Virgin/Delta confusion!
 

Hello,

I’m so sorry as I imagine this has been many posts over the years but I can’t find anything recent that answers my questions (and I’ve trawled through old posts!) and I have tried google too but that’s just having my life...

We’ve booked flights for next May (through skyscanner) which are Delta operated by Virgin. What does this mean for who’s plane we will be on, which brand baggage allowance, which check in?

I’ve picked our seats on the delta website but the plane looks like a virgin layout and I’m so bamboozled! I’m chuffed with the price we got and seats we got so I’m happy! Just need to learn what I’ve actually booked 😂

If it is Delta operated by Virgin and it is direct it will almost certainly be a Virgin flight and check in would be with Virgin as far as I know in which case the baggage information you require will be in line with Virgin's policies

If it says Delta operated by Virgin then it will be a codeshare flight on a Virgin Aircraft. If you are travelling direct to MCO it will almost certainly be a 747.

Virgin's baggage allowance will apply and you will need to check in at the Virgin desk at the airport.

-Steve

Brilliant that was what I thought, thank you both so much!

It actually works seamlessly. You should by now have a Virgin management number as well as your initial Delta one.

When you arrive at the airport ( and we were not certain the first time), we simply walked up to the nearest Virgin member of staff who reassured us suitably.

Everything is Virgin Atlantic, other than your booking and you are treated absolutely the same as somebody who booked Virgin Atlantic from the start.

I found the Virgin customer care people very helpful when I was changing seats as the seat allocation could not be moved on the Virgin app (didn’t see the bubble on delta site and thought it was fully booked or something so just selected seat). Everything else is seamless...as others have said

We are Virgin/Delta in 4 weeks. We are flying Virgin plane Heathrow to NY then Delta plane NY to Tampa and reverse home except via Atlanta.

You can check plane details on www.seatguru.com just enter airline, flight number and date.

Flights to and from the US operate under a US DoT regulation known as the “First Marketing Carrier” rule. That means it is the airline under whose flight number the first sector is sold that decides the checked baggage allowance, not necessarily the operating carrier.

In this case, with a DL codeshare operates by Virgin, it would be Delta that decides the baggage allowance. The ticket / confirmation should show the correct baggage allowance. For this particular case, it’s unlikely to make a difference in practice, since Delta/Virgin checked bag allowance will likely be the same.

For cabin baggage, it is always the operating carrier’s allowance, in this case Virgin.

I've been wondering about this too. I've seen flights offered by Delta, says "operated by Virgin" but they have a DL flight number rather than VS. Would it still be a Virgin flight?

Yes. You can check by looking at the Virgin website and their flight times and you'll see it's the same