Virgin America

Just been following some of the Virgin America discussions over on Airliners.net

The latest one http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forum ... n/5762125/ regarding their most recent accounts brings out some VERY polorised views :0

This seems to be consistant with every thread that even dares to mention Virgin America. ):

There seem to be some people that really, really have a huge dislike for the company.

Just wondered what the general view was this side of the interweb.

thanks

David

Great airline who are a breath of fresh air compared to the largely pants 'legacy' US carriers.

Finances are a bit of a worry though.

I don't think you'll find a V-Flyer here who has flown VX and who hasn't loved the experience. Especially when compared to the awful in flight experience on legacy US carriers.

ANet has, since the inception of VX, been almost uniformly anti. America, the home of capitalism, doesn't seem to welcome a new entrant and competition - at least in the airline industry. My guess is that VX has shaken the tree and lots don't like it, they pick on its business mode, founders and funders, route network, you name it ... while consistently refusing to recognise that people like to fly VX.

So, I tend not to read any thread now on ANet, because there are those who really hate it who distort anything to do with VX.

A fantastic airline with an exceptional in flight service and fun, friendly crew. A real breath of fresh air compared to the legacy US airlines.

Have two VX flights next week and can't wait. They really do put the sparkle back into flying in my opinion.

A superb airline.

Jon

I have loved all four of my VX flights I even got in the Cockpit whilst on the ground in SFO last year y)

When you consider some of the challenges you will always come across when flying legacy US airlines, it's hard not to want VX to do well. I speak as someone who is beholden to the old guard for a variety of reasons, but if VX could deliver in the broader areas of service that matter to me I'd be there in a flash.

The view of places like a.net (and even flyertalk in a way, although the latter segregates its crowd in a way that avoids some of the more obviously contentious behavior on a.net) is colored by folks who fly a whole lot on the legacies and enjoy, as a result, benefits that VX cannot provide right now. They bemoan VX for not providing those benefits, which is besides the point. They bemoan the network, also besides the point. They complain of the unfair advantage it (and other LCs) have over legacies because of much newer, different labor contracts, as if this was the fault of VX or JetBlue for that matter.

VX has new planes, smartly done up. When you fly a whole lot on some of UA's 737s or AA's MD80s, VX criticism seems churlish. It has Wifi, which only AA delivers consistently, DL more so that it used to and UA almost not at all. Its challenge has been that it has had to grow in a slumping economy by trying to be Southwest or Jetblue, but fun. Tough ask. The pattern we see is of VX entering new markets, doing fire sales which the legacies have to follow up on (great for competition as Slinky says), then doing the sales often and aggressively. It's really made flying SFO-DFW or ORD or PDX or SEA or SAN much cheaper, but they aren't making money at this right now. At some point they need to mature and I for one hope they do: I don't know that AA would have made the decision to fit 30-year-old planes with WiFi if VX hadn't been around, so you have to believe they've been a good thing for the industry whether you fly them or not.

I suspect some of the anti-VX sentiment is down to the fact that many frequent fliers on the legacy airlines are so used to automatic free upgrades to business class - even on long haul international flights - that they simply can't comprehend why anyone would consider flying with anyone else.

Of course if they DID break the habit of a lifetime they'd probably get a pleasant surprise. But why should they when they're accustomed to getting 1A on dull, predictable old UA or AA?

I have flown VX twice and have been very impressed. Good service, clean cabins, friendly crew and on-time.

Six flights for me ..... all a pleasure

Comfortable, timely & polite, professional service

And they do make flying seem fun again

I suspect some of the anti-VX sentiment is down to the fact that many frequent fliers on the legacy airlines are so used to automatic free upgrades to business class - even on long haul international flights - that they simply can't comprehend why anyone would consider flying with anyone else.

Of course if they DID break the habit of a lifetime they'd probably get a pleasant surprise. But why should they when they're accustomed to getting 1A on dull, predictable old UA or AA?

There's a whole lot more to it than that, won't rehash for you too much. Suffice to say that flying VX in Y would be most unpleasant when compared with AA or UA F. Been there done both, and there is simply no comparison; you could see the fun side of it on VX maybe on Cali "shuttle" flights between SF and SoCal, on anything more than 3 hours it's not the same ballgame.

VX needs to decide whether its product is going to aim to poach large number of frequent biz flyers from legacies by virtue of a superior product or compete with Southwest & Jet Blue. They're not being very successful at either right now - they can't offer FFers the benefits they get from legacies and they can only compete with the LCs by cutting fares to levels that are unprofitable for them.

You can't do both - if better product was going to win out against LC mentality the legacies would still be offering the very extravagant product they had 15 years ago.

The thing I find weird about airlines in the States is that the LCC's (VX, JetBlue and Southwest) actually provide more amenities such as free checked bags, snacks and live TV than the so called legacy full service carriers.