Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Is it time for Virgin Atlantic to launch a ‘Suite Guarantee’?

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

It’s happened to me again.

I try to get to New York once a year, and since Covid I have been using Virgin Atlantic. It ensures that I get to fly them annually to keep my eye in. It is also a good use of my annual Virgin Atlantic credit card voucher which makes it only 35,000 Virgin Points for an Upper Class return ticket.

For the second year running, however, I have been ‘downgraded’ to the terrible old seat.

Is it time for Virgin Atlantic to launch a 'Suite Guarantee'?

It’s difficult to overstate how much Rhys and I dislike the old Virgin Atlantic business class seat. It was a decent product in its day, but that day was a LONG time ago.

It is simply not an acceptable seat, in my view, given what else is currently on the market. More importantly, it isn’t acceptable compared to what else Virgin Atlantic is offering.

Here is the old seat:

Virgin Atlantic 787 Upper Class cabin

and

Virgin Atlantic 787 Upper Class 1k

The problems are numerous. You will be facing into a wall or at another person. You cannot see out of the window. You cannot communicate with your partner. You cannot put the seat into bed mode yourself – it needs the cabin crew to do it. It is so narrow that even my 40 inch chest struggles to fit. Storage is woeful. The seat feels short if you are over 6 foot. The TV is small.

Compare it to the A350 suite:

Virgin Upper Class A350 2

…. or the even better A330neo suite:

Virgin Atlantic A330neo

…. and it’s night and day.

When Virgin Atlantic announced a new aircraft order at the Farnborough Airshow last month, we were hoping the entire Boeing 787-9 fleet would be scrapped. No. Only three are leaving the fleet, since only seven additional A330neo aircraft have been ordered.

There is no plan to refurbish the remaining 14 aircraft in the Boeing 787-9 fleet. Virgin Atlantic is likely to be flying these seats into the 2030s.

Virgin Atlantic needs a ‘Suite Guarantee’

Now, I hear you say, surely British Airways has a similar problem. The old Club World seat is still on a lot of aircraft, and as far as the Gatwick fleet is concerned it will never be replaced with Club Suite.

I’m not arguing with this. However, Virgin Atlantic has a terrible record for swapping aircraft. BA does not. Book Club Suite and you will usually get it.

When you book a Virgin Atlantic flight these days, it feels like the aircraft type shown is basically a best guess. You might get it, you might not.

Even worse, Virgin Atlantic does not tell you when your aircraft has been changed. I only found out that my New York flight in October had gone from an A330neo to the (soon to be scrapped) A330 by accident when I was idly fiddling with the Virgin Atlantic website.

What I hear from our readers is that they are not booking Virgin Atlantic in Upper Class even when the flight shows as an A350 or A330neo.

People don’t trust Virgin Atlantic to stick to their word about aircraft type, and they refuse to risk getting the old seat.

Since my annual New York trip (their flagship route, remember) has now been swapped two years running to the inferior old seat, I don’t blame them.

How would a ‘Suite Guarantee’ work?

What I think Virgin Atlantic needs to do is launch an Upper Class ‘Suite Guarantee’.

If you book an A330neo or an A350 in Upper Class, and your flight is swapped to an A330 or Boeing 787-9, you should have the right to cancel with no penalty or be moved for free to a different flight.

This should apply to both cash and reward seats. Of course, reward seats can already be changed for a £30 fee (albeit you need availability) so the main beneficiary here would be cash travellers.

Doesn’t everyone win from this idea?

As far as I can tell, this is a win-win idea.

Passengers know that they will get the seat they paid for, and if they don’t they know they can cancel or swap without penalty. Those people who refuse to book Virgin Atlantic Upper Class due to the very real risk of being swapped onto the 787 will hopefully come back.

As for the airline, as well as winning back those flyers, the guarantee may bring a bit of discipline to the scheduling department. Any team that is putting A330 and Boeing 787-9 aircraft on its flagship route, where bankers are still paying £10,000 for a return trip, needs a wake up call.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Virgin Points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, the Reward+ card has a bonus of 18,000 Virgin Points and the free card has a bonus of 3,000 Virgin Points):

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

3,000 bonus points, no fee and 1 point for every £1 you spend Read our full review

You can also earn Virgin Points from various American Express cards – and these have sign-up bonuses too.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for a year and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 20,000 Virgin Points.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 50,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 50,000 Virgin Points.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Small business owners should consider the two American Express Business cards. Points convert at 1:1 into Virgin Points.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points. 

Category

Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (238)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Phillip says:
    27 Aug27 August 05:50

    I would also add that the old Club seat is way better than the old Upper Class seat if you’re comparing with BA!

  • Chris W says:
    27 Aug27 August 06:12

    Do we know why these aircraft swaps keep happening though? Surely a new A350 or 330neo is more reliable than a 10 year old 787 or 330?

    It’s fine to dump these on holiday routes like the Caribbean until they are completely knackered but to operate them on LHR-JFK in 2024, one of the most competitive aviation markets in the world, is inexcusable

    • Sarah says:
      27 Aug27 August 09:27

      Why do holidaymakers have to suffer with them when they are spending their hard-earned money? I don’t get BA’s logic with this either on the Gatwick routes – I’m not paying for an inferior product.

      • kiran_mk2 says:
        27 Aug27 August 10:17

        Simple financials are the likely reason. On routes like LHR-JFK there will be people in business class who have paid £4-5k+ for their tickets and who will do so 10+ times per year. Leisure travelers are going to be paying much less and only flying 1-2 times per year, so logic dictates that you look after the more valuable customers.

      • Jonathan says:
        27 Aug27 August 11:15

        BA need to up their game and compensate people who book a flight where they’re promised a CS seat, but get CW instead when these sorts of problems occur.
        Their current idea is downgrading your seat is fine, as you’ve booked to fly in that class and we’ve flown you in that class just isn’t good enough

  • Nick G says:
    27 Aug27 August 06:26

    And people still slag off Ryanair. Least you know what you’re getting with them! Never flown VS in UC and have zero desire to put my money with them. Always get the feeling they’re stuck in some time warp from the 2000’s.

    • JDB says:
      27 Aug27 August 07:51

      Ryanair is an incredibly well run airline financially and operationally. Virgin’s Exec team, which includes the chief of operations (who you need to ask about these aircraft swaps) is a very weak line up. Good at patter though.

      • Erico1875 says:
        27 Aug27 August 08:14

        And their figure head RB is a complete clown.
        He hit a new low when he threw a glass of water over Mark Kuban on Shark Tank

      • Rhys says:
        27 Aug27 August 09:06

        There’s a simplicity to Ryanair’s operation that no full service long haul airline has, though. For a start, Ryanair’s fleet is all 737s.

  • Greg says:
    27 Aug27 August 06:27

    At first I thought Rob had been downgraded to Economy. Heaven forbid.

    I’m off to Shanghai next month but at least I know I’ll be sitting in the worst business class seat EVER. I mean who designed any seats where you cannot see out of the window. Actually what’s the point of having windows.

    On a brighter note there is a tiny chance I’ll be “upgraded” to a suite if they change planes.

    ps I flew BA Gatwick to Mauritius in January this year and enjoyed Club Suites both ways

  • BJ says:
    27 Aug27 August 06:35

    WOW not even 7am and the comments are a bit of a buzz all because the man feels like a bit of a rant disguised as professional journalism 🙂 I guess Easter 2025 would be a great deadlne for the introduction of said guarantee 😉 T&C for all airlines forever have referred to equipment swaps so we know what we are buying and there is no need for guarantees.

    Oh, and did somebody forget to say QATAR AIRWAYS … the truth is they have had, and will continue to have for a long time, a worse record in this respect than BA and Virgin combined! However, to be fair to Qatar Airways the seats in question are better and ISTR they did have a Qsuite guarantee of sorts if I’m not mistaken but I don’t know if they still do.

    PS. I think it’s mind over matter at the end of the day. Regardless of which airline plane or hard product I’m flying I am just always thankful to be up front with about 20-40 souls in a cabin with flat beds instead of down the crammed into small chairs with 200+ others for 18h plus.

    • Phillip says:
      27 Aug27 August 09:29

      I agree that QR are horrendous with aircraft changes, even product changes within the same aircraft type, but I would take any of QR’s products, including 2-2-2 on 777s and A330s over Virgin’s UC. That’s just me though predominantly driven by my preference of a proper window seat.

    • GM says:
      27 Aug27 August 09:42

      I know it’s a privilege to be able to fly in J, but it’s one I pay a LOT of my own scrabbled together money for. If they were giving it to me for free or the price of economy, mind over matter would apply. Until they start gifting me trips, I want to feel like it’s worth choosing them over the alternatives.
      QR have a huge array of seats and are notorious for swaps from what I’ve seen, but even their mediocre 787-8 seat for the BHX-DOH hops (and think LHR-DOH) is only lacking in privacy – the actual seat, storage etc are very good. The VS product is dated and they no longer (reliably) provide a lot of the perks they did previously, including nice food.

  • Grumpy Chicken 81 says:
    27 Aug27 August 06:37

    What is VS record on swapping aircraft for the older seat like on longer routes? As someone who uses miles or pays their own way, I’m perfectly happy with premuim economy on a shorter route like LHR-JFK, but for a longer flight like LHR-LAX I’d want to be sure I was in a half decent bed.

  • Martin Lewis says:
    27 Aug27 August 06:56

    My wife and I have had exactly the same experience with flights to SFO. I deliberately book UC reward seats with flights showing the A350 for the return leg to LHR. I’m less concerned about the old seats in the 787 on the outbound leg because they are daylight journeys but coming back, I like to get in some sleep before the 160 mile drive home from the LHR. For the second time in two years, VA just swop out the A350 for a 787 an as the writer says, they do not let you know. On one occasion they not only swapped out the aircraft but also re-assigned our seats from the window to the centre aisle without any notification. We fly with VA because of the quality of their customer service but swapping out aircraft without notification is undoubtedly their achilles heel.

    • D says:
      27 Aug27 August 11:25

      Martin, which energy account should I open now that Rachel’s robbed the pensioners?

  • NigelthePensioner says:
    27 Aug27 August 06:59

    All of the above still gives me the impression that Virgin Atlantic are struggling financially. Dated products, small future orders, limited destinations, no flare anymore and constant sales and massive “giveaways” of their tier points and miles. Like I said before, I have need to urgently get rid of six figure sums of miles!

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card (Offer ends 27th May)

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get up to 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? GET THE ONLY FREE SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD WHICH CAN EARN AVIOS

Get points worth 30,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold (ends 27th May)

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!