My family enjoyed a restful flight with friendly service on a Virgin Atlantic A350-1000 in economy class from Los Angeles to London. Here’s my review.
Virgin Atlantic A350-1000 Economy Class Review (LAX-LHR)
We booked these tickets at the last minute for 15,000 Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles and $152.80 in taxes and fees. I love late departures like this…I got to work the entire day, hit the gym, eat dinner, and still get to the airport on time.
Virgin Atlantic has now opened its own lounge at LAX, but since it wasn’t open yet, I stopped by the (unremarkable) Korean Air Lounge (both lounges are located in the Tom Bradley International Terminal) before the flight.
Boarding began promptly at 10:20 pm.
Virgin Atlantic 24
Los Angeles (LAX) – London (LHR)
Tuesday, September 24
Depart: 10:55 PM
Arrive: 5:15 PM+1
Duration: 10hr, 20 min
Distance: 5,546 miles
Aircraft: Airbus A350-1000
Seat: 69K (Economy Class)
Onboard, we were cheerfully greeted by cabin crew at door 2 and walked through the galley and turned right, walking through the premium economy class cabin to our seats in the rear of the plane.
Seat
There are two configurations of the Virgin A350-1000; the standard configuration we were on (44 business class, 56 premium economy, 235 economy) and a leisure configuration that primarily serves the Caribbean (16 business class, 56 premium economy, 325 economy).
Virgin Atlantic uses the Recaro CL3710 seat on its A350 arranged in a nine-abreast (3-3-3) configuration.
Seat pitch is 31 inches (“Economy Delight” seats in the center section of rows 53-58 have 34 inches of pitch) and seat width is 18 inches. The recline is five inches and the seat features a fairly comfortable adjustable headrest and a sturdy bi-fold tray table.
The kids quickly settled in.
One downside to the A350 versus the 787 and A330 was no A/C power outlets. Instead, there were two USB-A outlets: one below the 11.6-inch monitor and a second above the tray table.
Individual air vents helped to cool the cabin around our seat.
A red fleece blanket and small white pillow were placed at each seat.
I deliberately chose aisle/window seats for us toward the rear of the aircraft (in rows 68 and 69), hoping that the middle seats would stay open. They did!
I managed several hours of sleep, though the quality was not great…sleeping in economy class is never ideal.
Meanwhile, Augustine and Claire Marie fell asleep before the flight even took off and slept until breakfast prior to arrival.
IFE + Wi-Fi
The Virgin A350-1000 features Inmarsat Global Xpress Ka-band satellite wifi, but I did not connect…I had trouble connecting early in the flight and just gave up.
The seatback monitor featured Virgin’s “Vera” entertainment platform, with hundreds of movies, TV shows, games, and music.
Complimentary over-ear headphones were provided.
One of my favorite features on the A350 is the tailcam, but it was not functional for this flight.
Finally, I do admit I like Virin’s safety video, which is a bit dated at this point (love the 747!) but it conveys the message well.
Food + Drink
Dinner was served after takeoff and breakfast before landing.
Dinner
Service began with a choice of beverage and some BBQ corn snacks.
A choice between “chicken or pasta” was offered for dinner, both served with a side salad (Cesar), bread roll, crackers and cheese, and chocolate pudding.
The pasta was vegetarian and included cheese and diced zucchini.
The “Spanish-style” chicken was served with rice.
I’d rate them as coach meals…calories to fill you up and put you to sleep and nothing I’d eat on the ground.
If there was a mid-flight snack, I slept through it.
Breakfast
Before landing, a breakfast was offered, including a choice of an egg-pesto sandwich or a sausage-pesto sandwich. Both were served with vanilla yogurt (sadly, Virgin Atlantic seems to have ditched its Icelandic skyr) and a cranberry oatmeal bar.
Again, nothing I would eat on the ground, but better than nothing when we had a quick connection in London.
Lavatories
There are four lavatories between the two economy class cabins and one in the rare of the aircraft. I used the lavatory toward landing and noticed the sink was clogged.
Service
Flight attendants were friendly and efficient. Interactions were limited to the two meal services, but no complaints about the crew.
CONCLUSION
We landed on-time in London and I always choose a seat on the starboard side of the aircraft when flying into Heathrow to enjoy views like this during approach:
It was a typical gray day in London.
We were soon our way to T2 to catch our connection to Stuttgart.
Overall, another solid flight on Virgin Atlantic.
Someday the economy class dinner will be a can of tuna, mayo packet,day old bread,fiber powder to dissolve in your drink.
no fish and nothing to increase use of the lavs.
As Matt notes, most economy meals are for survival only and not what you would eat on the ground.
beverages w/ citrus make the food slightly more tolerable.
VS do a fine job and I have sat in all cabins on VS’ 35Ks and they do a nice job all around.
I am sure that DL asked VS for some operational data on the VS 35K fleet before DL placed its order for the type; DL is on track to have the most capable fleet on earth.
VS is a solid niche global player that is a step up on many routes from LHR.
and the high density 35Ks are also used to India during some parts of the year.
Significantly better than BA on all routes they compete on…
And VS honour UK delay and cancellation law whereas BA dont. In 2024 they tried to defraud their customers of a minimum of £5million owed to expenses and compensation
Source: UK CAA ADR (alternate dispute resolution) statistics
“I’d rate them as coach meals…calories to fill you up and put you to sleep”
True, but some coach meals are somewhat better tban others…
Very true. But it has been quite some time since I’ve found some good food behind the curtain.
@Aaron – In my recent experiences flying with VS in Economy, their meals are quite good and above average compared to other airlines in Economy Class.
I just got back for London to SFO.
The only issues we had was the check in process. ( tagging our bags)
The fellow was super rude and non helpful. I am not feeling you his race. You can guess. He was no help. We needed up not tagging and went straight to the counter. The gal on the counter was extremely nice and accommodating. The rest of the journey was smooth.
I guess I don’t understand what race would have to do with it…
Bigoted maga pig
Seems like a good bread and butter flight. I’ve never hesitated to take Virgin – generally solid and pleasant enough.
I do think these family flights are where status with an airline shines – it’s nice to be able to get extra legroom economy seating for free when traveling as a family of 4, and not always / usually going to splurge for business with the family (points or no points).
Can’t say I’m in love with the new AA 789P for that reason. Sure business looks nice and looking forward to trying those seats. But only 18 MCE seats, 12 of which are bulkhead (and for one of the middle 3 the bulkhead is the bathroom – ugh), and the other 6 are exit row so can’t sit with the kids. And I don’t want bulkhead with immovable arm rests when traveling with the family. Not ideal at all – I very much hope they retrofit the 777s in a better way for MCE.
Yeah for overhead air vents!!
Nobody cares about your kids taking a personal trip while doubling down with a review, thankfully there are other reviewers who are actually professionals