Flying to New York

[Ian_Mac]

Currently looking into booking 2 return flights from London to New York. Most airlines seem to be between £880 & £920ish for our chosen dates & times. BA is coming in at just over £1000.

Are there any significant pro's or con's which should lead us to choose one over another? It looked like Delta didn't include any food only offering a paid snack trolley option (unless I'm mistaken).

For some reason I'm leaning towards Virgin, maybe the result of Mr Branson's marketing skills.

Thanks

 

[flango]

I fly New York regular and have flown virtually every airline there my thoughts in order of preference

BA
United
American
Delta
Virgin

If you don't need a direct I've heard the following are good but never done it but they are cheap

Air lingus
Iceland air

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[Ian_Mac]

Can I ask why Virgin are at the bottom?

 

[Will]

I flew with BA to Rome earlier this year when we had all the bad weather and the storms around February time.

There was an issue with the return flight - not really their fault. BA looked after us superbly, put us up in a decent suite at the Hilton in Rome all expenses covered with all meals/drinks etc, flown back first thing next morning to T5 Heathrow with taxi expenses all covered etc too. Really were helpful and did everything they could under the circumstances.

Bit better than camping at the airport with a sandwich for 1/2 a day with massive crowds like you see on occasion with other airlines! I sometimes think you get what you pay for - I suspect on occasion it's worth paying a little more for peace of mind.

I've flown with several airlines from the cheap and cheerful upwards. For a trip to NY, for circa 10% I would choose BA. If nothing else you should get a decent meal and drinks, newspapers etc. And if things go wrong, in my experience they look after their customers well

 

[GordonTarling]

BA - I need the profit from your ticket to help the pension fund survive.

 

[flango]

Can I ask why Virgin are at the bottom?

They are all fur coat and no knickers excessive marketing but they can't deliver I've flown them a total of 3 times twice on business and once on holiday to Florida

Cabin crew are rude and could not care less about your comfort you continually have to ask for everything where as the others continually bring drinks including Delta but that costs u $6 a pop for alcohol

The virgin planes are old and getting tired with broken seats loose rattling trim and thread bare carpet

The Florida flight was horrendous noisy (plane not people) droning for 9 hours poorly regulated cabin temperature and food that resembled pig swill

I will never fly Virgin again

Yesterday I came back from Canada on BA now as many on here know I'm not a BA fan and in the past have had some horrors with them but it was a member on here that convinced me to try them again, I have now done 4 transatlantic flights with them and everyone one has been brilliant they have really upped their game . Yesterday we were delayed 2 hours due to the inbound aircraft having to turn back to Heathrow due to a medical emergency on board. BA handled it superbly booked people who wanted to change onto an earlier or later BA flight fed and watered everyone arranging lounge access for the whole flight and gave very regular updates on what was happening

To me the sign of a good airline is how they put it right when it goes wrong and BA did a god job if that United also did a fantastic job when I picked up an 8 hour delay in Chicago earlier this year.

If the question is would I pay £200 extra to fly BA over Virgin then definitely yes without question, Virgin make Ryanair look classy

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[craig1912]

Flown Virgin on three trips in last 2 years (two to New York) and wouldn't hesitate to travel again with them. New or fully refurbished planes, great cabin crew, food OK and enough to drink without keep asking. Also the new entertainment system is good too. Going next. May again and will probably look to book with them again unless BA are cheaper.
Flown BA on a number of short hauls and they have been good too.

 

[Rory]

They are all fur coat and no knickers excessive marketing but they can't deliver I've flown them a total of 3 times twice on business and once on holiday to Florida

Cabin crew are rude and could not care less about your comfort

We go to Orlando from Manchester quite a bit so Virgin is the only option direct.

Done the trip maybe 20 times and and I would agree with the comments about the cabin staff. They are generally rude and disintersted.

Indeed time before last they were so rude (right up to the cabin services supervisor - the plane was insanely hot) I wrote to Virgin to complain. They ignored my letter until I posted on Facebook when they responded in about 5 minutes.

Also if you have cause to contact VA customer services, their service is dire.

 

[MD5]

I've flown half a dozen times over the last month, returning home on Wednesday from Los Angeles with BA on an Airbus. No complaints with BA (apart from a technical glitch which meant certain rows of seats, mine included, had no tv/film entertainment, though the stewardess addressed this), but I flew Virgin America from Mexico to LAX, and they charged me for my one underweight suitcase - perhaps this is my travel agents fault.

What concerns me more than anything is the way airlines are "partnering" each other, all in the name of efficiency, of course, and nothing to do with price fixing. If you booked with BA, for example, you may end up on an American Airlines flight, but look at the way the prices have gone up over the last year or two - quite staggering.

 

[camerafodder]

BA or Icelandair would be my choice.

 

[coupe deville]

If you don't need a direct I've heard the following are good but never done it but they are cheap

Air lingus
Iceland air


+1 for Air Lingus non direct.

Very cunning, those Irish

 

[Deleted member 65149]

We've flown transatlantic with Virgin a few times and never had any complaints. Indeed we'll be trying out their Upper Class cabins for the first time on a short trip to NY next month (thanks mainly to Tesco points!) One of my brothers was a 747 captain with Virgin for a few years before his retirement and said that from his point of view they were better than BA, who he'd been flying with for 20 years before that.

We've also flown BA a lot and mostly found them efficient without being special. Our only disappointment with them was in connection with a return flight from Berlin to Heathrow. A security scare at LHR (so not their fault) meant that our flight was cancelled whilst we were in the queue for check-in at the airport in Berlin. The solitary check-in girl started to tell people that there was nothing she could do so I quickly headed over to the Air Berlin desk to see if they had any seats available to Stansted. They were very helpful and reserved four seats for us while I headed back to the BA desk debacle to get authorisation to transfer. There was still a long queue in front of my wife and friends, and an even longer queue behind now. Someone in front asked if they could be transferred to a different flight but was told that it wasn't possible, with no further explanation. I walked to the front and said that there were a few seats still available on the Air Berlin flight that BA could transfer people on to. The check-in girl said that she couldn't do that so I suggested she spoke to her manager. A few minutes of phone calls later and she begrudgingly started to issue transfer authorisations! But BA refused to pay the cost of transportation from Stansted to Heathrow, where our car was parked. They just didn't want to know!

So all in all I'd say it's just a matter of luck as to which airline is the best.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

...a technical glitch which meant certain rows of seats, mine included, had no tv/film entertainment, though the stewardess addressed this...

I'd love to know how

 

[E270 Owner]

Flown Virgin on three trips in last 2 years (two to New York) and wouldn't hesitate to travel again with them. New or fully refurbished planes, great cabin crew, food OK and enough to drink without keep asking. Also the new entertainment system is good too. Going next. May again and will probably look to book with them again unless BA are cheaper.
Flown BA on a number of short hauls and they have been good too.

Yup

Unfortunately I fly 3-4 times a year to USA

Virgin are my preference after Concorde was grounded

I miss that 3 and a half hour flight .............

Virgin are much better than BA and domestic companies IMHO

I do fly business class though

 

[Dryce]

So all in all I'd say it's just a matter of luck as to which airline is the best.

Indeed.

With regard to the OP's question my preference is generally to use BA going transatlantic from London.

I don't think it's worth fretting about how good or bad the airlines are - BA frankly is a bit variable and on occasion they've p*ssed me off big time. But this is the Atlantic routes and they are the best of a mediocre bunch - and have loads of flights going to / from London and the US.

 

[flango]

As my other post I should have said I'm currently doing transatlantic at least once a month and twice some months so it's definitely BA or United from here on in for me as they are the ones that put it right without asking when it goes wrong

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[Ian_Mac]

Thanks for all the feedback folks, I need to get this booked sooner rather than later as we currently have the hotel booked but no flights!

 

[E270 Owner]

As my other post I should have said I'm currently doing transatlantic at least once a month and twice some months so it's definitely BA or United from here on in for me as they are the ones that put it right without asking when it goes wrong

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Never had anything go wrong with Virgin, that's why I use them

 

[flango]

Never had anything go wrong with Virgin, that's why I use them

I know its the luck of the draw I think, the more you fly the greater the chances of something going wrong. I've just checked my trips for this year and have done 24 transatlantic crossings with 2 issues.

United - plane caught fire on take off and had a 5 hour delay
BA - delayed yesterday due to medical emergency on inbound flight causing 2 hour delay.

Both occasions handled superbly by the airlines in question.

Flew Virgin 3 times had 3 horrendous flights and thats why I don't use them

each unto their own as they say

 

[E270 Owner]

A lot depends on the aircraft type as well, 737 v A330

The Airbus seems too cramped for me.