I have recently had the misfortune to have had to fly on the abject tube of woe that is the BA service between Bridgetown Barbados and London Gatwick. We had to book late and, as there were no seats in Premium on the Virgin flight, we decided to go for the equivalent on BA (we were not desperate enough to go to Barbados to risk economy) There was no problem getting seats on the BA flight, and I can now, with awful clarity, see why. The BA 777s are in a scruffy and their cabins aged. My seat was broken (in subtly different ways) in both directions, although I count myself lucky not to have booked row 25, where the poor victim/passenger's seat was soggy from some deeply worrying fault involving air conditioning and condensation - the cabin staff's solution was the provision of a second (presumably waterproof) blanket for him to sit on. I found questionable stains on my cup holder on the way out and some hideous food-related gunge on the underside of my (floppy, broken) table on the return leg. The service was ok, but the memory of the glass of champagne and general happy welcome one gets on embarkation in Virgin Premium was but a distant and painful glow. The entertainment on BA was on fixed loop videotape - videotape, Richard, In 2012!! I won't go into detail about the food because I'm afraid it may crystallise a traumatic event in my memory, never to be forgotten, but suffice to say I have never been so closely reminded of school dinners in the 1970s as I have been on that flight. The little plastic tub of despair that was the alleged pudding was a microcosm of the whole experience, and the "breakfast" (I use that word in its broadest sense) was positively insulting. It was all made worse at Grantley Adams International on the home leg by having to walk past one of your proper 747s standing next to our toy aeroplane. We were sorely tempted to make a break for it across the Tarmac and hope they let us on the Virgin flight. In summary, I am just writing to say, that whatever it is you're doing to make your flights so much more pleasant than BA ones, please keep doing it, and in return I promise never to go on BA when there is a Virgin flight to the same destination available.
Yours etc,
Mr S D Bell
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