About high tea in the sky and being seated together as a family on Virgin Atlantic from London to Seattle

I did not have high hopes for our return trip from London to Seattle on Virgin Atlantic. I actually didn’t have high hopes for our trip there either, but it turned out to be the nicest flight I’ve ever flown on. I started to panic after hearing about more families seated apart on airplanes because they booked basic economy like we did and I didn’t want something like this to wreck our trip so I called in and paid for select seating. After handing over 30ish dollars per ticket (x4) I pre-picked our seats so we were seated together as a family two and two by windows.

Have you ever paid to make sure you were seated with your kids? We only did something like this once before on a flight from New Zealand and I love that Consumer Reports is looking into family travel and asking if it is fair that parents have to pay to be seated together as a family . The flight crew ended up being really friendly, the passengers around us were jovial, the food was delicious and the flight was smooth-we couldn’t have asked for a better start to our trip.

Because our trip to London from Seattle was the nicest flight ever, we decided to save $120 dollars and not pay to sit together on the way back and see what would happen. Surely an airline that gave sweet little heart candies at the end of a flight would not split up a family.

And they didn’t.

When we checked into our flight 24 hours ahead like we were supposed to our seat assignments had us all together with three of us in a row of four in the middle of the aircraft and 1 behind on the aisle. We were able to change our seats to two and two in the middle row of the aircraft. We had basic economy tickets so we knew not to expect luxurious seats. It was just a relief that we were seated together as a family without having to pay extra and we even had options too.

I did not expect high tea.

High tea on an airplane is magical. I had been so bummed because the day before on our last day in London and actually on the last day of our entire trip, there was a horrific terror attack on the London Bridge. We were supposed to wander the area but we ducked into our room after watching the Rolling bridge and when we were getting up to go out again we saw “London Bridge” trending on twitter. We ended up watching updates on the news in our room as the awful events unfolded.

FYI if there is ever a terror threat or horrific incident when you are traveling, we’ve found that twitter usually seems to be the source of the quickest information. We knew a lot of the updates we saw on the news before they made it onto the news and having all the information-even amidst the useless information from false sources-gave us a better sense of what was actually going on and if we were really and truly ‘safe.’ This was such a sad last day in London and after all that stress I didn’t really feel like going sightseeing or going out but we had tickets to Matilda.

About halfway into the Matilda play, the musical suddenly stopped and a voice in the ceiling announced that there were “technical difficulties” and to stay seated as the play would start again shortly. After a few minutes there was audible fear in the theatre after a stressful day in the city and then the play continued to all of our reliefs. If you think this was the end of our adventures, it wasn’t. Our Uber driver home ended up giving us the wildest Uber ride we’ve ever had-as he sped backwards down a street to avoid traffic, and then narrowly missed cars as he zoomed around various London streets, I started to wonder if my heart could handle any more stress.

So surprise high tea in the air on Virgin Atlantic just felt like the loveliest way to end the trip and to remember our time on this Europe trip. My kids even loved the sandwich (when do kids rave about a sandwich?) and I was so excited about the scone and clotted cream. There was delicious jam in a squeezable tube- and although it wasn’t fancy it was such a delightful treat. Our high tea even had tea which I read sometimes that you aren’t supposed to drink on airplanes but I did anyways and it was perfect.

Did I tell you we were even seated next to a baby on this flight?

The baby and his parents were pretty great seat mates too. They read together, and were fairly content and amiable. But the best part about seeing this little family together was seeing how many times the flight crew checked in with them to make sure that they were okay. The Virgin Atlantic team brought them snacks and treats and asked them if they needed things and offered suggestions about how to make the flight more comfortable for the baby. I have never seen a flight crew so attentive to a baby on any of the flights we’ve ever flown. This made my heart so happy.

So even though Virgin Atlantic’s intent might not be to be Disneyland in the air, I can’t help but recommend our flights between Seattle and London as the most family friendliest ways we’ve flown recently. Our ride was fantastic. The food was both surprise and delight. And as a family on this airplane after a stressful last day in London, I felt like we were truly safe and in caring good hands.

Terumi

Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys.  She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live.  She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)