British Airways vs. Virgin?

As someone who has flown between NYC and London over 30 times, mostly
on BA, Virgin or AA - I would put AA in a firm 3rd, and Virgin and BA
fight it out among themselves!! BA is better service, Virgin better
food and entertainments. Both are excellent!

Try not to go AA though....

Fiona wrote:

As someone who has flown between NYC and London over 30 times, mostly
on BA, Virgin or AA - I would put AA in a firm 3rd, and Virgin and BA
fight it out among themselves!! BA is better service, Virgin better
food and entertainments. Both are excellent!

Try not to go AA though....

Not even for the extra legroom?

mrtravelkay wrote in message m...
Fiona wrote:

As someone who has flown between NYC and London over 30 times, mostly
on BA, Virgin or AA - I would put AA in a firm 3rd, and Virgin and BA
fight it out among themselves!! BA is better service, Virgin better
food and entertainments. Both are excellent!

Try not to go AA though....

Not even for the extra legroom?

If leg room is the only consideration then sure! I give equal or more
importance to good inflight entertainment, good food, free drinks and
over all, good flight attendants. AA has good leg room and probably
decent inflight entertainment for coach class in their 777s. But BA
and Virgin provide far better food and drink service, decent IFE
(Virgin's better than BA) and BA fight attendants are the best of all
three. It comes down to what is important to you. American passengers
generally give a rats ass about inflight food and drinks (which is why
their airlines have gotten away with so much cost cutting). European
and certainly Asian travellers give very high importance to food,
drinks, IFE and attitude of the flight attendants.

Happy Flying.

Riaz

mrtravelkay wrote in message m...
Fiona wrote:

As someone who has flown between NYC and London over 30 times, mostly
on BA, Virgin or AA - I would put AA in a firm 3rd, and Virgin and BA
fight it out among themselves!! BA is better service, Virgin better
food and entertainments. Both are excellent!

Try not to go AA though....

Not even for the extra legroom?

Only for the frequent flier miles!!

The legroom does not make up for the bad service and the awful food.
It just doesn't set your holiday off on the right note. Usually from
NYC if you pay 20-40dollars more you can go BA or Virgin and it is
worth the difference.

Often BA and Virgin are cheaper. Then again it is not worth it if AA
work out 75 dollars cheaper. They are not that bad, but if you have a
choice they are definately bottom of the pile!

On 27 Apr 2004 05:30:08 -0700, Riaz Osmani wrote:
mrtravelkay wrote in message m...
Fiona wrote:

As someone who has flown between NYC and London over 30 times, mostly
on BA, Virgin or AA - I would put AA in a firm 3rd, and Virgin and BA
fight it out among themselves!! BA is better service, Virgin better
food and entertainments. Both are excellent!

Try not to go AA though....

Not even for the extra legroom?

If leg room is the only consideration then sure! I give equal or more
importance to good inflight entertainment, good food, free drinks and
over all, good flight attendants. AA has good leg room and probably
decent inflight entertainment for coach class in their 777s. But BA
and Virgin provide far better food and drink service, decent IFE
(Virgin's better than BA) and BA fight attendants are the best of all
three. It comes down to what is important to you. American passengers
generally give a rats ass about inflight food and drinks (which is why
their airlines have gotten away with so much cost cutting). European
and certainly Asian travellers give very high importance to food,
drinks, IFE and attitude of the flight attendants.

Actually, as it turns out, I'm going AA. ;-)

When I fly, I don't especially care much about the food
or entertainment, since I'm typically asleep within a few
minutes of takeoff. ( Or, for those occasional long
periods on the runway, before hand... ) All I ask is
a bottle of water and perhaps a piece of fruit. And I bring
those myself, anyhow.

Even when I've flown first or business,
transcontinentally, I don't see why people are so hung
up on the food. You're still basically getting warmed-over
food in a less-than-pleasing environment - after all,
wouldn't you complain if you were in a fine, groundside
restaurant, but your seats vibrated, your table
was no larger than a school desk, and there was a constant
roar coming from a few feet away?

- Rich

Fiona wrote:

Often BA and Virgin are cheaper. Then again it is not worth it if AA
work out 75 dollars cheaper. They are not that bad, but if you have a
choice they are definately bottom of the pile!

You mentioned bad service and "horrible food".
I rarely think of food as being worth $75 for a flight.
I don't know what kind of service you are looking for in Economy. I
find little difference between AA and BA there. If I ask for a drink, I
get it. What other service are you looking for?
I rarely fly economy to Europe anymore, as I usually spend the miles for
the upgrade from the US West Coast.

user wrote in message .. .
On 27 Apr 2004 05:30:08 -0700, Riaz Osmani wrote:
mrtravelkay wrote in message m...
Fiona wrote:

As someone who has flown between NYC and London over 30 times, mostly
on BA, Virgin or AA - I would put AA in a firm 3rd, and Virgin and BA
fight it out among themselves!! BA is better service, Virgin better
food and entertainments. Both are excellent!

Try not to go AA though....

Not even for the extra legroom?

If leg room is the only consideration then sure! I give equal or more
importance to good inflight entertainment, good food, free drinks and
over all, good flight attendants. AA has good leg room and probably
decent inflight entertainment for coach class in their 777s. But BA
and Virgin provide far better food and drink service, decent IFE
(Virgin's better than BA) and BA fight attendants are the best of all
three. It comes down to what is important to you. American passengers
generally give a rats ass about inflight food and drinks (which is why
their airlines have gotten away with so much cost cutting). European
and certainly Asian travellers give very high importance to food,
drinks, IFE and attitude of the flight attendants.

Actually, as it turns out, I'm going AA. ;-)

When I fly, I don't especially care much about the food
or entertainment, since I'm typically asleep within a few
minutes of takeoff. ( Or, for those occasional long
periods on the runway, before hand... ) All I ask is
a bottle of water and perhaps a piece of fruit. And I bring
those myself, anyhow.

Even when I've flown first or business,
transcontinentally, I don't see why people are so hung
up on the food. You're still basically getting warmed-over
food in a less-than-pleasing environment - after all,
wouldn't you complain if you were in a fine, groundside
restaurant, but your seats vibrated, your table
was no larger than a school desk, and there was a constant
roar coming from a few feet away?

- Rich

Please don't get me wrong, AA are fine, but I personally prefer BA and
Virgin. Take your own food and a good book (and sleeping drugs!!) and
you are all set!

Happy travels!

I will have a 10 hour layover in London on my way back from Madrid [ flying to DFW ]. Plane from
Barajas arrives at Heathrow aboput midnight, plane to DFW leaves at 10 Am

Any recommendatrion on where to stay ? Reasonable priced hotels ????

"Riaz Osmani" wrote in message
om...
mrtravelkay wrote in message
m...
Fiona wrote:

As someone who has flown between NYC and London over 30 times, mostly
on BA, Virgin or AA - I would put AA in a firm 3rd, and Virgin and BA
fight it out among themselves!! BA is better service, Virgin better
food and entertainments. Both are excellent!

Try not to go AA though....

Not even for the extra legroom?

If leg room is the only consideration then sure! I give equal or more
importance to good inflight entertainment, good food, free drinks and
over all, good flight attendants. AA has good leg room and probably
decent inflight entertainment for coach class in their 777s. But BA
and Virgin provide far better food and drink service, decent IFE
(Virgin's better than BA) and BA fight attendants are the best of all
three. It comes down to what is important to you. American passengers
generally give a rats ass about inflight food and drinks (which is why
their airlines have gotten away with so much cost cutting). European
and certainly Asian travellers give very high importance to food,
drinks, IFE and attitude of the flight attendants.

Happy Flying.

Riaz

I have never flown on Virgin Atlantic but I have flown Transatlantic many times
on BA, AA, United, US Airways, Delta, Sabena (now only a memory). NorthWest,
KLM. All in economy/coach/steerage.

I find AA generally to be better than BA (I like their UK and European product
but have less than happy memories of their Transatlantic service) and I like KLM
best of all. And the IFE on KLM AMS-LAX is almost non-existent but it is a good
opportunity to read.

JohnT

R Canas wrote:

I will have a 10 hour layover in London on my way back from Madrid [ flying to DFW ]. Plane from
Barajas arrives at Heathrow aboput midnight, plane to DFW leaves at 10 Am

Any recommendatrion on where to stay ? Reasonable priced hotels ????


Since recommended arrival time for LGW and LHR international departures is now 3
hours prior to flight time, you won't have much spare time to get to any hotel
other than ones in the immediate vicinity. Even then it will be a short night...