Yesterday I shared my favourite seats in Economy across each aircraft in Virgin Atlantic’s fleet. I’ve spent a great deal of time in their Premium cabin (my favourite Premium Economy product on the market). So, today I’ll share my seat picks for that cabin.
One of the reason’s it’s my favourite Premium product is because the seat design is great. It’s a nice, leather-clad, armchair style design and not just an Economy seat with more legroom. For a long time, this really set them apart from the rest of the pack. The wander wall was also a nice feature. The Premium cabin sits right behind the Upper Class cabin on all the current aircraft, separated by the bar & galley (or The Loft on the A350).
As I said in yesterday’s article, any use of the word “best” is a little dangerous, because what I think is good, others may not agree with. But the purpose of this article is to point out some of the seats I like and the reasons I like them. You can then make your own choice.
787-9 Dreamliner
The 787 Dreamliner was Virgin’s newest Premium cabin, until the A350-1000 arrived. The Premium cabin features slightly slimmer seats than some of the other versions of the Premium seat, but does offer nice touch screens for in-flight entertainment and a wander wall, which is essentially a help-yourself snack area in the galley. Non-plane geeks likely won’t notice the difference between the Premium seat on the A330 and the one on the 787.
One of the downsides of the Premium cabin on the 787 is that the bassinets are at the front of the cabin (row 21) and the Economy cabin to the rear, has bassinets at the front as well, meaning you’re potentially sandwiched between 2 sets of babies. There are only two bassinets at the front of the Economy cabin, which is why I recommend the rear of the Premium cabin for sleepers, who also benefit from guilt-free recline.
The bulkhead row, 21, cannot be selected online due to the bassinet positions and can only be assigned at the airport, so be nice to the check-in staff if you want those seats! In my experience, the best way to snag those seats is at the Clubhouse (if you’re Flying Club Gold).
- Best seats for sleep – 25A/C
- Best seats for couples – Any A/C or H/K combo
- Best seats for a quick exit – 21A/C/D
- Personal favourite if 21 is unavailable, 22D.
A330-300
The nice thing about the A330-300 over the -200 variant is that it has been a staple of Virgin’s fleet for quite a while. As such, it has an almost identical Premium cabin to the 787-9. The only exception is the additional row of two seats towards the front left of the cabin. These seats are closer to the galley but offer additional privacy.
As such, my seating choices for this aircraft are almost the same as the 787.
The bulkhead row, 19/20, cannot be selected online due to the bassinet positions and can only be assigned at the airport.
- Best seats for sleep – 25A/C
- Best seats for couples – Any A/C or H/K combo
- Best seats for a quick exit – 19A/C or 20D
A350-1000
The A350 is the newest addition to the fleet, featuring 56 newly designed Premium seats. This product does not exist in the rest of the fleet at the time of writing. Fortunately, the seating on the A350 seating is fairly consistent. My main dislike about the A350 Premium cabin is that it is a 2x4x2 seating layout, whereas the rest of the fleet is a 2x3x2 layout.
- Best seats for sleep – 24A/C or 25A/C
- Best seats for couples – Any A/C or H/K combo
- Best seats for a quick exit – 21A/C
Bottom line
You can often find great deals on Premium flights and if budget allows, it really is a nice upgrade compared to normal Economy. It’s rare for Premium to have empty seats, so it’s not often you can get airport upgrades to this cabin in my experience. But jumping from Premium to Upper with points is quite a common strategy. I have had a lot of upgrades by booking Premium and then upgrading either in advance or at the airport. (I’ll write a full guide on this in future).
