Virgin America Review, Take 2

Last week, our CEO, Kevin Fliess, wrote Losing My Virgin America Virginity, about his first flight on Virgin America the year-old U.S. airline brought to you by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. As noted in a comment to Kevin’s post, I too really appreciated the excellent service and thought the interiors of the planes were super cool.

Here’s what else I have to add, both pro and con:

Film Shorts

Being a film junkie, I love that you can watch shorts for free on the entertainment system—from cartoons and anime, to film school thesis projects, personal projects and other short pieces. Great idea for getting exposure and a new audience for these often overlooked clips. Otherwise, if you want to watch a full-length feature, it’ll cost $6 or $8 a flick.

Listen Up

I also loved the music choices: jazz selections that included Sun Ra, Miles Davis, Nina Simone, Ornette Coleman and Stan Getz; electronica/dance featured Air, Kraftwerk, Fatboy Slim, Chemical Brothers, Orbital and Underworld. Additional genres: kids, stage/screen, classical, pop/rock, hip hop/r&b/soul, country/bluegrass, blues. Listed are a varying number of tracks from a couple albums; you can choose to listen to an individual song or to play the “album” selection.

Kids’ Fare

The entertainment options for kids are terrific. There are 12 different video games available, along with several movies and 10 music station geared specifically for the kids audience. Plus parents are given the control of what options will appear, such as G only, PG and G only, or PG13, PG and G rated. Once selected, only the flight attendant can make changes to the settings.

Ok, now for what I didn't love:

Cramped Seats/Hard Plastic

I found the seats to be too narrow and the white plastic on the seat backs (see image in Kevin's post) too hard—would hate to be thrown into one if the plane suddenly had to slam on its brakes. I found out it's especially bad for laptops when the person in front of me fully reclined and my open computer top not only got banged into, but it also got stuck under the nook created when the tray table is down. I had to recline my seat fully to allow room to gently pull back my computer out from under its stuck position. This was the only way I could tilt the top far enough back to be able to read the screen, meaning my computer was wedged against my stomach and I had to keep my elbows against my hips in order to type (see comment on narrow seats above). I felt like one of those dinosaurs with itty bitty arms that flail about helplessly. 

Lack of Cabin Service

What I also didn't like is that there were no basic snacks offered without having to order them through the electronic system. It annoyed me to charge $1 on my credit card for a simple snack, such as a cookie or nutbar, when it would have been easier to just hand a $1 bill to an attendant as opposed to putting in my credit card information every time I felt the urge to munch on something. Also, even though we were only about a third of the way through the flight, I tried to order a more substantial meal—fruit and cheese plate for $7 or the mufaletta and salad (what the heck is mufaletta?) for $8, and both were already sold out.

The return trip was more comfortable—we were on a different plane than the first leg—but I haven't flown Virgina America since because even though it's supposed to be a low-cost carrier, I've always managed to find cheaper flights on other airlines. But who knows? Now that I'll be flying cross-country on a monthly basis, I may need to give them another shot.