BA have a very small number of first class passengers, 10 or 12 I believe, a fair size business cabin and small economy cabin. Until recently, Virgin has had 40 Upper class pax, between 30 and 40 premium depending on the aircraft, and anywhere from 375 to 400 in economy depending on the aircraft. Virgin's upper class cabin now holds 50 passengers and the premium around the same I believe. Economy has been reduced to around 300. Remember that our upper service rivals other airline's first class service, so it's not over in 5 minutes, it has to be delivered with all the trimmings!
The crew working positions are very very different to those at BA and BA do not do the number of services that Virgin have to do. Even with 17 crew, Virgin crew are pushed to the limits and some pax still complain that our service is too slow and we obviously don't have enough crew!! I have dealth with those kind of complaints on numerous ocassions!
BA crew openly tell their customers not to use their call bells unless they REALLY have to, Virgin pax use them continuously and the crew have to answer each one every time it goes off and wouldn't dare tell someone not to use it, unlike BA!!