October 8, 2008
Virgin America Flight 793
LAX to SEA
Depart: On Time
Arrive: ~20m early
Load: Only 40 passengers
In a word, WOW. The whole experience was superb. There was never a time wher
e I was even slightly disappointed with something aboard my flights. Terminal 6 at LAX, where Virgin currently has its operations set up, is almost like a skeleton of a terminal – apparently United and and Continental have really abandoned ship in this terminal and don’t really operate out of all the gates from where they once did. But the contrast between the hip, cool, and interesting check-in counters for Virgin and the boring, gray, sterile ones for Continental were quite stark! But I’m jumping ahead.I checked in for my flight online the night before. I was debating whether I should upgrade to First, but the option was never explicitly offered to me. Turns out it is only offered if you choose “Change Seats”, otherwise the system just checks you in without trying to upsell you. When I got to the airport, I went to the check-in area for Virgin, which is also tres chic! Flowers are set-up around their cool white check-in tables and screens, giving the whole feel of a great boutique hotel! But here is where the more important magic happened: I was just standing there, looking at the monitor to find my flight and gate, when one of the agents noticed this, came around the counter all the way to me, and said “Welcome to Virgin America, sir, may I help you with something?” What, huh, where am I?!?! I’m used to having to stand in line and beg for attention from an AAgent (not a typo) who scowls at questions. That’s right, the airline I love to fly and have miles with and even a credit card for, come to find out, doesn’t really treat me like they value me. With this one fairly minor and easy gesture, my whole experience was colored positive. I felt the rest of my trip on this airline would probably be equally welcoming and helpful – and I was not disappointed.
I got to my gate, which as I was mentioning before, is in a fairly decrepit and abandoned Terminal 6. I asked the gate agent if Virgin was going to be taking over the whole terminal – she said no, that they were going to be moving to Terminal 3 and taking over that whole terminal. They were going to deck out the whole terminal with Virgin style, including their cool check-in counters, mood lighting, and that whole W Hotel lobby feel. Great! That should be much cooler than the dead atmosphere at Terminal 6…where there isn’t even a McDonald’s to grab a quick bite to eat!
Check-in started about 25 minutes before the flight was to depart and the first thing you notice when you approach the flight is the purple mood lighting in the plane. With the white leather seats in First cla
ss, the black leather seats in Coach, and the purple see through dividers between classes, the whole plane has that W Hotel lobby feel. Very cool. I had made sure my row was empty save for me and got comfortable. Regarding seat pitch (basically the distance between your knees and the seat in front of you) – not the greatest. If the person in front of you reclines, space will be pretty tight. I was comfortable and my knees had some breathing space, so the pitch was average, but it can get tight if you are much taller than I am (5’11”).Then, the Captain came on the PA: not from the flight deck, but standing in front of the plane, waving, and telling us to please not call him Captain or Sir; John (I think his name was John) was enough. He had a British accent and was hilarious – told several jokes and just set the tone for the flight – as professional, fun, and funny. I noticed the pilots don’t wear the traditional white shirt with black tie uniform. They actually wear the same uniform as the male flight attendants – black pants and black shirt, unbuttoned at the top. But the pilots differentiate by having a wings pin and chevrons on their collar showing whether they are a captain or first officer. I’m OK with this – if they are more comfortable flying the plane, then things will run smoother, right?
After this the safety video played on the individual video screens – they call their entertainment system “RED” and it is a touch-screen amazement. But again, I’m jumping ahead. The safety video was clear, CONCISE, and funny! It is a series of animations and you can see it online at YouTube. They throw in some good jokes and are just generally entertaining with it. Example: “For the .00001% of you that have never seen a seat belt, let us demonstrate for you…”
We took off and on the screen next to me I displayed the map to see our progress th
roughout the flight. On my seat, I explored the video system, which is available immediately. You can watch movies, premium TV shows (these options are for purchase), or watch free TV (like CNN, Bravo, USA, MTV, etc) and listen to free music from an extensive library. You can pick and choose songs from their library and make your own playlist to listen to. All very cool. The screen is touch screen, which can be cool, but also nobody was sitting in front or behind me, or else I think the touching would get kind of annoying because a light touch won’t do the trick. I didn’t purchase any movies because our flight was only two and a half hours, but I watched lots of Law and Order, listened to music, and even ordered Pringles and soda (soda is free) from the screen – which a flight attendant brought out within one minute!The bathrooms are in the back and located in between them is a water bar – grab as much bottled water as you want during the flight for free! Cool feature. But if you don’t want to get up from your seat, again, just place your order right on the screen and the flight attendant will bring you water directly to your seat.
We landed at Sea/Tac Airport in Seattle about 35 minutes early, waited about 10-15 minutes for our gate, and then were thanked in person for flying with Virgin as we got off the plane. I was sold!
October 15, 2008
Virgin America Flight 792
SEA to LAX
Depart: ~5m early
Arrive: ~25m early
Load: ~50% full
My return trip was no less exciting. This time I checked in at the Virgin America counters at the airport. I was offered the upsell to First Class when I chose “Change Seats” option. It would have cost $100 for the flight to LAX, so I declined it. However, on the next page when you are looking at the flight seats available, the option to upgrade to first class is still made available, which I think is a great idea. For example, if after you see if the whole coach area is full on the seating chart, you may decide that first class seat looks good after all! I stuck with my coach seat since my row was again empty.
Virgin America’s gate at Sea-Tac Airport is in the new terminal where all the check-in counters are uniform to the airport’s standards, so no cool white counter, like at LAX. However, Virgin still has added its unique flare by putting its signature flower arrangements up. We started boarding about 35 minutes before flight departure and would have left about 20 minutes early, except we had to wait for two passengers, who arrived at the legal minimum time. So, we left about 5 minutes early. Still OK as we ultimately arrived early again! I noticed on their website that all their flights to and from Seattle have been arriving anywhere from 10-30 minutes early, pretty consistently. I guess Virgin is adding padding time to their schedule in case of a disruption – but if this is something happening so consistently, I think a more accurate arrival time should be told to passengers so we can tell our family when to pick us up!
Everything else about the flight was marvelous. I do have to say, though, that on this flight in Coach, one of the two male flight attendants was pretty lazy. While the older FA smiled the whole time, kept coming through the cabin to offer any assistance, and was generally pleasant, the other younger dude did nothing that I could observe. In fact, at one point, he was kind of falling asleep in the back chair! I’m about 98% sure that this is not OK, especially to the other guy who was working his butt off! Perhaps he was just sick or something – hope he feels better!
OVERALL: my experience on Virgin was top-notch. If their prices stay competitive or are even a bit higher than a competitor, I would still choose them on routes they fly over all others. They have figured out how to make the flight experience enjoyable and have a truly differentiated product compared to the other choices
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