Virgin America Takin’ It to the Streets

Virgin America

Virgin America certainly thinks that they should be allowed to fly, so they’ve launched their campaign this morning at letVAfly.com.

They’ve decided that the best tactic is to take this one to the people. You’ll find banners on the site like you see above that are meant to be used on blogs. You can sign a petition on the site as well. The airline has even decided to open up its interiors to show them off and they’ve posted this video on YouTube:

It looks like Fred Reid, CEO of Virgin America is working overtime to look cool by using the word “hell” (oooooh) and saying that they’re “ready to rock.” Um, ok.

The interiors look cool. First class is comparable to an old style international business class, better than a domestic first for more airlines. It’s very strange that they have white leather in first. That’s going to get very dirty very quickly.

Coach has nice looking black leather seats with average legroom. The only real difference I see is in the mood lighting (again, oooooh) and the inflight entertainment system. Oh, and they do have powerports and USB jacks, something that everyone should have.

The system is nice – it has movies, tv, music, etc. In addition, you can enter chat rooms to talk to people on the plane and send instant messages as well. Lastly, you can order food through the system and flight attendants will bring it to your seat.

It’s all nice, as is the whole public campaign, but there’s one big problem here. . .

IT WON’T HELP

The issue is still foreign control, and this type of campaign isn’t going to change it. If anything, it will anger the people making the decisions since it completely ignores the problems that were presented initially. The DOT doesn’t make the law, they just enforce it. This is just another example of Virgin America spending money like a drunken sailor, and sadly it’s not going to get results.

Until the law on foreign ownership changes (as I wish it would), Virgin America won’t get anywhere unless they substantially change their ownership structure.

Get Cranky in Your Inbox!

The airline industry moves fast. Sign up and get every Cranky post in your inbox for free.

1 comment on “Virgin America Takin’ It to the Streets

  1. Don’t forget the RJ-45 jacks in coach. I’m guessing there’ll be some sort of internet access, possibly for a small fee. It would definitely appeal to the average coach traveler who just wants to surf the web on a cross country flight.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Cranky Flier