scattered on the plate.

Lunch was finished before crossing over Ireland, and it was time for a nice nap. I got only about 2 or 3 hours of sleep before getting too restless, and took some time to watch some movies on my iPad and some work on my computer.

About an hour before landing, the crew came around and offered tea time snacks. While I didn't have any tea, I did indulge in the snacks before landing.

The selection included a scone, macaron, piece of cake, and a cucumber and cream cheese sandwich. All of which was yummy, and I think my preferred pre-landing snack out of any airline I've flown.

And while I didn't visit it much during the flight. The bar area in the back of the Upper Class cabin was stocked with snacks and drinks during the flight. I love the use of space, especially for longer flights it's a nice place to go and relax that's not your seat during the flight.

The arrival into Atlanta was smooth for the June day that I arrived. I always enjoy being scheduled to come home in the early afternoon, I can actually get some things done on the way home rather than coming in late at night and driving home very early in the morning.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I always enjoy the ride on Virgin Atlantic. The staff is always friendly and happy to assist. The food has never been bad, the cute salt and pepper shakers are a fun thing to take home, and besides the seating configuration on their 787 and A330-300 aircraft, I enjoy their other aircraft configuration in their seating. If ever I need to get to the United Kingdom, I always tend to look at Virgin Atlantic first, it's nice they connect Atlanta with both Manchester and London, which opens the door to lots of connection options.