Shane

I’ve had an incredibly frustrating experience with Virgin Media Ireland’s mobile service.

I travelled to Germany for work in mid September and discovered that data roaming didn’t work. I rang customer care twice while abroad — they were polite and tried to help, but nothing they suggested fixed the issue. I was told the technical team would contact me, but no one ever did. In the end, I had to buy a travel eSIM just to stay connected.

As soon as I returned home, everything magically worked again. Fast forward a week, I arrived in the UK — and guess what? No roaming again. Another eSIM purchase just to get basic data.

I contacted Virgin via X (Twitter) on 29 September and was told this is a known issue with no timeline for resolution, and that I’d need to keep checking in myself for updates. That’s not good enough.

To make matters worse, when I tried to raise a formal complaint online, the system told me a complaint was already open so I cannot submit it — no one ever told me a complaint had been opened and I have received no case number, no email, no smoke signal, nothing.

I travel regularly for work and need a reliable connection. Virgin’s roaming has completely failed me twice in two weeks, and their support process is broken. If you depend on roaming, I’d strongly recommend avoiding Virgin Mobile.

I recently flew BA long haul in Premium Economy to/from PVG - what happened to this airline?

The plane looked like it hadn’t had a glow-up since the early 2000s — scratched seats, tired cabin, and an IFE screen that felt like watching Netflix on a Nokia - which gave up completely on return flight. The food? Bland and sad. The crew? Looked like they’d rather be anywhere else. And don’t get me started on the uniforms — I’ve seen sharper looks at Primark on a Sunday.

Heathrow T5 was absolute chaos. Made trapse out to the satellite terminal to then be herded onto busses to the plane. Honestly, the whole experience screamed coasting on reputation rather than premium airline.

BA, this isn’t it. Other airlines have moved on — you’re still living off your 1990s glory days. There are better ways to spend my money.