Review: Virgin Atlantic Upper Class on the A350 from London to Los Angeles

This is our review of Virgin Atlantic’s Upper Class Suite on the Airbus A350-1000.

It is almost six years since Virgin Atlantic introduced its new Upper Class seat on the A350. It went head-to-head with the launch of BA’s Club Suite business class which debuted on its own A350.

In the meantime, Virgin Atlantic has taken delivery of ten A350s as well as seven of 19 A330neos which feature an even-newer Upper Class seat.

It’s been a while since I found myself on one of Virgin’s A350s so on my recent flight to LA to review the new LAX Clubhouse – as a guest of Virgin Atlantic – I thought it was worth taking another look to see how it has matured.

Ground experience and lounge

Virgin Atlantic operates from Terminal 3 at Heathrow. This is the oldest terminal at the airport and features a maze-like layout thanks to countless extensions over the years, but it does at least have some of the best lounges.

It is widely assumed that Virgin Atlantic will move into Terminal 2 once the extension is complete but don’t hold your breath – the project hasn’t even started yet.

Anyway, for the foreseeable future Virgin Atlantic and partner Delta Air Lines have their own branded section of the departures area on the far left. This includes a dedicated business class section although, if you’re arriving by car, you can use the excellent Upper Class Wing upstairs and bypass everyone. It’s well worth a try if you haven’t before and is now open to all Flying Club Gold members.

It took just a minute with the friendly Virgin Atlantic check-in staff to get my boarding pass printed and head up to the Upper Class Wing’s fast track security lane. This has now been upgraded with the latest 3D scanners so you can leave everything in your bag.

Sadly, once through security you’re dumped into to the main security area and it’s a bit of a scrum to get through the duty free maze. You’ll want to follow signs for Lounge H to find Virgin’s excellent Clubhouse business class lounge which I’ve previously reviewed here. It’s one of the best business class lounges in the world thanks to table service dining.

Onboard Virgin Atlantic’s A350s

Virgin Atlantic has two different configurations on its A350s. The majority feature 44 Upper Class seats, 56 premium economy seats and 235 economy seats for a total of 335 passengers.

Some aircraft feature a higher overall seat count (397) thanks to a smaller business class cabin. These feature just 16 Upper Class seats, 56 premium economy seats and 325 economy seats and largely operate from Manchester as part of the ‘leisure’ fleet.

I was on G-VPOP, one of the A350s with a full 44-seat Upper Class cabin and had selected seat 4K:

Middle pairs angle away from each other:

After six years in service the cabins are showing visible signs of wear, as you would expect for an aircraft of this age, but nothing was broken or particularly damaged. Most noticeable was the wear on the leather on the seat back; I suspect these will need reupholstering in the next year or two.

Virgin Atlantic has chosen the Cirrus NG product from manufacturer Safran for the A350 Upper Class seat. These are arranged in a semi-reverse herringbone 1-2-1 arrangement, which is a very popular layout these days.

The seats have been styled in typical Virgin Atlantic fashion with chocolate browns, dark reds, pearlescent white and gold accents. They look just as good – and unique – as when they first launched, particularly catching the early morning sunshine. You can’t mistake this for any other airline!

It is a million miles away from the drab greys and blues of the British Airways Club Suite.  On the whole, Virgin Atlantic’s look is lighter, brighter and more colourful.

What I wasn’t expecting was how comfortable the seat padding would still be after six years of use. I’m not sure if Virgin has refreshed the foam padding since its introduction but my 11-hour flight was exceptionally comfortable – even more comfortable than some recent business class flights I’ve taken on newer aircraft.

Seat controls are just along from the armrest, which has the much-publicised issue of accidentally reclining yourself if you’re not careful.

One thing that is immediately noticeable is the lack of storage. The A350 Upper Class Suite has almost none, which is very disappointing. All you get is some open shelving above the console table.

The shelves are too small to be particularly useful, and obviously aren’t any good during take-off, landing or turbulence.

On the other side of the seat you have an adjustable arm rest, although it’s either up or down – there is no half-way house.

Meanwhile, in front of you is both the tray, table, TV screen and footwell. The table has been modified since it was first introduced but it’s still fundamentally flawed.

Previously, it had a cool sliding mechanism that spun it in front of you. Unfortunately, it was not adjustable and was practically unusable if you were pregnant or above a 32″ waist.

The modified tray table is similar, but instead of turning to meet you now simply slides out in a straight line …. leaving it at an awkward angle to your body:

This is, no doubt, better than what it was before but still far from ideal. It is clearly an issue which we will have to live with.

(EDIT: as per our comments, it seems my table may have been faulty or a slightly different one to those found on other A350 aircraft which do appear to fully spin around to face you.)

The foot well was a decent size and featured a large rolled mattress pad and blanket. If you don’t need these straight away then there’s plenty of room for them in the overhead bins.

Virgin has opted to retain the centre overhead bins (a good idea given the bulkiness of its mattress pad and bedding kit) which means you still get adjustable air vents.

Connectivity is good with a couple of USB-A ports as well as a mains socket at each seat.

The seat is very comfortable in bed mode. As I mentioned above, the seat padding has aged very well and combined with the thick mattress topper it makes for an excellent night’s sleep.

Also notable is the lack of a door, although the angle of the seats means this isn’t a big issue. Seats do come with a movable privacy partition which extends the wall about a foot. It is enough to shield you from the aisle and your neighbour if you so desire. Better than nothing, I suppose!

Virgin Atlantic’s A350 in-flight entertainment and wifi

The A350 has Virgin Atlantic’s signature ‘Vera’ in-flight entertainment system. In Upper Class this is on a 18.5 inch HD monitor, although most airlines still do not load HD content.

The screen pops out from the sidewall at the push of a button, and can be neatly folded away. It is certified for gate-to-gate operations so you are able to have it out for the entirety of your flight.

The supplied headphones were fine but not spectacular, if I’m honest, and there’s no Bluetooth pairing on board either.

The new Upper Class seat does not have a secondary screen on the remote control – in fact, it has no remote control at all. I rarely use these so it was no bother to me, although I do often see other people using them. If you would like to control your IFE remotely, it is possible to pair your smartphone or tablet with your seat.

The content library was good, with lots of new releases ranging from the recent Bob Dylan biopic starring Timothee Chalamet to Wicked and a lot of the other recent Oscar contenders.

The A350s are kitted out with onboard wifi. Full-flight messaging is £2.99 whilst an hour of browsing is £5.99 and full-flight access is £20.99, which is on expensive side. Most airlines are moving to free wifi so it’ll be interesting to see how long Virgin Atlantic holds out.

I opted for the full-flight package which allowed me to get a chunk of work done with very acceptable speeds.

Virgin Atlantic’s onboard bar Loft

For many decades, Virgin Atlantic has punched above its weight and offered an onboard bar on its aircraft. This all ended with the introduction of the A350, which replaced the Bar with a new social space called The Loft.

This is located at the main boarding point at the second doors of the aircraft and offers sofa style seating for several guests:

As I was travelling alone I didn’t visit this space at all. The success of the Loft has been widely debated and last year even Richard Branson got involved, calling it a “dreadful mistake” ….

Virgin Atlantic’s food and service

Virgin’s cabin crew are always superb and this flight was no different, with both a lovely flight service manager and an amazing crewmember called David.

Service starts after boarding with a choice of welcome drink. This includes an English sparkling wine, water or – and this is very Virgin – tequila with grapefruit juice.

(If you’re wondering, Virgin Atlantic does also serve Laurent-Perrier champagne on board, in addition to the Hambledon English Sparkling.)

At the same time, menus and amenity kits were handed out. All the while, an eclectic selection of music played whilst people continued to board, from Timothee Chalamet’s renditions of Bob Dylan classics to Sabrina Carpenter and Janet Jackson remixes.

Drinks and meal orders were taken after take-off and a hot towel was offered. The first round of drinks was served with some crisps:

Although it was early April with the cherry blossom in full force, Virgin was still offering the winter menu which is quite hearty. There was a choice of two starters, both of them veggie:

• Pickled golden beetroot with whipped goat’s cheese, black truffle honey, roasted hazelnuts and watercress
• Winter vegetable soup with vegetable crisps and chive oil

Given that one of the options was soup (boring) that left the pickled golden beetroot as the only ‘proper’ option. Fortunately, it exceeded my expectations and I’d definitely have it again:

There were three choices for the main course, although there’s a larger selection online if you pre-order via Virgin Atlantic’s Pre-Select service, which I’ve explained here. On board, the offering included:

• Chicken and mushroom pie with a hint of truffle, mashed potatoes, roasted carrots, greens and gravy
• Pan roasted cod, penang sauce, coconut rice, edamame with a carrot and radish salad
• Pumpkin girasoli with herb cream and pistachio mint pesto

I had pre-ordered the roasted duck breast which came with both red cabbage and green cabbage as well as potato fondant and jus:

Although I love cabbage, having it twice seems like overkill and I could’ve done with some carrots or something! The duck skin sadly wasn’t crispy but I won’t hold it against Virgin – I don’t think it’s even possible in the steam ovens they use to reheat meals on board. It is at least plated in the galley, rather than reheated as a whole.

For dessert, the choice was:

• Dark chocolate and morello cherry delice, vanilla cream and blackberry
• Warm pear and caramel bread and butter pudding with fresh cream

Both of these sounded good to me and I opted for the latter, although the crew warned me this was more of a tarte tatin than a traditional bread and butter pudding. Although it doesn’t look like much it was very homely:

Still, overall Virgin’s catering still isn’t back to where it was pre-covid and I’d say it now sits neck-a-neck with British Airways. This is not a positive comparison.

Midway through the eleven hour flight crew came round offering tomato and emmental toasties, which seems more like an economy or premium economy snack than something to be served in Upper Class:

You can also order from Virgin’s ‘light bites’ menu which also makes up the second meal service. It says you can order ‘one or more of these small plates available after your first meal service up until the top of descent approximately 40 minutes before landing’.

The options are:

• Warm scones served with clotted cream and strawberry jam
• Togarishi spiced smoked halloumi burger with sesame, baby gem lettuce in a brioche bun served with chipotle mayo and salted crisps
• Crispy chicken bao bun with nahm jim sauce, carrots, spring onions and pea shoots
• British winter ploughman’s chicken liver pate, shropshire blue cheese, baby pear, pickled celery and candied walnuts with a mini baguette

I initially opted for the bao bun, but the fried chicken was so big that the bao wouldn’t close around it!

To be honest, I think it would be better scrapping the bao bun entirely and just serving the fried chicken as-is.

Then, as a ‘dessert’ I had the scones. Entertainingly, the clotted cream had frozen slightly in the cold galley so I had to wait a second for that to defrost.

Virgin Atlantic used to have an afternoon tea partnership with Eric Lanlard which was charming, but cost-cutting measures during the pandemic forced it to cut that and simplify the service. I would have liked some finger sandwiches, to be honest.

I followed it with a cup of tea which Virgin serves in a mug with this charming steampunk motif:

Conclusion

Although the A350 Upper Class seat has been superseded by Virgin Atlantic’s A330neos, it’s still a massive improvement over the airline’s tired (and now 23-year-old) seats on the Boeing 787s. It’s not perfect – the tray table and lack of in-seat storage are two sticking points – but it is supremely comfortable and allowed me to sleep virtually the entire way on my return.

Of course, the real winner is always Virgin’s exceptional cabin crew who are fantastic and really bring the experience to life. CEO Shai Weiss often calls them the ‘secret sauce’ and he’s right: the experience would not be the same without them.

You can find out more about Virgin Atlantic’s A350s on their website here. They are generally used on Virgin’s high-capacity trunk routes.