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

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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.

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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.

  • Bobby says:
    27 Aug27 August 08:05

    “Only 35,000 Virgin Points for an Upper Class return ticket”…”It is simply not an acceptable seat”

    Sounds like a case of beggars can’t be choosers?

    • Rob says:
      27 Aug27 August 08:19

      You have completely missed the point. For £30 I can move my flight by 90 minutes and my problem is fixed. This is a bigger picture discussion.

      • AJA says:
        27 Aug27 August 08:57

        But what would you do if that alternative flight isn’t available? Would you go for a refund instead?

    • dougzz99 says:
      27 Aug27 August 09:20

      plus the voucher and £1000 in fees.

  • roberto says:
    27 Aug27 August 08:08

    Never liked the Upper coffin , was a one an done for me and burnt the remainder of VS miles in 4 PE to Barbados.

    Enjoyed the Bar (that’s how long ago it was), the lounge and crew but the seat was shameful. I have been a BA boy since then preferring the ying/yang and more latterly the CS.

    I am not collecting VS miles currently and won’t be back unless things change. Virgin for all of their great brand/vibe seem to be struggling for traction and are falling behind.

  • mkcol says:
    27 Aug27 August 08:12

    @Rob Would you rather the flight was canx altogether? Or would you rather get there on a sub par seat?

    • Rob says:
      27 Aug27 August 08:16

      This is a swap 2 months out.

      • AJA says:
        27 Aug27 August 08:50

        Question still remains though. Regardless of how far out the swap happens for your guarantee to work there needs to be another suite equipped aircraft with seat availability operating the route at a similar time.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      27 Aug27 August 09:08

      Of course he’s not arguing that the flight just be cancelled.

      There are a whole slew of people who don’t care or even know the details of the seats and their variations. Plus what about all those in economy and premium? And the cargo and then the passengers booked on the return leg.

      • AJA says:
        27 Aug27 August 10:06

        The reality is that a suite guarantee only works if there are other suitable flights to swap to. This potentially only works on a route with multiple flights. Not so helpful on a one flight a day route.

        And only works on the basis that only a few passengers invoke the guarantee. What happens if most passengers either cancel for a refund or move to other flights? Virgin would lose more money or it would make the route uneconomical to offer.

        Also what about the further damage to reputation if it turns out the guarantee is worthless? How many more customers would Virgin lose from both swapping out to an older aircraft and not being able to satisfy customers demands to be swapped to another aircraft?

        This is not dissimilar to the recent jokey rant by Dennis Bunnik on YouTube about BA disliking Australians by flying old style club world on the SYD route in the Australian winter season. He claims more passengers would fly BA if they offered CS all year round when in reality the reason BA puts a smaller 787 on is because of lack of demand. Who is correct in that argument? I think BA is as it knows it can still fill a smaller aircraft with an older seat and not lose revenue whereas a larger 777-300 flying with a fairly empty CS equipped cabin isn’t economical.

  • TomB says:
    27 Aug27 August 08:16

    Couldn’t agree more with this article. My partner and I had our perfect 241 redemption on a flight to LA and they recently changed it to a 787-9. Called VA, nothing they can do, no rights and no availability (we booked this over 6 months ago). If the voucher wasn’t expiring I would have cancelled it and booked Club/Premium for us with BA instead. I never thought I would say I am dreading an UC redemption but that is how much I dislike this pathetic offering.

  • Justin W says:
    27 Aug27 August 08:21

    You’re missing the trick here. Yes it would be lovely to have everything in our favour and I do take the point that the disappointment leaves a nasty taste (I’ve suffered the changes too). But the carrot of a new plane/seat means they can still sell upper class when desperately trying to keep revenue coming in on old stock. In truth anyone running that business would have to do the same, imagine trying to finance it!
    I fully expect to be abused for being devils advocate, so please punch away, lol

    • Occasional Ranter says:
      27 Aug27 August 08:25

      You’re not slagging Rob off for complaining, you’re just correctly identifying why Virgin has to screw with its passengers in this way.

  • executiveclubber says:
    27 Aug27 August 08:27

    I can’t see how an airline would launch a guarantee that basically admits one of their seats isn’t worth flying and makes pax on those planes feel disenfranchised. Virgin is a dying brand that was once cool to some. Every brand has its lifespan…

  • TravelsWithMyHP says:
    27 Aug27 August 08:28

    Exactly why I only tend to book PE with Virgin now (at least you get a slightly wider PE seat on the older aircraft). You’ve then always got the potential for a last minute upgrade once you’re “sure” the equipment has one of the newer UC seats.

    • HampshireHog says:
      27 Aug27 August 12:06

      Agreed the PE seat on the 787’s is in my view better than UC

  • CJD says:
    27 Aug27 August 08:42

    I’m not sure a ‘we guarantee we won’t switch you onto our crap older seat’ promise is the savvy business move you think it is.

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

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