After 15 years away, I chose to fly with Virgin Atlantic again—despite having lost all my accumulated loyalty points when the airline changed its programme post-COVID. I was hopeful for a good experience, but sadly I was left disappointed and shocked to discover Richard Branson had sold half the brand to Delta Airlines. I managed to secure bulkhead seats on both the outbound and return flights—something I regard as a “miracle” given how tight the inventory was. The crew were generally courteous, though their level of fatigue was evident because they were complaining about only having one night stop overs on international flights. There was no duty-free service offered either way. I was informed that the company Virgin uses for in-flight shopping had gone bankrupt. This was so annoying as I had not shopped in Duty free at heathrow, so beware if travelling Virgin, its been like this for over a year. 

As a vegan passenger, I ordered vegan meals in advance. I was looking forward to the “afternoon tea” service, but what was delivered instead was two satsumas in a plastic bag, because apparently no suitable vegan menu was available. My seat would not recline properly without the assistance of a steward—an issue that made the long haul especially uncomfortable. Like I said, I overheard crew complaining about having only one‐night stopovers, and that fatigue seemed to show in service consistency.

Virgin Atlantic’s reputation, particularly in recent years, has taken a hit—on review platforms its Trustpilot rating hovers around 2 out of 5. While I appreciate the attempt to regain my business, this flight has unfortunately confirmed my earlier decision: I will be looking elsewhere next time. While there were some positive aspects (seat location, courteous staff), the number of service short-falls—especially around pre-booked vegan meals and lack of duty-free—mean I can’t recommend Virgin Atlantic for me personally at this stage. I’ll be very cautious about future bookings unless I see meaningful improvements. It is a great shame when Entrepreneurs like Branson build such brilliant brands only to sell out later down the road to bigger airlines who clearly have less interest in keeping their loyal cusomers happy. I have written to the new CEO not asking for any compensation because it was not that bad in terms of overall experience but because I hope it will help make imporvments going forward, like informing passengers when they book, there is currently no duty free service.