Boarding at LHR was a bit less organized than at JFK which was not surprising as LHR is usually a mess. We boarded through door 2 and walked toward the front of the plane. This time we were in 1K and 2K and this time I got my wife to let me have 1K with the bigger footwell and more leg space.

I booked this flight using a crazy low 29k Virgin Atlantic miles per person plus crazy high taxes and fees ($690pp). Flying out of Heathrow in any premium class is just expensive thanks to the extra fees they charge.

I won’t rehash the seat photos from the previous review. We got the same amenity kits as well. I’ll just focus on the service and food on this flight. I stayed awake the whole flight as for some reason I wasn’t tired.

We were offered a predeparture beverage choice of water, orange juice or champagne and I had some champagne. I’m not sure they thought through the seat design that well when it comes to the window locations.

Menus were at the seat. There was a pre-order menu for this flight and I ordered the Chicken Rogan Josh. My wife ordered the chicken burger but she ended up skipping it. Sorry I did not get pictures of the pre-order menu, but here’s the menu for the flight.

I ordered a Virgin Redhead for after takeoff. I do appreciate the pre-takeoff ordering for post-takeoff drinks as it saves a pass-through of the cabin by the flight attendants and is just more efficient. BA also does this on long-haul flights.

There was also an announcement that photos and videos were fine but to please gain the consent of crew before including them in any photos or videos. Influencer culture has clearly gone mainstream.

VS103 A350-1000
LHR-ATL
Scheduled: 10:45-15:15
Actual: 10:42-14:55

One thing I find a bit annoying on Virgin Atlantic is that the in-flight entertainment system is not turned on until pushback after the safety video is played. When you board early in Upper Class, it’s a lot of time sitting waiting for the rest of the plane to board.

As we took off, I started watching the movie Anniversary which was recommended by my wife who watched it on the outbound flight. The IFE started pausing and glitching a bit so the crew restarted the system. It took about 10-15 minutes, but that seemed to fix it for the rest of the flight.

I got my cocktail and crisps not long after we took off.

I ordered the arancini for my appetizer and it arrived fairly quickly along with fresh bread. The outer shell stayed crispy despite having been reheated.

Up next was my main course, the chicken rogan josh – one last curry before leaving the UK. It was just spicy enough and came with roti.

For dessert, I had the sour cherry and pistachio tart at the flight attendant’s recommendation and it was ok, nothing memorable.

After my movie finished, I moved on to Nobody 2, which was just a guilty pleasure and a fun airplane movie. At some point, ice cream was served although it was rock hard and I had to wait for it to melt a bit.

I took a walk after the second movie and checked out the Loft area behind business class. On their 787s, Virgin Atlantic had a bar here, which was probably a pain to staff, but way more fun than just a bunch of seats.

Near the Loft was a display of snacks and drinks. I grabbed some salt and vinegar crisps.

I decided to watch Sinners as we had tried to start it a few weeks prior and turned it off after about 15 minutes. This time I got through it and mostly enjoyed it, especially the music, but vampires aren’t really my thing.

Afternoon tea was served and I decided to actually have tea with mine to help keep me awake for the rest of the day. I enjoyed the chicken Caesar sandwiches and the desserts although the quiche was very dry.

For my final movie, I watched Deliver Me From Nowhere, the Springsteen biopic. I enjoyed it more than I expected given the lukewarm reviews, but I’m a fan and I really like that Nebraska album as well.

We ended up landing about 1/2 hour early and had a short taxi to our gate in Concourse F. Thankfully, we were at F8, which is the closest possible gate to the immigration area. As you may be aware, Global Entry is currently closed. I put our information into the Mobile Passport Control app and it seemed to help get us in a fairly short line. We got through in about 10 minutes which wasn’t too bad considering an Air France plane had just arrived before us.

The service on this flight was great as is typical with Virgin Atlantic. The flight attendants took great care of us throughout the long daytime flight. As I noticed on the outbound flight, these planes are not that old and are already showing a lot of wear and tear.

I hope you enjoyed this short UK trip report. The Empty Nesters are soon headed to New Zealand via American and Delta, which should be an interesting comparison both between them and to other airlines in business class. I’ll have a full trip report from that adventure including the flights, hotels and activities.

If you have questions about this post, let me know in the comments or send me an email at emptynestermiles@gmail.com. If you are thinking about opening a new credit card, please use one of my links. I also recommend using CardPointers to track your credit card spending discount offers.