If you can always try and fly from Scotland or at least aviod Gatwick and Heathrow. Manchester is not much better as we have flown Virgin through both Gatwick and Manchester and have always lost luggage as the conecting flight to Glasgow is BA and Virgin and BA don't talk so your luggage gets left in off the plane. So far we have lost luggage 3 times to have it delivered the next day with the same excuse from BA.
We now use Continental through Newark and they are good or Iceland Air with a stop over in Iceland. We have even gone through Toronto without a hitch.
Why not drive to Glasgow or Edinburgh and fly from there with the Continental or Iceland Air.