Virgin Atlantic A350-1000 New UPPER CLASS Review: London to New York!

today's video is sponsored by dashlane hello and welcome to another video and welcome also from the rooftop garden here at Virgin Atlantic's clubhouse at Terminal 3 London Heathrow today's video really needs no introduction I'm flying on Virgin Atlantic's brand new a 350 1000 in their brand new upper class let's go and enjoy the trip Virgin offers a facility that's so cool at London Heathrow that I just had to take an uber to try it it's a private drive up checking facility just off to the side of Terminal 3 and it is exclusively for upper-class and Delta one passengers just this one please okay thank you very much thank you this is easily the most exclusive and coolest check-in experience I've ever had the best part of the experience though is there's a dedicated tunnel to a special upper-class premium security line there were only two people in front of me and the queue and this really felt like cheating I'd skipped most of the airport although I didn't manage to avoid Christmas in November there are a lot of really good business class lounges in terminal 3 and the clubhouse is probably one of the best is located at the end of this long staircase above the American Airlines Admirals Club [Music] inside the design is stunning it isn't the biggest lounge where they've made some great use of the space here there are even a couple of really cool glass chairs that you can sit in but use them responsibly won't you I've always thought of Virgin as being a very loud and in-your-face company but the design was surprisingly understated in here there are even some apron views one of the more unusual facilities in this lounge is the hair salon which is in the back corner there's also a small spark complex here and reservations for 8 cami mains on the day at the desk I was able to get myself 435 pounds a half an hour back neck and shoulder massage not bad given this is in London [Music] another thing I just love about the Virgen clubhouse is a fact that you can dine anywhere in the lounge and those waiter service you can order off a menu and they'll bring it to you wherever you're sitting in the lounge there's no need to go to the formal dining area although you certainly can and it's very nice - overall the Virgen clubhouse was a really pleasant surprise I could have stayed for much longer as it was I only stayed for a couple of hours and got some breakfast and did my filming if there's one thing I could say I didn't like about this lounge it was the constant stream of boarding announcements they even announced them or tried to upon the roof terrace which is really loud I travel literally hundreds of times a year and I have hundreds of tickets to buy and hundreds of boarding passes to collect - Lane is a great tool which cuts down the time and hassle of filling out those forms and makes the process way more secure the thing I love most about - Lane is it manages all your passwords so you don't need to keep track of each one or maybe you have only one password which isn't that secure see - Lane will suggest and remember super secure complex passwords which are unique to each website it has a secure autofill feature which remembers all of your personal information even your passport number if you want on both desktop and mobile filling out any online form becomes a breeze even if you don't buy as many tickets as I do you'll appreciate the security benefits of - Lane there's a VPN which stops third parties from spying on your information whether that's through the Wi-Fi at your local coffee shop or surfing the web in a foreign country and with the VPN you can access content that would otherwise be blocked I've teamed up with - Lane's give my viewers a special offer so head to - Lane comm forward slash Paul to get - lane for free on your first device and then when you decide you want - Lane on all your devices use my code Paul for 10% off a yearly subscription and never waste time remembering a password again [Music] boarding was from one of the Virgin Atlantic gates furthest from the clubhouse but I didn't really mind too much this happens to be one of the better gates for getting a glimpse of your aircraft prior to departure virgins a350s are all brand new and so they carry the most up to date Virgin Atlantic livery but the large billboard font our aircraft today is nicknamed mama mia if there's one thing I don't understand about the new livery it's why they remove the Union Flag from the winglet it's now just got a virgin logo it's strange because virgin talk all the time about being britain's second flag carrier and to that end they actually bought fly b recently and rebranded it Virgin connect on boarding I was really impressed with the ambience of the Virgin Atlantic cabin upper class or business class occupies the entire forward cabin of this a 350 1000 virgins current seat in their a330 747 a 340 and 787 aircraft is notorious because every seat faces away from the window that's not the case here this is a reverse herringbone configuration giving everyone direct aisle access and the window seats face towards the window the cabin by the way is great the overhead lockers on this a350 are much larger than on most predecessor aircraft top tip the ones by the window are much bigger than the ones over the center aisle I really love the choice of textures and patterns in this upper class cabin it gives the entire space a really classy feel if there is one thing I would point out it's that some of the finishes don't appear to be of the highest quality and it will be interesting to see how this seat wears in the years to come [Music] I was sat in seat 11a that's the last seat in this cabin and it's directly next to the loft which is at door - well have a look at that a little bit later on in the flight [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] one of the first things I noticed about this seat is if there are individual air vents above every seat which is not that common in business class there's also a good amount of storage in this seat far more than the old one there are also multiple options for charging there's a universal power outlet down by the side wall and another which is in the storage unit just to the side of your seat this armrest must be stowed for takeoff but can be placed up afterwards it also provides another little cubby to store some of your belongings now one of the really big selling points of this seat is that Virgen tilted these privacy screens which are supposed to provide additional privacy but as you can see here from the location of my eyes so it does actually provide any additional privacy so I'm afraid I have to mark this down as a bit of a gimmick still it provides a handy place to prop that nice big pillow up against to make your seat even more comfortable row 11 is technically missing a window but even if that window was there it wouldn't really matter unfortunately the design of this seat means that the console is placed between the seat and the window on most seats where there are two windows this actually fully obstructs a window as you can see here and it makes pushing the blind down really awkward the in-flight entertainment screen is in high definition and pops out and slides back into its place really nicely it's a great mechanism and does feel very sturdy however there is one more design flaw I should point out with this seat and to be fed a virgin it's something they are addressing with a matter of urgency now this table is one of the worst designed airline tables I've ever seen it's simply too big and positioned far too close to the passenger now I am not the largest person that's going to be taking virgin upper class this year and I have to say that it was almost infringing on my personal space you only have to be slightly larger than me for this sharp edge to be pressed right into your belly and that's not a good thing Virgen like to think of themselves as a socially and environmentally conscious company and to this end the amenity kit or goodie bag as they call it here is made from sustainable materials as are in fact all of the contents something I'd noticed virgin trialing is the ability to order food and drink from the in-flight entertainment I did try this a couple of times during the flight and unfortunately the facility wasn't enabled one thing that did work however was the ability to pair the in-flight entertainment with your mobile device that effectively means that I could use my mobile phone as the in-flight entertainment remote control that's pretty cool I was really pleased to see that virgin had gone to the additional expense of installing external cameras on their a350s there's nothing cooler than a tail cam or a belly cam especially when you're coming into land finally the in-flight entertainment selection was very very good indeed as you would expect from any large airline these are the headphones for the in-flight entertainment and the envelope they're wrapped in is actually for charity donations you can give some small change in foreign coins at the end of the flight in addition to the IFE there's also Wi-Fi onboard the messaging option is really cheap and there are some various bundles including a full flight option which I was really pleased to see by the way the forward lavatory on the a350 features a loo with a view which is becoming much more common in new aircraft there's even a full length shade in here by the way when I left this lavatory I actually left the shade open and when I came back at the end somebody had closed it again I mean he's gonna be looking in all of this talk about the new aircraft and new seat aside the biggest asset that virgin have are their crew and they were fantastic the food service was also very good indeed something however I was very surprised to notice is that the menu is actually exactly the same as the one I had a few months prior on my Manchester to New York flight on the 747 with virgin I'm a fairly predictable man when it comes to my menu choices but I thought for the sake of the content I'd change things up here and see what the rest of the menu was like the prawns were really tasty and in fact better than the cumin cauliflower that I'd had on the Manchester flight for the Maine I went for the salmon which was a light option considering I'd had a breakfast in the lounge and for the dessert well I couldn't really help but have the raspberry sponge again this was fantastic on the Manchester flight and it was fantastic again this was in fact only my second of a flight with virgin so I'd be interested to know from some Virgin Atlantic regulars in the comment section how often do you come across an identical menu when you're travelling transatlantic Lee does it happen often after the lunch service had finished the mood lights came down this orange and pink combination is really attractive and helped remind my body that it's a good idea to get a nap this is something I tend to do religiously on transatlantic flights unlike virgins old seats these ones can be reclined fully flat using electric power there's no need to get a crew member to do this for you which is great the bedding and mattress topper are also super comfortable and I had a really solid two hours of sleep here after I woke I checked out the loft which is right behind my seat 11a now this is an area by the second set of doors which is effectively a communal area for passengers in upper-class to gather and perhaps talk and socialize you can comfortably seat about a half a dozen people here but I didn't see it used during the flight not at least when I was awake [Music] the second meal on this flight is the quintessentially British concept of afternoon tea the patisserie for which are provided by celebrity petition Eric Lang laughs this beetroot wrap was absolutely delicious and really set off the colour on my plate there's only one other airline which takes afternoon tea even remotely seriously and that's British Airways I'm afraid ba that virgin have really knocked your socks off here this yuzu and passionfruit macaron was absolutely delicious so sharp and fantastically tasty as we passed over Cape Cod I had a look out of the window and behold what a wonderful afternoon it was on the eastern United States way different to the miserable gray that we'd left behind in London [Music] so to sum up my experience of Virgin Atlantic's a350 upper class this product is miles ahead of the product that it replace and that is a good thing however this is not some sort of massive revolution in passenger experience or passenger comfort what it is is an extremely competitive business class on a crowded transatlantic market and for that version should be applauded with this soft product and the wonderful lounge they have at Heathrow and elsewhere on the network I'm confident that virgin are a really strong option the next video on this channel will focus on British Airways new a 350 club world suites and I don't want to give away too much of a clue as to which one I think is better you'll have to wait for that video but that's enough of the spoilers thanks so much for watching don't forget to visit - Lane comm forward slash Paul to get dashlane for free on your first device thanks for all your support and I'll see you in the next video

Channel: Wingin’ It! Paul Lucas

Views: 416,011

Rating: 4.8466811 out of 5

Keywords: virgin a350, virgin atlantic a350 review, upper class, virgin upper class, virgin atlantic upper class review, virgin atlantic cabin crew, virgin atlantic safety video, virgin atlantic a350-1000, a350 business class, a350 upper class, virgin a350 business class, business class, virgin atlantic, richard branson, paul lucas, sam chui, takeoff, landing, jfk, heathrow, lhr, new york

Id: CUFKGk2DwNo

Length: 18min 29sec (1109 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 14 2019