Virgin America - Opinion please

Looking to fly from New York to Las Vegas in July.

Virgin America is reasonably priced against the other non stop airlines (and has miles and tier point advantage over some). Price is currently USD 253.


For USD 170 more, main cabin select is offered.

Has anyone experienced the difference and can offer an opinion on its worth?

Started to fly VX last December and it is a really fun and funky experience. Domestic US flying is not a nice experience usually but they have taken a product that is already out there (getting you from A to B ) and somehow managed to make it a real treat that you look forward to.

$253 seems like a good deal to me so I would suggest you grab it. Those flights to LV dont hang around long. The main cabin is normal leg room. Select is 38" leg room (what used to pass for international Business class 20 years ago !).
Its a good few hours trip and if you have the funds pay the extra for the upgrade. After a couple of hours you will wish you had. Plus they give you some free drinks and snacks in those seats (there are only 12 per plane). They will be full later so dont think about waiting until closer to departure.

Do it. Amazing airline.

The only downside to VX is you get 50% miles not 100% as you do with US airways and continental on internal flights. However on the latter 2 airlines, tier points are only awarded if the trip is >2000 miles. I think LAS is >2000 miles but I just checked and US or CO don't fly direct. VX prob your best bet. They have excellent IFE compared to other US airlines. In US, even 1st class has no TV screens on some 6hr east coast-west coast flights!

Do it. Amazing airline.

Seconded - VX is fabulous compared to legacy US airlines who are, to a T, cruddy.

[Darren Wheeler]

For my internal US fights, if I get the choice, it's either VX or Jetblue.

Glad to hear all this positive praise for VX, looking forward to my first time in April!

For my internal US fights, if I get the choice, it's either VX or Jetblue.

I'm a recent convert to Jet Blue - especially now that you can earn AA miles on them (which in turn gets BA flights ).

I was impressed with Virgin America on my flights from JFK to LAX. Outbound, I managed to get an upgrade to Main Cabin Select. At the time, these seats, if not already booked, became available at OLCI for a much reduced price than a MCS ticket would have been. (Same applied to first).Not sure if this is still in place or not. We sat in row 3 which is where the divider is between the main cabin and first. On demand free food, drinks and entertainment.

On the return I couldn't buy the upgrade but managed to get row 9, which on that aircraft (A320)was an exit row seat but is not classed as main cabin select - whereas row 10 is. Reasonable leg room plus row 8 cannot recline into you as you're an exit row (but neither can you so if reclining matters to you then probably not the row for you). Same seatback system but you pay for food and drinks and some premium entertainment channels. I just made use of the on board wifi (GoGo) which I recall was about $7 at the time.

Cabins were clean and the crew fantastic. The pilot came to meet us all at the gate and invited questions, welcomed us on board and walked the aisle saying hello prior to take off.

Check in at JFK was friendly and professional, but went up another notch at LAX.

So another big thumbs up from me.

Regards
R3dV

Main Cabin select gets much more legroom, free food and drink (including the grown up kind!). Generally those upgrades were a $100 ojn date of departure, but as more savvy travelers have discovered VX, they don't usually last that long.
I generally figured I could watch premium TV and drink enough Gin to make the cost difference negligible.

Thanks for the responses everyone. One thing I forgot to mention is that the upgrade cost would be x4, which I need a long think about to justify.

The other thing is the flight time of 9:50 which would probably mean an early start as we would have to get to JFK from the New Jersey side (Anyone. any experience of getting to JFK from there at the end of the rush hour?) but hey-ho.

We are nearer to Newark which does bring Continental into the frame (TPs and Miles) are they that cruddy?

I wouldn't trek from NJ to JFK just to use a particular airline. Only thing that would tip it is if the price is different enough to outweigh the higher taxi/subway costs to JFK.

Continental are supposed to be fine. Most of their domestic fleet have live satellite tv in the sear backs I believe.

I wouldn't trek from NJ to JFK just to use a particular airline.

In the USA, I sure as hell would!

The other thing is the flight time of 9:50 which would probably mean an early start as we would have to get to JFK from the New Jersey side (TPs and Miles) are they that cruddy?

Eeek! The flight time is 4 and a half hours, the rest is the time difference east coast to PCT.

Regards
R3dV

The other thing is the flight time of 9:50 which would probably mean an early start as we would have to get to JFK from the New Jersey side (TPs and Miles) are they that cruddy?

Eeek! The flight time is 4 and a half hours, the rest is the time difference east coast to PCT.

Regards
R3dV

The 9:50 is the departure time.

Ah, Ok, read that as duration rather than departure. And its still worth getting up early IMHO. But then again, I have chosen before now to trek back into Manhattan for just one night 'cos the airport hotels are so cruddy, so I have a high bar. But upgrade at 4X is where I would draw the line - the "cheap" seats really are ok for a 4hrs 30 flight on VX.

And I'm not anti Jetblue btw - I'm using them LGB to LAS for $39 each way. But that's just an hour's flight.

Regards
R3DdV

I would be weary of using continental and expecting IFE, as you actually may end up on a UA plane with no amenities at all on a domestic flight in economy.

I would say take the VX flight in a standard seat and if there is an upgrade available at OLCI for a lower price take it.

come on - you're going to Vegas !
You will win 10 times what you spend on the upgrade won't you ?
If you don't feel lucky then better go to Tampa !

For SFO to SEA I have booked Main Cabin and will chance it and look for an upgrade at OLCI.

On my one and only VX flight so far , LAS to SFO a little over 2 years ago we had booked ordinary economy seats.
At OLCI there was the opportunity to upgrade to 1st class for $50 per seat, which all 6 of us did (our entourage virtually filled the 1st cabin).
It may have been only a 1hr or so flight, but it was fantastic and the best $50 I've ever spent.
Great seats, great CC and I even got a chance to go and sit in the captains seat on the flightdeck when we had landed at SFO y) .
Would use VX again without hesitation.

I would have like to gone for the VX option. But, due to proximity to Newark and a better flight time, we have gone for Continental. Hopefully it will be the 787-800 as advertised.

At least we get our miles still.