I love Virgin Atlantic
So it was that time again - time to see the folks in the homeland and take care of some business. Did the usual travelocity.com, orbitz.com, expedia.com, etc. search for the cheapest flights and found a decent flight for 460 euros. Downside: the airline was KLM (Dutch, better than Iceland but worse than Lufthansa and definitely much worse than British Airways). Even downer side: it stopped in Schiphol, which should be called Shithole, because that’s what it is. For 515 euros (incl. taxes and all) I see a flight with Virgin Atlantic stopping in Heathrow (my favorite stop - so many shops!) so I decide I’ve never flown Virgin, let’s give it a try.
A quick check on seatguru.com (wonderful site, do check it out if you fly a lot) confirms that the seats on their Airbus 340 have more room than KLM’s, so good choice. Even better - I manage to snag a window seat the night before I check in.
I get to the airport and see all the dopey Mallorca tourists lining up in front of LTU counter - no wait in front of the Virgin counter. Nice. I get to my seat on the plane and wonder if I’ve mistakenly sat in Business - it’s wide, pleather (not that nasty cloth stuff) and has plenty of legroom. The flight attendants are really nice (because they’re not Dutch, maybe). Nobody is sitting next to me, which is like winning the lottery on a long-distance flight. We get started and on my very own little monitor, Sir Richard Branson is sitting on his sofa thanking me for flying his airline. Cool. Lunch? Chicken Tikka Masala, yum!
All in all it was the best flight I’ve ever had, not counting when I was still a kid and had more leg room simply because I hadn’t grown to be 5 foot 7 yet, I suppose.
Life’s to short for lousy flights.
