Source: Virgin Atlantic

We have waited years for the Virgin Atlantic Upper Class refresh so you can imagine our excitement at todays breaking news. To cut to the chase, the new enhancements are:

1. Longer 220cm flatbed, which is quoted to be the longest in its class

2. The bar will be redesigned and made to look far more luxurious and stylish

3. 12-inch touchscreen screen with touchscreen handset

4. Fluffy features like fancy mood lighting and a ‘window’ built into each suite wall

5. ‘AeroMobile’ facilities allow passengers to send/receive calls and text messages

I wasn’t hugely excited by the airline keeping the herringbone layout – I was expecting a dumping of the unpopular pattern and jump to something like Cathay Pacific’s new business class (which is a very spunky layout if you ask me). Whilst they aren’t redesigning the wheel the new product looks über stylish and oozes cool from this writers perspective. The bar looks great in its new form and the colours are vibrant.

The new Upper Class Suite will be available from this month on the Heathrow / New York route and the rest of the A330 fleet will be progressively upgraded. The new cabin will also come standard on the airlines future 787 fleet though these won’t hit the skies until 2014.

There is no mention of the A340 fleet and whether the larger aircraft will get the new cabin – the silence on this front probably means that the old Upper Class will still be flying around in unison with the new, which is a shame. It’s difficult to gain confidence from your passengers when they don’t know what product to expect. Overall, I’ve never flown with the carrier but I can imagine I will give it a crack in the future (assuming I will get the new configuration) – I think Virgin Atlantic have done a great job with the new design, well done!

You can see a virtual view of the new configuration here.
Virgin Atlantics New Upper Class website is here.