Lexton,

I notice that your trip with Virgin was from Manchester. Virgin only lease aircraft for the Orlando route, and these are leased from Air Atlanta Icelandic, and yes they are old decrepid planes painted up in Virgin livery.

My niece was VA Cabin Crew for 10 years, and none of the crew like doing the Orlando route (according to her), due to the amount of children and holiday makers on the flight (holiday makers being the biggest complainers of everything all the time).

I fly VA out of LGW all the time, and can honestly say I have never experienced any problems with them in the past 10 or so years. Only problems ever with VA was on an Athens flight once (to which they no longer fly).

Regarding your compensation. As it has taken so long up until now to get something more out of them, I would suggest you be very wary now about your next step. If VA are certain that they did everything possible during your delay 'to the book', then they can at anytime retract any compensation they have already offered. You, will then be left with nothing!

I would suggest you take what has been offered, and next time try flying out of LGW and see if it makes a difference to your Manchester experience.

Well, the above is based on my experiences with similar situations (although not with VA), and notes taken from my Niece when she worked with VA.

Hope it helps in your decision.

Matt