This week we’re traveling across the Atlantic to the British Isles to see which of their carriers bring the best service when you’re flying in business class. All three carriers have their overall pros and cons, so let’s see who gives you the best business class service—Aer Lingus, British Airways, or Virgin Atlantic?
As a reminder, Premium Travel Insider aggregates reviews from around the web and scores them on a 1-3 scale. A 3 indicates that a given category exceeded reviewer expectations, a 2 indicates it met expectations, and a 1 failed to meet expectations. We evaluate a variety of categories, the most important of which we call the “Big 5” that are most important to a premium travel experience: seat, food, drink, service, and in flight entertainment. You can learn more about our methodology here.
Top Line Scoring of the Best Business Class Service
| Airline | Number of Reviews | Aggregated Service Score |
| Virgin Atlantic | 12 | 2.70/3 (Excellent) |
| British Airways | 14 | 2.54/3 (Great) |
| Aer Lingus | 10 | 2.00/3 (Acceptable) |
Going strictly by the numbers—which is sort of what we do here—Virgin Atlantic is our clear winner with an excellent 2.70/3. Reviewers loved the cheeky and efficient Virgin Atlantic service. British Airways—which often gets maligned in reviews—finished quite strongly as well. With 2.54/3 across 14 reviews, that’s a strong showing. Coming in last was Aer Lingus, which got the job done with a solid 2.00/3, but didn’t wow anyone.
Numbers are fun, but more fun is seeing the experiences bloggers and reviewers had on each carrier, so let’s get to it!
Virgin Atlantic Business Class Service – Best and Worst
Virgin Atlantic – The Best
When you’ve got a 2.70/3 score, you know you’re not just in good hands, but there’s something special going on. For Virgin Atlantic, it was enthusiastic, pleasent service with a lot of character.
“The slightly more casual style of the service suits me as the crew always feel genuinely enthusiastic and seem to love their jobs.”
Michele of Turning Left for Less, traveling from Los Angeles to London.
The next positive review, from Live and Let’s Fly, was particularly interesting because the reviewer, Matthew, had a generally poor experience on his upper class flight—he did not enjoy the food or seat at all. But nonetheless, he had the following to say:
I know this has been a fairly negative review, but I do want to laud the Virgin Atlantic crew onboard my flight. FAs were charming, witty, and worked hard. I do not fault FAs for an uncomfortable seat or poor food; they must work with the tools they have. I appreciated that excellent service they provided.
Matthew from Live and Let’s Fly, traveling from London to Los Angeles.
I give Matthew—and Virgin Atlantic—a lot of credit. Having aggregated a LOT of reviews (more than 400 so far), you notice patterns. When people have bad flights, they tend to trash everything because they’re in a bad mood. Matthew is a professional, and made sure to call out the positive and the negative fairly in his experience.
Let’s move on to our final positive review, from Nicky Kelvin of The Points Guy:
I also noticed crew calling passengers “guys.” I actually quite like that informality, and informal is perhaps part of the Virgin brand, but I know some people hate this. However, as the flight went on and rapport built up, I ended up having a great time and feeling positive about the service…. Nothing was too much trouble, and everything was with a smile. The crew proactively offered anything I wanted, all in a relaxed manner. It was the making of a pleasant flight.
Nicky Kelvin of The Points Guy, traveling from London to New York.
This review captures the quirkiness of Virgin Atlantic quite well. As Nicky notes, some people hate the informality, but for many people, it works quite well.
Virgin Atlantic – The Worst
There were no negative review for Virgin Atlantic service—only a handful of “acceptable” ones.
British Airways Business Class Service – Best and Worst
British Airways – The Best
Our second-place airline for best business class service was British Airways, scoring 2.54/3, which we consider a great score. The reviews backed this score up. Let’s see exactly what they had to say.
The crew were all very cheerful, smiley and polite – no evidence of simply going through the motions, and the service was good.
Ziggy of Traveling for Miles, traveling from Los Angeles to London.
Hard to beat cheerfulness and politeness in the sky!
I was pleasantly surprised when my assigned cabin crew member introduced herself and explained she would be looking after me for the flight. She was excellent throughout – BA crew at their best – friendly and chatty but efficient too. She used my name during the flight consistently, which is the service standard now.
Michele of Turning Left for Less, traveling from London to New York.
In the past, British Airways didn’t always have the best reputation in business class. Clearly that has changed for the better.
The cabin crew on this flight was absolutely delightful.
Rohan of Travel Codex, traveling from London to Johannesburg.
This sums up the British Airways business class experience in a simple way. Perhaps not as much character as Virgin Atlantic, but delightful nonetheless!
British Airways – The Worst
British Airways did not have any negative reviews, but had more “acceptable” than “excellent” reviews.
Aer Lingus Business Class Service – Best and Worst
Aer Lingus came in third today, with a solid—but average—2.00/3. Making this more interesting is that every review was a 2.00/3, or “meets expectations,” except for two. One reviewer had a great experience, the other not so much. Let’s see what happened.
Aer Lingus – The Best
JT Genter, writing for The Points Guy, had a superb experience on his flight:
“The small business-class cabin was served by one flight attendant, but she was all that was needed. Despite the fact that she’d worked for Aer Lingus for 20 years, she mentioned (when we chatted) that this was just her second time working on this particular aircraft. Throughout the flight itself, she was friendly, professional and prompt. Service never felt hurried or overbearing.”
JT Genter, traveling from Washington, D.C., to Dublin.
Aer Lingus – The Worst
The bad experience came from Michele of Turning Left for Less. Her trip got off to a rocky start when she ran into a flight attendant who accused her of taking photos of other guests, as opposed to photos of the plane (which is what she was doing). That’s never a good recipe to begin service on a flight, and it went downhill from there. It seemed her poor service wasn’t limited to just her own experience.
The original cabin crew member who had told me off delivered my [dinner] tray. It was literally plonked in front of me and nothing else was offered – I would expect to be offered wine or a drink as on every other airline. I tried to stop her saying, “Excuse me, could I have…” but she just walked off. However, it was the same for everyone. I did not see anyone in my cabin get another drink.
Michele of Turning Left for Less, traveling from New York to Dublin.
Conclusion: Best Business Class Service
Wrapping up our competition of best business class service between Aer Lingus, British Airways, or Virgin Atlantic, we see a pretty diverse set of performances. Virgin Atlantic and British Airways deliver a quality experience. One does it with character, and one with proper British style, but they both deliver. Aer Lingus doesn’t fail, but they clearly have an average product.
Of course, there’s more to flying than just service! Make sure to check out our full reviews of each airline’s business class:
Not happy with those carriers? Check out all of our business class reviews and see if you find someone else you like. Or perhaps you’d like to upgrade to first class — in which case our first class reviews might be to your liking. No matter how you fly, Premium Travel Insider has you covered.
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