My Review of Premium Economy on the Virgin Atlantic A330neo

Earlier in the year I had the pleasure of flying Virgin Atlantic’s newest aircraft, the A330-900neo. This aircraft was first delivered to Virgin in October 2022 and features Virgin’s latest onboard product featuring 30 Upper Class Suites, 46 seats in Premium, and 184 in Economy.

For this flight I was in Premium on VS5 from Heathrow to Miami, a total flight time of 10h20m. Premium on the A330 is in a 2-3-2 configuration, meaning that there is only one true middle seat in each row. 

The new Premium seat has a width of 18.5 inches, and up to 38 inches of legroom. As you can see below, even 6ft2 has plenty of room to stretch my legs. 

Be warned that 23a and 23k are missing a window. All other seats have at least one, if not two windows due to the space that each seat has. This seat features a screen of 13.3 inches, which is exclusively touchscreen, so be prepared to feel the person behind aggressively playing 2048 on their monitor. This seat also features a wireless charging pad in the armrest between the seats. Whilst good in theory, I found it to be a little bit lacking. The size of the space means only one phone can be charged at once. The phone also requires expert level precision to properly align with the charging coil, one bump and you’ve lost the alignment and hence your charge. 

At our seats we found a blanket, pillow, headphones, and menu for the flight. On a night flight you can also expect a small amenity kit. We were then offered a glass of Prosecco, orange juice, or water.

As a flight departing around midday, lunch was served very quickly within getting in the air. I decided to have the Chicken Casserole (no picture I’m afraid) which was definitely suited to the weather I had left behind in the UK and not at all representative of the weather in Miami. The meal itself comes nicely presented on one tray with small novelty aeroplane salt and pepper shakers.

Virgin’s entertainment system, Vera, was a hit and miss on our flight. Not in terms of reliability, but in the way of content. I didn’t find the choices available to my tastes. To the contrary, my partner loved having all the episodes of Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon to watch, so swings and roundabouts I guess. I settled into the flight watching the film “The Novice”.

Drinks and snacks were available during the flight from “The Wonder Wall”. Now this area seemed to be the small galley that's located at the front of the Premium, which abuts the Upper Class “Loft” area. There's no clear delineation nor explanation as to where Premium’s space starts and ends. More confusingly, describing the snack area for Premium “The Wonder Wall” confuses one as all the drinks and snacks for Upper are all up along the wall in the “Loft”.  This doesn’t bother me as a passenger in Premium, but I imagine it could prove a little bit annoying for crew trying to do their jobs in Upper and having Premium passengers “intruding”. 

Around 90 minutes before landing “Mile High Tea” was served. This is a nice light meal to tide you over to getting landside. 

We landed in Miami 20 minutes ahead of schedule, but a long taxi and wait for our gate eroded any of that good luck. 

Overall, Premium Economy on the A330-900 is a perfectly pleasant way to spend a day flight, a good amount of space with a nice, very Virgin, level of service.