Business class was a sober place until
Virgin Atlantic arrived, and forty years on the airline still refuses to let it become one again. At the
2024 Travelling for Business Awards, its Upper Class cabin was named a Finalist for Best Business Class Airline of the Year.
Upper Class is business class as Virgin has always imagined it: serious hardware delivered with a grin. Aboard the airline's newest A330neo aircraft, travellers settle into suites with fully flat beds, direct aisle access and sliding privacy screens, while the corner Retreat Suites, the largest spaces on the aircraft, seat companions for dinner or a meeting at altitude. The A350-1000 fleet adds The Loft, a social space where passengers can stretch, sip and talk, an idea rivals have circled for years without ever quite daring to copy.
The ground game may be the cabin's greatest weapon. The Clubhouse at Heathrow remains the lounge by which others are judged, cocktail bar, brasserie dining, spa touches, reached via dedicated Upper Class check-in and private security that compress kerb-to-lounge into minutes. Across the Atlantic, the Delta joint venture keeps the premium thread unbroken through American hubs, and Flying Club, newly reinforced by SkyTeam membership, gives frequent flyers alliance-wide currency for their loyalty.
Judges in 2024 assessed the cabin during the airline's
40th anniversary year and found the founding spirit intact: irreverent service resting on a fleet younger and cleaner than at any point in the company's history. In a shortlist crowned by Qatar Airways and stacked with British Airways Business Class, JetBlue Mint and Singapore Airlines, Upper Class held its ground on the quality no spreadsheet captures, being a pleasure.
Wilbur and Orville, the salt and pepper shakers passengers famously pocket, capture something true about Upper Class: it is designed to be loved, not merely endured. The airline leans into the affection with amenity collaborations, a bar-to-Loft social culture and crew empowered to be people rather than procedures, and the result is a premium cabin with a fandom, an asset money struggles to buy and rivals visibly envy.
The
Travelling for Business Awards celebrate excellence in all its accents, and Virgin Atlantic Upper Class's 2024 recognition proved again that polish and playfulness can share a cabin, with the airline's fifth decade already looking suitably ambitious.
