Virgin America, the sister of Virgin Atlantic, is a new airline has entered the US market. Virgin Atlantic has been flying between the US and England for over a decade. VA flies from two east coast cities, Washington and New York into two CA cities, LA and San Francisco. Out of those two west coast cities you can fly to Seattle, Las Vegas and San Diego.
The costs are attractive if you book early enough. What I enjoyed most about the airline was the flying experience. The seats are more comfortable than normal. The headrests adjust up and down slightly as well as having wings that fold in to cradle the head. Each seat as its own touch screen from which you can follow the flight on a GPS, or listen to a selection of music that you can add to your play list, play a handful of basic computer games, watch CNN, sports and other television shows (satellite feeds) or select a movie to watch (most have a fee attached). From the same touch screen you can order drinks and food to be delivered to your seat from the galley.
The flight connection times in San Francisco and Los Angeles are so tight that a delay in your first leg is likely going to cause you to miss the second. One problem with connections of less than hour is getting a meal between flights is very difficult. By the time you get off the one flight a fifty-minute connection can be less than twenty-minutes before boarding. If you are flying up and down the west coast the next flight is only a few hours later. If on the other hand you are flying to the east coast, the next flight will not be for 11 to 13 hours.
From my observations while waiting for the next flight east out of SF, I noticed that about a third of the Virgin America flights were departing late.
Their customer care at Dulles was on the short side. All self check-in screens are poorly located in the middle of the line for those who need to see an agent. Hence, both lines commingle and you are not sure who is seeking which service. Further, the day I flew to California, all four of the self check-in machines were not printing tickets which meant that I still had to see an agent. One person who was in line mentioned the machines not being able to print the ticket happened on a prior flight to the west.
Would I fly Virgin America? Yes I would only if my return connection time between flights was more than an hour.
The costs are attractive if you book early enough. What I enjoyed most about the airline was the flying experience. The seats are more comfortable than normal. The headrests adjust up and down slightly as well as having wings that fold in to cradle the head. Each seat as its own touch screen from which you can follow the flight on a GPS, or listen to a selection of music that you can add to your play list, play a handful of basic computer games, watch CNN, sports and other television shows (satellite feeds) or select a movie to watch (most have a fee attached). From the same touch screen you can order drinks and food to be delivered to your seat from the galley.
The flight connection times in San Francisco and Los Angeles are so tight that a delay in your first leg is likely going to cause you to miss the second. One problem with connections of less than hour is getting a meal between flights is very difficult. By the time you get off the one flight a fifty-minute connection can be less than twenty-minutes before boarding. If you are flying up and down the west coast the next flight is only a few hours later. If on the other hand you are flying to the east coast, the next flight will not be for 11 to 13 hours.
From my observations while waiting for the next flight east out of SF, I noticed that about a third of the Virgin America flights were departing late.
Their customer care at Dulles was on the short side. All self check-in screens are poorly located in the middle of the line for those who need to see an agent. Hence, both lines commingle and you are not sure who is seeking which service. Further, the day I flew to California, all four of the self check-in machines were not printing tickets which meant that I still had to see an agent. One person who was in line mentioned the machines not being able to print the ticket happened on a prior flight to the west.
Would I fly Virgin America? Yes I would only if my return connection time between flights was more than an hour.
As to the touch screens, hopefully within five years we will start to see similar screens being used on domestic flights of other airlines.
2 comments:
When Delta had their answer to JetBlue, an airline called Song, they had touch screens with Dish Network TV, games, and GPS at each seat. It definitely made the 3 hour flight from Boston to Orlando go by much faster. It was also fun to see where we were, how high, how fast, etc.
We pretty much followed I-95 the whole way north. We were on a 757 (exited via a side door), so I was not able to ask the pilot on deplanment if he followed the tailights all the way north.
I would love to fly Virgin America someday. Maybe they will come to Hartford.
Chris, the GPS on Song is not as fine as VA's. Wiht VA's you are able to zoom in to where it tells you the major streets and rivers/lakes over which you are flying. You are able to set it the level you want to see.
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