B Sousa: "It makes sense now. Virgin economy is lower than anything else and the best they have is not first class."
Well, it's not for me to defend VS's marketing but I think you will find that, they chose the different names when they launched, to distinguish their product from the competition and encourage people to think of what was different.
Also, when they started, they had only Biz and Economy but the biz product that they oferred was better than almost any other Biz at that time. in some cases, their Biz was better than 1st Class! It fell somewhere between the two, but never below Biz, another reason for calling it by a different name. Don't forget that their 1st/Biz/Upper was so good that BA took such fright as to start the whole dirty tricks plan?
The innovations of VS are legion. Individual screens, which actually started in Upper with a personal tape player 'VideoMan' and a choice of tapes in 1987 was one. Limo service to/from airports for Upper pax and so forth.
The introduction of Premium Economy was copied by BA as World Traveller Plus. I think it amusing that PE was going to be called Middle Class up until about two weeks before the launch when they got cold feet and changed the name! (I sit to be corrected on that)
Perception is everything. I consider VS and BA to be the same in economy many say that one in particular is better. As you will have seen in many threads here, the perception of the individual pax as to what is 'good/better/best' has too many intangibles to be written down. One's cultural upbringing, standard of living at home, age, gender, outlook on life, etc. etc.
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"I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you any different." Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.