Virgin America: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

by Little Miss Attila on March 14, 2009

Well, my experience with Virgin American was diametrically opposed to that experienced by David Rowell of The Travel Insider.

I loved it. I don’t fly more than two or three times a year, but my second horrific experience at U.S. Airways convinced me that (1) I mustn’t subsidize companies like that any more, and (2) I need to support, in my own small way, airlines that treat its passengers as if they were customers, rather than inconvenient interlopers in the sacred space of their overcrowded planes.

I paid a few dollars more to fly Virgin America, though in truth the real cost was that I flew it to CPAC, and Virgin America doesn’t fly into National, so I had to get a cab each way from D.C. to Dulles. The drive went quite quickly, so there was no additional time expenditure versus taking the metro from Reagan/National to the hotel, and vice versa: it was strictly a money thing. But doing it twice cost me $120.

As Insty has pointed out, the way people shop for flights is self-defeating: if we shop only by ticket price, we end up getting jacked around with extra fees for such things as luggage, snacks, and making reservations over the internet.

One thing I have found is that it’s a good idea to get directly on an airline’s mailing list, so that one knows when a flight has gone on sale: that’s how I got a deal with VA that was worth doing. Also, it’s important to remember that services like Expedia and Travelocity don’t normally include the “boutique airlines” such as Virgin, Continental, and Southwest in their searches. And it is the ones that aren’t included on those services that seem most inclined not to treat the customer like a piece of shit.

Here, then, Rowell’s review of Virgin America, with which I heartily disagree:

took my first ever flight on Virgin America (VX) earlier this week, flying from Seattle to San Francisco. Boarding the plane (at 6.30am when it was still dark outside) caused one to be greeted by an unearthly blue/purple diffuse glow – VX’s time of day sensitive mood lighting. The first class seats looked to be marvelously better than on any other domestic short haul airline I’d ever seen, but there were only two rows of two on the A320; clearly VX doesn’t anticipate many first class fliers (other airlines might have four rows on that size of plane).

My coach class seat was okay, but the effective seat pitch seemed very minimal with my knees pressing into the seatback pocket in front of me, even with the seat in front not reclined.

A reasonably good in flight entertainment system in each seat back gave one a choice of movies and tv shows (well, correction – it didn’t give the movies, but instead charged $8 to watch a movie (and one would struggle to be able to watch a full movie in the short flight to San Francisco) and tv shows ranged from free to $3.

One of the things that the new startup airlines like to feature are nice friendly young crews. After all, friendly positive customer service costs nothing extra, and with the Virgin family of airlines priding themselves on being ‘airlines with attitude’ I was curious to see what the flight attendants (sorry, on VX they call themselves ‘hosts’) would be like.

Alas. The flight attendants were a total disappointment. In flight announcements were delivered in a high speed monotone with no personality at all.

And the flight attendants were both mean minded and stupid. Three of the four exit rows (two on each side) were empty, with apparently almost no-one choosing to pay the $25 extra fee to sit in an exit row. I wondered if an airline was obliged to sit people in its exit rows so people would be present to open the emergency exits in an emergency, but apparently that isn’t the case.

When the flight had finished loading and the door was shut, a couple of ladies moved from the rows they were in (which were full) and spread themselves out, two across an emergency exit row of three seats. This was good, giving them more room and comfort and also freeing up the otherwise full rows they came from, giving the other passengers who remained more space and comfort too.

But a flight attendant rushed up and told the two ladies that unless they paid extra, they’d have to go back to their original seats. How mean minded is that?

But, wait, it gets better.

The flight attendant who’d rushed up then turned around and walked back down the aisle, triumphant. As the ladies gathered up their things to move back, another flight attendant, passing by, said ‘oh, you can sit anywhere’ and pointed to one of the other empty exit rows on the other side of the aisle!

And, don’t stop now, there’s still more.

After we finished climbing to cruise altitude and with the seat belt sign off, one of the two ladies decided to move to the empty emergency exit row behind the row the two of them were currently in. I guess these ladies liked as much empty space around them as possible.

Within a minute of moving, a ‘host’ came up and told the woman she wasn’t allowed to sit there, because it was an emergency exit row, and made the woman return back to her earlier seat, which was, of course, also in an emergency exit row! What was that all about?

My return flight back to Seattle was with Alaska Airlines. Sure, I had the hellish discomfort of a middle seat with large men on either side, but overall, the Alaska flight was more normal, the lighting was simply white, and the flight attendants more gracious.

So – weird colored lighting, weird crew behavior, and cramped seating. Nothing amazingly positive at all. I continue to be pleased that Virgin America exists, if for no other reason than it has driven down fares from Seattle.

And here is mine, the first draft of which I actually composed en route from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C.:

After my rocky divorce from US Airways over their tendancy—and that of so many US-based airlines—to treat its customers like inconveniences who must be grudgingly put up with, I have embarked on a quest for Airlines That Do Not Suck.

So I am trying Virgin America out, on the basis of the good reviews Virgin Atlantic has received. The entire experience is truly different: first off, the ticket counter at LAX is carpeted, plays soft music, has fresh-cut flaowers and is fully staffed with people who do not get upset if the computer terminal didn’t recognize your credit card, so they must personally give you a boarding pass. And there are more computer terminals there than there are at the other vendors’ counters. Again: there seems to be an attitude at this airline that the customer is . . . a customer. My plane departed from one of the newly-remoceled carpeted gates at LAX—which was also festooned with flowers.

At Dulles, there is no carpeting at the ticket counter, but there are more computer terminals available, fresh-cut flowers, and people who are there to actually help.

The experience, so far, has been every bit as nice as I thought it would be. Despite the fact that my traditional in-flight bloody Mary costs $6 instead of $5. Also, they don’t take cash, and one must order one’s drinks/snacks from the computer at one’s seat. This is more convenient, once one gets used to it: no flagging down an attendant, or getting up to ask for another drink.

This plane seems to be new: it’s certainly customized for Virgin America, with soft purple lighting in First Class, and cool pink lights alonge the side of the main cabin.

The flight attendants act like they are here to assist us, rather than corral us or act like prison guards. Once we took off, a couple seated nearby (seated on either side of the aisle; AtH and I do that, sometimes) were relocated to an emergency exit row so they could be together, and have more leg room).

There is a screen at every seat that allows one to chat with people in other seats, or play games. Or watch movies (at least, it would if I weren’t too cheap to buy a headset, but they cost a whole $2). There is a variety of TV shows and music videos, rather than an eniire plane forced to watch the same movie, and people who are more media-oriented than I seem to love it. (As usual, I brought a book.)

But the best thing about that little screen is that it actually tracks the progress of the flight, so one can see where one is at any given point in time. This rawks.

And the pre-flight and safety announcements were brief, and witty. The safety film was made to be humorous, as an incentive for people to actually watch it—though several weeks after Chesley Sullenberger’s ditch into the Hudson River, I suspect I’m not the only one who would have watched anyway.

I’m still in coach, but I feel like I have more room than I do in most main cabins; the seats are certainly more comfortable. Also, one can pay a few dollars extra for a bulkhead seat, and have more legroom than I, in particular, need: this probably makes more sense than the “legroom lottery” most airlines use.

So far, so good.

One slight quarrel I have with the crew on this flight is that we’ve been in the air for an hour and 45 minutes, and after the drink cart got out of the aisle I wanted to use the restroom. However, I’ve been informed that because there is turbulence, it isn’t yet safe to get up. Which would be okay if I hadn’t brought a cup of Chai Latte on board, and if I hadn’t already had my in-flight bloody Mary. So I am waiting for the “fasten seatbelt” sign to go off before I can pee, at which point I will probably have to line up with 10 other women to get into the head. (This is not quite as obnoxious as those airports that do not specify, as one goes through security, any limitations on restroom-use or food-availability that might lie on the other side: Dulles is a minor-league offender, here, though there was another one—Kansas City, I think—that has nothing past security: no restrooms, no food, no water to refill one’s purse-sized water bottle. Nothing.)

Better pre-flight planning on my part might have solved the airplane-restroom problem: one musn’t assume, I suppose, that one will have restroom access before two hours into a flight. Turbulence, after all, happens.

So, yes: I love that Airline, and will probably pay a small premium to fly it, versus many of its competitors. Flying is grueling as it is: why let it be utterly miserable?

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

MANDY March 15, 2009 at 5:02 pm

I’m a new blogger….and I love this.

Please, PLEASE link to me!!

http://confessionsofanairhostess.blogspot.com/

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