3 cheers to Richard Branson !

I fly to London often on business. Mostly to meet my clients. I usually take the night flight from Mumbai to London the British Airways BA139 (leaves Mumbai at 2.20 am and arrives at Heathrow at 7.30 am) and the day flight back the BA138 (leaving London in the mornings arriving at Mumbai at midnight).
I was extremely trilled when BA started the second flight through and fro from Mumbai to London.. Leaving Mumbai in the mornings and leaving London in the evenings..
I could now do day trips to London.
This May I went to London on a holiday with my family on a holiday. And just because the business class was cheaper on Virgin Atlantic by around Rs. 30,000 per ticket, I flew Virgin.. and was I surprised.. What a pleasant change..!!1. The Virgin flat bed in the business class is huge.. It’s as big as the BA first class
2. The food is much-much better.. With so many options in vegetarian and non-vegetarian
3. There is a masseur on board who gives you a neck or a hand massage
4. You can eat when you want !! No fixed time for serving food
5. The attitude of the airhostesses is much better and they are much younger than the usual 45+ BA ladies.
6. The lounge at Heathrow is unbelievable.. It has a full massage section, a beauty parlor, a Japanese sushi bar, a dessert section (at least 20 different desserts), they serve hot meals ala-carte (I loved the shepherd-pie that I had) and they also have a shoe polisher !!

The biggest difference are the seats..
Virgin Seats -



The Virgin business class seat (see above left) is 22 inches wide (wider than the BA first class seat). The ottoman doubles as a seat for your companion if you want to have dinner together (unlike BA, where the ottoman/foot rest cannot take the weight of a person)
The Virgin business class seat converts into a flat bed (see above right) which is the biggest fully flat bed of any airline in business class and bigger than even the BA first class bed.

BA Seats

The BA Business class seat is sort of clumsy (see above).. it comes in pairs.. There is someone sleeping right next to you !! Secondly, they are much narrower.. extremely difficult to turn in your sleep !!

Competition is intense ..

Historically, there has been huge competition between the two airlines. The competition was so hot that when BA tried to build the London Eye (which is a huge giant wheel – picture above) in London, they could not succeed at first because it was too heavy for the supports to hold.


Virgin had then come up with an ad saying “BA can’t get it up”

Post that holiday in May, I have decided that I will fly Virgin whenever possible. Unfortunately, they do not have a night flight out of India and the onward connections to New York are bad.. So I guess will have to wait till they sort that out.

Till then 3 cheers to Richard Branson and his airline !!