Review: Virgin Atlantic Premium on a Boeing 787 from Seoul to London

This is our review of Virgin Atlantic’s premium economy experience on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner on the airline’s newest route, from Seoul to London.

It’s been five years since I last reviewed Virgin Atlantic’s Premium cabin and the new route to Seoul – the airline’s longest flight – seemed like the perfect opportunity to revisit.

Virgin Atlantic provided the flight for free as part of my participation on their inaugural flight to Seoul.

First, a quick trip down memory lane ….

Premium Economy has a long history at Virgin Atlantic. It was joint-first to launch the new cabin in 1992, together with Taiwanese carrier EVA Air (which we’ve also reviewed here).

Back then it was called the somewhat less beguiling ‘Mid Class’ and was described a “revolutionary new product that will deliver the requirements of the business traveller paying full economy”. Many of the perks of ‘Mid Class’ were the same as Premium offers today, including dedicated check-in, separate cabin and priority baggage handling.

Others benefits have changed. In 1992 you could check in at Victoria Station for London Gatwick flights, you only got a pre take-off orange juice and the in-flight entertainment screens were a high-tech 3″ across!

If you have any memories of ‘Mid Class’ then please leave them in the comments – I’d love to hear them.

Back to the review ….

Checking in in Seoul Incheon Airport was easy, where Virgin Atlantic shares the grand Terminal 2 with Korean Air and other SkyTeam partners. Virgin Atlantic check-in desks are located in Zone K at one end of the building. I only had to wait for one set of passengers to clear before I was called forward to the dedicated Premium desk:

You can check in up to two bags when flying Virgin Atlantic Premium and they are given a priority bag tag.

Lounge access is not included with Premium unless you are Flying Club Gold. In Seoul, Virgin Atlantic uses the excellent new Korean Air lounges.

On board – Premium on Virgin Atlantic’s Boeing 787s

The Boeing Dreamliners were once the youngest in Virgin’s fleet, but a massive renewal program means they are now some of the oldest, albeit with an average age of just ten years.

This means they feature what now look like quite retro premium economy seats. And although I still found them comfortable enough, it’s clear that seat makers have since put a lot of work into this burgeoning cabin. Newer iterations feature more storage, bigger screens and winged headrests.

There are 35 Premium seats in rows 21 to 25, just as you turn right when boarding the aircraft. Seats are in a 2-3-2 configuration, with everyone just one seat away from the aisle at most.

You also get two dedicated lavatories for premium economy, where most airlines make you share with economy. This meant there was never a queue for the bathroom given the relatively small size of the cabin.

Seat selection is a bit strange, because although you can mostly select your seats for free, Virgin Atlantic blocks the seats in the front row (row 21) for passengers with babies and these are only opened at check-in. Additionally, the next two rows are considered ‘Preferred Seats’ and charged extra although, frankly, I don’t think it’s worth paying for them.

Modern premium economy seats tend to be thinner and lighter – making them cheaper to fly – but that’s not always a good thing. In contrast, these Virgin seats are chunkier:

The seats are made of a chocolatey-burgundy leather which is starting to visibly crack, so the Dreamliner refurbishment program can’t come soon enough! The cocktail tables have a light wood effect.

There is plenty of leg room with 38″ of seat pitch. I had even more in the bulkhead row, which was supplemented by this bolster which was handed out after take-off and made it much comfier:

Premium seats get a 8″ recline which helps when you want to get some sleep. The bifold tray table is stored in the armrest for all Premium passengers. Compared to Virgin’s newer seats, I found it a bit unstable with a slight dip in the centre:

I like this sort of tray table because you can have it out without having it fully extended, which can be convenient when you don’t want to be completely blocked in.

There’s a small cocktail table between pairs:

You get individual air vents in Premium, which I’m always happy about.

Waiting for me at my seat was a small cushion, a set of headphones and a purple fleece blanket. The cushion has a slight neck-pillow shape and a fabric cover – better than last time I flew Virgin’s Premium, where it featured a plastic pillowcase.

No amenity kits were laid out and I believe these are only offered on overnight flights. I’m not sure if this is a new policy or not but again this feels a little tight, especially given BA’s improvements to amenity kits and pillows / blankets. Perhaps offering customers a choice (or providing them on request) would be a better compromise.

Assuming nothing has changed, the amenity kits are in a similar vein to the Upper Class kits, albeit slightly smaller and in brown Kraft paper with red accents, which I actually them a little more colourful and fun. Here’s one from a previous trip:

Here are the contents, including red eye mask, bamboo dental kit, ear plugs, and pen:

In-flight entertainment and wifi

The 787 Premium Economy cabin has an 11″ screen. In the bulkhead row, this pops out of the centre armrest in an interesting stowage position that sticks out substantially:

and

It is loaded with Virgin’s inflight entertainment system which it calls ‘Vera’. It was loaded with 135 films including the new F1 film, One Battle After Another and other new releases. TV included a partnership with HBO and Apple TV, such as Slow Horses.

The headphones are nothing to write home about, with over-the-ear cups but no noise cancellation.

As this is a day flight, I spent the majority of my journey working using the onboard wi-fi. Whilst Virgin is about to launch free, unlimited Starlink wi-fi, the Dreamliners currently feature an older generation from Panasonic. This is chargeable with several packages available:

• Messaging – £2.49
• Basic surf – £12.99
• Premium surf – £29.99
• Stream – £24.99 (3h only)

I went for the full flight, premium surf category which was fine for social media, browsing the web, emails etc but you would struggle to stream or upload video. I found it worked mostly seamlessly, with a few dead zones around Kazakhstan. I’m not sure how much better ‘Stream’ would be but, regardless, it’s substantially more expensive and only available in three hour intervals.

Food and service

On boarding you are given a choice of prosecco or orange juice.

You also get an A5 menu. On my flight the service consisted of a three course meal served shortly after take-off followed by another meal two hours before landing.

This is where things went a bit skew-whiff on my flight. Shortly after boarding the pilot informed us that we might be delayed for up to three hours due to a technical issue that required sign-off from an office in Germany.

However, the crew dealt with this admirably. Almost instantly they started offering around cups of water to customers. They also distributed some of the snacks on board before heading into the terminal to bulk-buy enough Twix bars for everyone on board. Later on, everyone got a 500ml bottle of water as well. So although inconvenient we were well looked after, with crew taking the initiative to keep us happy.

Thankfully – and after three hours sitting on the tarmac, effectively turning our 13 hour flight into a 16 hour one – we were off.

The cabin crew made their first round after take-off offering hot towels. This was followed by an initial drinks service where I had a bloody mary:

Then came the first meal. It was served on a single tray, albeit with proper crockery, glassware and cutlery. There were a choice of three main courses: two Korean, one Western:

• Spiced Korean baby octopus, steamed rice, pak choi and carrots
• Grilled chicken, smashed chive potato, tomato cream sauce, asparagus
• Vegetable bibimbap

Virgin Atlantic has really embraced local Korean food on this route, which I think is great. The starter was a yeolmu-kimchi salad with yuzu lemon dressing as well as a bread roll with butter, gochujang tube and sesame oil sachet. Dessert was a Jeju green tea mousse and cheese plate.

For mains I chose the spiced baby octopus and I was curious to see how this would be served. Rather than whole ones these were chopped and not rubbery at all.

I had some red wine with my meal which Virgin Atlantic now serves in cans as part of a partnership with ‘Nice Drinks’.

Cabin crew come around several times with drinks so you are always topped up.

During the flight you can also get up and head to the ‘Wander Wall’ in the galley, which features a selection of snacks and drinks:

Given the three hour delay these were ravaged quite early on, although it was restocked midway through the flight. I imagine this was done so that not all the snacks were gone within an hour of take-off!

At one point I asked crew if they had any chocolate bars or similar (there weren’t any in the Wonder Wall) and they very kindly brought me some chocolate buttons from economy.

The crew came round offering cups of juice and water very regularly throughout the flight – more than any flight I’ve recently reviewed. These were served in plastic cups but all drinks with meals were in proper glasses.

About five or six hours before landing they came round offering veggie burritos which were surprisingly tasty:

Then, about two hours before landing, the final meal service was offered with a choice of three dishes:

• Roasted halibut with yuzu soy sauce, steamed rice and vegetables
• Korean spicy chicken and fried rice
• Tteokbokki with spicy pepper paste sauce and vegetable fritters

I went for the korean spicy chicken which was served with a chocolate brownie and sliced fruit bowl:

After 13 hours of flight time (and over 16 sitting on the aircraft) we were all very relieved to arrive in London!

Conclusion

Whilst it might not feature the newest cabins, overall I was impressed with the comfort and service I experienced on board Virgin’s Boeing 787s. With the full fleet refurbishment commencing in 2028 things can only get better.

The seat was dated but not uncomfortable, although the lack of in-seat storage and smaller TV screens were noticeable.

What really stole the show was the crew, who were almost universally excellent (one member of staff was a bit dour, however!) Despite the delay, they put their best foot forward and were friendly and proactive. As I said before, I don’t think I’ve ever been offered juice or water so often mid-flight!

You really do feel the benefit of having a couple of crew dedicated to the Premium cabin rather than sharing them with economy.

In terms of Virgin Points, you earn (if you have no elite status) 150% of miles flown on a non-refundable Premium ticket or 250% if you book a flexible ticket.

In terms of tier points, you earn 50 tier points each way on a non-refundable Premium ticket and 100 each way on a flexible ticket. To put this in comparison, you need 400 tier points for Virgin Flying Club Silver status and 1,000 for Gold. 50 tier points is not hugely generous given that you get the same with an Economy Delight ticket.

Thank you to the Virgin Atlantic team for arranging my flight. You can find out more about Virgin Atlantic’s Premium cabin on their website here.

Head for Points made a financial contribution to the Woodland Trust as part of this trip. The Woodland Trust creates and manages forests in the UK in accordance with the Woodland Carbon Code.