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Delayed on Virgin Atlantic from Heathrow to San Francisco?

£520each if you land 3 hours or more late

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Flights a year
1,068
Landed on time
79.2%
Distance apart
8,616 km

Last 12 months, CAA data

What you're owed

Leaving Heathrow

£520each under UK law

Leaving San Francisco

£520each under UK law

San Francisco is outside the UK and EU, so coming back this only applies if a UK or EU airline operated the flight.

Heathrow to San Francisco is 8,616 km, which fixes the figure: £520 each leaving Heathrow, and the same £520 each coming back if a UK or EU airline operated the flight. It is per person, so four of you is £2,080.

How Virgin Atlantic does on this route

Better or worse than the route itself?

Everyone flying Heathrow to San Francisco hits the same airspace and the same two airports, so the honest question is not whether the route is busy, it is whether this airline handles it better or worse than the others on it.

On this route Virgin Everyone
Landed on time 79.2% 78.7%
Average delay 10.2 min 11.7 min
Landed 3 hours or more late 0.3% 0.6%

Against its own network it is 2.5 points worse than usual: Virgin Atlantic lands on time 81.7% of the time across all 25,313 of its UK flights a year, against 79.2% here.

In money terms: about 3 flights a year on this route land 3 hours or more late, which is about 1 flight in 330. Everyone on board one of those is owed £520 each.

Other airlines on this route

Same two airports, same 8,616 km, same £520.

Everything we hold on Heathrow to San Francisco · Virgin Atlantic across every UK airport

Source: UK Civil Aviation Authority punctuality statistics, July 2025 to June 2026. Analysis by CheckFlightCompensation; the CAA is credited as the data source as its publication conditions require. Figures cover the 25 largest UK airports. Methodology and limitations.