The Most Interesting Flight I've Been On - Virgin Atlantic A330-900neo Upper Class Review - Riyadh to Heathrow
- Sam
- Jun 30
- 9 min read
Updated: Oct 14
For those who have been following, this is my sixth flight on my six part, 72 hours, all points odyssey. And yes, I am well aware that this is the second flight review of the six, but it's just that good. Today's flight was on Virgin Atlantic's A330-900neo aircraft in Upper Class, and let me just say this, it was a pleasure to review.
Booking
When planning this trip, it actually all began around this route. This route to Riyadh is a relatively new one for Virgin, only starting in March 2025. And lets just say that it's not the busiest route in Virgin's network. That means under Virgin's dynamic pricing structure for points redemption flights, where each flight in any cabin can be priced individually, flights to/from Riyadh in Upper Class can start from only 29,000 Virgin Points, an absolute bargain! For reference, in Virgin's current 70% bonus sale when purchasing Virgin Points, you could buy 29,000 Virgin Points for £375.
So 29,000 Virgin Points, that's what it cost me? Unfortunately not. As flights are priced dynamically, they can go up, as well as down. After a few days toing and froing, trying to work out the best time and value for money route for my other flights, the cost of this flight slid upwards to 69,000 Virgin Points... Yikes. This isn't the first time I've written about Virgin's dynamic pricing structure screwing over customers, but it's the first time that it's bitten me in the rear.
I am sitting on quite a healthy chunk of Virgin Points, so whilst annoying, it was not the end of the world. What I should have done, and what I would recommend you to do is as soon as you see a flight at a price you like, book it! Flights booked fully with points on Virgin are refundable, and whilst it's annoying that you have to pay the £70 cancellation fee, you'll have to weigh it up with whether what happened to me was more preferrable. I also had to pay 779 SAR in taxes, which I paid using my Hilton Honors Plus debit card, which earn 3 points per £1 spent on foreign transactions, earning me 462 Hilton Honors points.
Virgin Atlantic uses Terminal 1 at Riyadh airport. Opened in 1983, but heavily refurbished, the architecture of this terminal is rather grand, with big sweeping beams opening up the atrium. Virgin currently uses the only lounge in Terminal 1, the Plaza Premium. I say currently, because there are a number being built in the terminal. The signage is a bit circumspect, with lounges all being given the same symbol of "VIP". Even though these other lounges are not finished, the signs already point to them. So when trying to find the Plaza Premium lounge, you may like me, take an escalator up to a building site. (Riyadh Air lounge perhaps?) To find the Plaza Premium lounge, head towards the gates starting with 100. I will post a full review of this lounge in due course.
Onboard
The gate was called right as expected at 10:55am, with boarding commencing at 11:12am, starting with Group 1. As I was travelling in Upper Class, this was my boarding group for today. I boarded the aircraft and was immediately greeted by a member of the crew, showing me the direction to my seat for today, 6K. I headed to my seat, made myself comfortable, before Farieza, the member of crew who would be looking after me today, introduced herself. I ended up having great conversation with not just her, but some of the other crew working this cabin. You could just pick up from the vibe of this group that they were going to make this an excellent flight.
At my seat I found the usual offerings of a pillow, duvet, bottle of water, amenity kit, but also a date with orange zest, which I found to be a nice touch in a nod to the country of departure. I was offered a glass of water, apple, or orange juice as welcome drink. If that was not enough, two minutes later a member of crew came around offering Arabic coffee out of a dallah, a traditional Arabic coffee pot, 10/10 so far for the regional touches.
For the seat itself, it offered a great amount of comfort and features. In my seat 6K, to my left was a storage compartment, inside of which was a mirror to the right was a small light, and underneath a wireless charger for your phone, along with a USB-A, USB C, and universal power socket. To the right of those was one of two seat control panels, offering a great level of seat customisation, and the literature pocket. You then found the TV controls (the TV was also touchscreen), and finally to the right you found the second seat control panel. This one was more basic, most notably there was a recline to sleep button, one to bring your seat up right for take off and landing, and a do not disturb button. The position of these panel did make it easy to knock, and I found myself having to turn off the do not disturb light every so often. One downside of this seat is the lack of storage. The literature pocket is very shallow, offering no space for say an iPad, and the storage compartment was already full from the bottle of water and headphones. Yes, I know there is a storage bin above your head, but it is nice to be able to keep some things closer to you.
The seat transforms into a fully flat bed, with Virgin providing a duvet, and mattress topper. My feet are size 9's for reference, and they had ample space in the footwell.
Boarding was completed not long after with this flight being at most a quarter full. Something unique to this flight (someone will have to let me know if they do this for Dubai), but before the safety video they played an Islamic prayer called Dua, invoking blessings for a safe journey. Whilst I've come to expect this from the Middle Eastern carriers on departure, this is the first time I've encountered such a change to pre-departure based on country of departure. Not saying this is a bad thing, just interesting to observe. After this short prayer, the safety video commenced in all it's over the top glory.
We departed 10 minutes after pushback, and were swiftly on our way towards London.
Once through 10,000ft the crew were released and they began busily to ready to aircraft for service. In Upper Class, the seat has a three point seat belt, similar to what you would find in a car, and even though the seatbelt sign remained on for passengers, the crew came round to advise passengers that they could detach the shoulder part of the seatbelt from the buckle, and that they only needed to keep the lap portion attached. A nice touch to make passengers a bit more comfortable, and one they did not need to do.
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Immediately service began with a hot towel, and some Bloody Mary crisps, with my drinks order being taken. I asked for an "English Garden", unfortunately the necessary mix had not been loaded, so I opted for a can of Lucky Saint, a non-alcoholic beer. I'll pop the menu down below. Do note the first page regarding alcohol will not be served until the aircraft is out of Saudi Arabian airspace.
Meal choices were also taken at this time, where I ordered the Arabic mezze, traditional Arabic prawn sayadieh, and the kunafa cake. The Arabic mezze was excellent quality, served with four pita's, with my favourite being the stuffed vine leaves (unfortunately hidden by the pita bread in the photo), which had a great acidity to it. Next was the main, and I took a tip from a travel Youtuber, The Flip Flop Traveller, whose advice when travelling out of the Middle East, always have the local rice dish, so that's what I did. The prawn sayadieh was honestly one of the best main meals I've had on an aircraft recently. Very savoury, with a hint of sweetness from the tamarind sauce, and some of the meatiest prawns I've had, 10/10. Lastly, desert, alongside a black americano. I can't say I knew what kunafa was before ordering; think baklava stickiness, a fibrous dough, with a soft cheese interior. I don't think I'm selling it... It was honestly very good, but having been drowned in sugar syrup you couldn't have too much of it.
All round this was an excellent meal, beating all expectations even before you consider that food is usually of a worse standard away from an airlines home airport.
As we left Saudi airspace, the Flight Service Manager Anna, promptly came over to ask if I would like a proper drink! I was parched, so of course I ordered a glass of the Hambledon Classic, one I've had many times before, but an English Sparkling wine that stands up against any Champagne.
After lunch I settled down aiming to get some work done. There was Wi-Fi available onboard, in three tiers. Full flight at £18.99, one hour for £5.99, and 20 minutes of free Wi-Fi with you watch a short ad, a fair trade-off I would say.
Wi-Fi speeds were good, offering a healthy 37.2 Mbps download speed. I ended up purchasing an hours worth of Wi-Fi to get a little bit of work done, and once my hour was up I checked the purchasing page and saw that my £5.99 I had paid for one hour, had been deducted from the full flight cost bringing it down to £13, a nice touch.
Starting to work though I noticed an issue with the tray table. This table pops out from my left hand side, and then folds out to form a full size table. The problem comes when you lean on this table, as you invariably do when resting your palms on a laptop whilst you type. The table itself has no rigidity to it, bouncing up and down with very little downward pressure made by yourself. The solution to this is to unfold the table into its half length. Admittedly fine on a full size laptop like mine, but using an iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard, which has no palm rest, would be a struggle.
Later, I took a look at the amenity kit, or "Goodie Bag" in Virgin speak. Virgin have a strong focus on sustainability, admirable, but this does not translate well to the amenity kit which feels a tad cheap. The bag itself is made of recycled paper, and is exactly what you expect for a bag made of paper. The contents are better, with some REN cosmetics, but offer none of that Virgin fun you come to expect.
As we approached northern France, the crew came round asking if there was anything else I would like. Naturally, I could eat, so I asked for the mixed grill platter, and it was exactly as you'd expect. Hulking chunks of meat, something that me on a night out would appreciate. Not that I needed anymore food at this point, but Fareiza had to let me know that they had a spare brownie from the main meal, and would I want it? For scientific purposes, I couldn't decline. As a desert, it was a cardiologists nightmare. A brownie so thick, it could have just been solid chocolate. The caramel sauce was extravagant, but it was the small meringue that really took the mick. Sugar, sugar, sugar!
And with that, we crossed over the English channel in descent towards Heathrow.
This has to be one of the most interesting flights I've ever been on. Seeing how an airline like Virgin, who have cultivated an image of fun, flamboyance, and individuality, contends with the socially conservative society of Saudi Arabia, was an interesting blend of worlds. I think that Virgin danced that fine line perfectly. I was obviously expecting a lack of alcohol service, but to include the date and Arabic coffee from a dallah; that was a great touch to the service, and makes me wonder whether they do this when departing London for Riyadh? What made this flight though was the crew. Anna, Fareizah, and the rest of cabin crew were professional, but showed their personalities, engaged with all passengers, and were incredibly attentive. On leaving the aircraft, I heard a gentleman in premium remark how he had just had the best flight in his 40 years of flying, and that was all down to the crew. That was no coincidence.
Sam
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