I have flown with Virgin and would recommend, they use the Airbus A340-600, they have good entertainment with your own back seat screen, games and good selection of films, tv and music. The leg-room is not great but no difference between BA and Virgin I would say. I personally prefer Virgin food and service. You can see a seat layout of plane on http://www.seatguru.com.

When you get to Cape Town you will love it I'm sure, it's a fab place

Thanks Nowton. I like the sound of Virgin so will be going with them.

Good choice...But whatever you do avoid South African Airways...they really are the pits

Sorry Paully, have to disagree

Flown to CPT 3 times in the last 4 months and have just flown back from CPT with Virgin and have to say I was not impressed. Have flown South African twice now and have to say they win "hands down".

Virgin has slightly better seat pitch than BA at 31 inches, but SA have 33 inch and these 2 inches make a huge difference, believe me. Virgin does have a better selection of IFE...............when it works, it didn't for a couple of hours on our return trip Friday and if you google Virgin Atlantic IFE, you will see they are having many problems.

SA and Virgin both fly the A340-600 so it's the same type of plane. BA use the old cramped 747's so I've avoided BA like the plague.

To put it into perspective, our flight out to CPT with Virgin was only 1/3 full and I had 2 seats to myself and they weren't the most comfortable, same on the way back, 2/3's full and still 2 seats to myself, but when my colleague sat next to me, the seat width was cramped to say the least and I wouldn't have fancied that for 12 hours.

If you want an uncomfortable cramped seat with full entertainment (when it works) fly Virgin - if you want comfort and space with perfectly adequate IFE, SA wins for me.

Don't even consider BA. If you want to do it cheaper then take an indirect flight that takes longer, fly Emirates via Dubai. Fantastic service and cheaper !!

Thanks balders for your helpful comments. I have already booked Virgin so will see how things go.

Thanks balders for your helpful comments. I have already booked Virgin so will see how things go.
Paully, why didn't you like SA?