Comments on: Virgin America’s Up to Something with Premium Seating

By: C Rich

C Rich — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 20:35:48 +0000

Flew Virgin America LAS-SFO and back, First Class. Special trip for us, so picked this airline because press coverage reflects luxury. Very disappointed. This was not a First Class service. Yes, food portions for flight are adequate – but only if you are a very small hamster with no appetite. Meal from LAS-SFO was three small shotglass-sized adult style hors d’oeuvres: prosciutto, mushrooms, etc which children will not eat. Flight attendant tried to get food from economy for the kids, but were out; gave them Pringles and a vending machine -type pastry instead. No martinis (no Vermouth), but was offered shaken Vodka as a substitute; wines were very dry (for food only apparently. if there had been any food). Seats were fine but in-flight entertainment must be well on its way to becoming an industry joke – on both flights, two of our four headsets were inop and volume would not come on for some channels; one news channel never came on (of course the one my wife wanted to see).
SFO-LAS meal consisted of weak coffee with TWO of those thimble sized mini-muffins you can buy 18 of at supermarkets for $2.99. Flight attendant also stingy with sugar for coffee (??) and was irritated when I asked for more that one pack. First Class bathrooms occupied by most of the flight by front end of economy class despite the pre-flight announcements not to – flight attendant sat idly by and watched with bored look on face (when not nodding off). In sum, Virgin America’s seats may be worth a $50 upgrade if you need the extra room, otherwise forget it. If you spend full fare for First Class on VA you are criminally cheating yourself. This appears to be just another rock-bottom budget airline, and their First Class reflects this. Kind of embarrassed at this point that I got my wife and kids all exited about flying up front. If you fly VA sit in economy, or go Greyhound –you’re not missing anything.

By: CF

CF — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 20:13:39 +0000

Mark - I noted in my post on July 31 that a recent release says they'll have details by October 1. So hopefully you won't have to wait much longer!

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 18:31:15 +0000

I’ve been contacting VX for months to determine WHEN they’re going to announce the rules (and availability) of their Elevate point redemption program for free/upraded seats. VX keeps telling me, “soon.” I have made almost 10 round trips on them and am beginning to wonder what the problem is. Is it asking too much to want to see the Elevate loyalty program rules “up and running?” I guess I can always return to United, but I don’t really want to. VX has for the most part, except for one weird incident at LAX checkin, been very good: clean planes, always on time, personal entertainment system, nice personnel). Does anyone know what’s up? Thanks!

By: The Cranky Flier » Virgin America’s Main Cabin Select

The Cranky Flier » Virgin America’s Main Cabin Select — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:52:34 +0000

[...] stop me from talking about their news of the week. Remember when I posted earlier this month that Virgin America was up to something with their premium coach seats (bulkhead and exit row)? Well, they’ve finally announced what they’re going to do, and [...]

By: CF

CF — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:30:59 +0000

jp – I don’t consider Alaska to be a low cost carrier, but yes, they do that just like all the legacies do.

By: jp

jp — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:12:02 +0000

“This makes me wonder if there will be some sort of elite program where seats are blocked for the best customers. This would be a very interesting development, and it’s one that no low cost carrier has taken on before.”

Not true. AS, one of VX’s main competitors, has been blocking seats for their MVP Golds for quite a few years. VX should have been doing this from the start.

By: WSEAJIM

WSEAJIM — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:10:19 +0000

I doubt they are adding 1st class seats. That would probably have a negative affect on aircraft performance…notably center of gravity would shift more towards the rear making the plane more tail heavy. I suspect blocking seats for freq fliers.

By: Shashank Nigam

Shashank Nigam — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:38:58 +0000

As “eponymous coward” mentions, eleVate is indeed based on spend and not mileage. In fact, I feel this is a good way to offer consistent value to the customer. Those who pay less for a ticket earn less points. In legacy carriers, customers always have a difficult time calculating how many, if any at all, miles will they earn per trip. I’ve had such experiences with Singapore Airlines and BA myself. Points based on spend is a good system for providing consistent brand value in the long term. My guess is “premium seating” is indeed being reserved for frequent flyers.

By: CF

CF — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:09:02 +0000

coward – Yeah, it’s strictly based on spend, but no redemption levels have been announced yet. So they need to do more work on it, and who knows what that might include? I like the idea of adding more F seats best though.

By: eponymous coward

eponymous coward — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 15:05:28 +0000

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t eleVAte strictly based on spend (5 points = 1 dollar spent), not mileage? Basically, I’ve heard it described as “Rapid Rewards Lite” (in that the rewards are based on revenue, not mileage, and they expire even quicker than WN’s do, 18 months), and there really are no premium levels for it, outside of “founding member”, which just means you enrolled before a certain date.

While I do hope we get details on eleVAte soon, I suspect it’s likely to be something else- perhaps more F?