We are pleased to annouce the launch of our 34th new route, from London Heathrow to Vancouver.  The new service will commence on 24th May 2012 and will operate four times a week on a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.  

The outbound sector will depart London Heathrow at 13:00 and arrive in Vancouver at 15.10.
The inbound sector will depart Vancouver at 19:50 and arrive in London Heathrow the next day at 13:45.

Initially, the service will run throughout the summer, up until 27th October 2012 and will see up to 40,000 Virgin Atlantic customers travelling between London and Vancouver in the first season.

• View our Vancouver destination guide
• Book cheap flights to Vancouver

In addition to the new service, Virgin Atlantic is also delighted to annouce the launch of a second service to San Francisco, which will operate 3 times a week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Our new service will being on 26th March 2012 and will run throughout the summer, until 26th October 2012.  

The outbound sector will depart London Heathrow at 13:00 and arrive in San Francisco at 16.50.
The inbound sector will depart San Francisco at 18:50 and arrive in London Heathrow the next day at 13:45.

The new Terminal 3 at Las Vegas McCarran Airport is now scheduled to open 27 June 2012.  We will continue to arrive and depart from the current Terminal 2 up to and including 26 June 2012.

Take a look at our Las Vegas Airport Guide

We are making some improvements to our seat assignment process. In order to minimise the impact of these changes on our passengers, we need to restrict the number of seats allocated within the system, throughout the period of development. From 9th January 2012 we will only be able to offer advanced seat selection for flights departing before 01 November 2012. This policy applies in every cabin. We will add any updates on progress to our website and when the system changes have been completed, we will once again open up seat assignment to 336 days before each flight.

Please don’t forget that all seats, on every flight will be available to select when check-in opens (this is at -24 hours for mobile and on-line check in). In exceptional circumstances some seat allocations may be moved due to operational requirements.

To find out more on how this might affect you, read these associated FAQ's

The following information concerns passengers on flights departing from or arriving into Gatwick, Manchester or Glasgow between 15 June 2011 and 01 April 2012:

Unfortunately due to a technical error many passengers who had reserved their seats were unseated and seat selection was temporarily unavailable. Regrettably we have been unable to retrieve the required seating information to reseat passengers in their original seats. However, we now have repaired the fault and seats are once again available for selection. Bookings were not affected, only seat selections were lost.

If you made a booking and reserved a seat for a flight departing from, or arriving into; Gatwick, Manchester or Glasgow airport between 15 June 2011 and 01 April 2012, you can go on line and re-select your seat through "Manage my Booking". If you booked through a travel agent and you have not yet received your ticket (or e-ticket), your travel agent can re-select your seat for you. Seats will also be available to select at check in.

Virgin Atlantic apologises profusely for any inconvenience this will have caused our passengers.

We are busy refurbishing all the aircraft that fly out of Gatwick, Manchester and Glasgow; designing new seats and state of the art in-flight entertainment to make your flight more comfortable and more fun than ever before. The Premium Economy cabin on the lower deck will be larger but more exclusive and all the seat numbers are changing. The first completed aircraft will come back into service on 01 April 2012, and the whole fleet will be finished by the end of 2012, so any flight you may book after 01 April 2012 could well be on the newly refurbished aircraft.

The seat numbers in Premium Economy are completely different on the new layout, compared to the existing layout, so unfortunately we are unable to offer advanced seat selection in Premium Economy, on some of our flights out of Gatwick, Manchester or Glasgow after 01 Apr 2012. This is because we don’t know which aircraft will be operating each flight until 24 hours before departure.

In addition to this refurbishment programme we are also making system changes to our advanced seat assignment process which has meant that we need to restrict seats allocated within our booking system throughout the period of development. Unfortunately, at the moment this means that no seats are available to select in advance, in any cabin, after 01 Nov 2012.

This effectively means that Premium Economy passengers flying out of LGW, MAN or GLA will not be able to reserve seats in advance for flights departing after 01 Apr 12 until we have completed the changes to our booking system. This will be on, or shortly after Nov 2012.

We understand that that selecting a seat is a really important part of planning your trip and we apologise for any disappointment this may cause but we would like to reassure you that seat selection will still be available, when check in opens, so there is still plenty of time to get the seat that you really want.

We will add any updates on progress to our website and when the system changes have been completed, we will once again open up seat assignment to 336 days before each flight.

US Customs and Border Protection have enforced a charge of $14 USD per application for an electronic travel authority, through the ESTA system. Once granted, an ESTA is valid for 2 years (or less if the passport expires during this period). 

You can apply for your ESTA by visiting the U.S. Government website.

All persons travelling to the US under the Visa Waiver Programme must have a valid travel authority, and without one, Virgin Atlantic is not permitted to allow you to board your flight.

Travellers may check the validity of their passport to use the Waiver Program on the U.S. Department of State website.

Read more about ESTA and US Visa requirements here.

If you are travelling to or from the US there will be some important additions to the information you will need to provide to us before you travel. 

Find out more about Advance Passenger Information