I tried to check into my SFO to LAX flight on Virgin America exactly 24 hours prior to departure and all I can say it was a nightmare! I tried countless number of time and each and every single time it would kick me out of the system or "timed out" or some random thing happens. Anyways, here a overview of the process...

Log into elVAte, went to travel manager.
Under the SFO to LAX flight there was two option, one to check in and another to change your seat.
I decide to do the change your seat, it offered 4 First Class seats for an upgrade. I decide to take the upgrade and pay for the upgrade fee.
It than ask me if I want to pay the upgrade fee... There was two buttons. One said yes and another said no. I clicked on yes. It took me to another screen thinking I'm almost done. Than the whole browser went blank than a little Virgin America window saying that there was an error.
Than I tried the steps again as I tried earlier... this time when I confirmed I want an upgrade, it said I timed out.
Than I tried again, and again, and again. I used Safari, Firefox, and Netscape... each time something weird happens when I tried to upgrade.
After about 15 minutes of trying to upgrade, I called and told them about the situation. They said that first class was sold out and I was like ok.
Than I went to do a dummy reservation for the same flight and First Class was open, the same 4 seats are open too. However, the fare was way more than the upgrade if you were to buy it during check in.
I called back and was told the same exact thing, First Class been sold out. I asked if it was Sold Out than how come you can still book a first class ticket on the website. They had no answer and they just said to check with the counter at the Airport.
Than all the sudden I was some how checked in to my flight with my assigned seat with out actually clicking on the continue button. It said I was checked in and had a link to print my boarding pass but when I clicked on it, it went all weird and I didn't get my boarding pass. I decided to check back later at night and by that time First Class was sold out and theres no link to print my boarding pass and no way to check into the flight and at this time I have no clue as to if I'm checked in or not.

At this time, I would have to rate Virgin America's online check in feature as the worst website when it comes to online check in. I understand its a new airline and a new website, dispite the fact that every other airline I've used got online check in right the first time around and online check in have been around for years.
:td:

well, like many things, you may not want to be the 1st to try something so new...let someone else work the kinks out for you.

re 1st Class. It is a new airline, so I am assuming they were 'sold out' because they wanted to maximize the profit margin of a new 1st tix vs. a coach w/upgrade, which was presumably cheaper.

I decide to do the change your seat, it offered 4 First Class seats for an upgrade. I decide to take the upgrade and pay for the upgrade fee.Do you recall what the fee was??

I'm not excited by 32" pitch... but if their upgrade policies are ok and they let Founding Members reserve the exit row, then I'd consider them.

Does f class get virgin clubhouse access?

I just checked in online for my VX flight and thought the process was easy, easy. And this is coming from someone who thinks NW has one of the best OLCI systems.

Hope the flight is just as easy!

Does f class get virgin clubhouse access?

Not at LAX, anyway, as Virgin America flies out of T6, while Virgin Atlantic, where the Clubhouse is located, is in T2.

Reading today's USA Today article (http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2007-08-07-virgin-america_N.htm) about the relationship between the two, I'll be surprised if F passengers get to use any of the Clubhouses, as nice as that would be. Virgin America is, essentially, a licensee of the Virgin name, with Branson holding a 23%, non-controlling share of the company.

Not at LAX, anyway, as Virgin America flies out of T6, while Virgin Atlantic, where the Clubhouse is located, is in T2.

Reading today's USA Today article (http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2007-08-07-virgin-america_N.htm) about the relationship between the two, I'll be surprised if F passengers get to use any of the Clubhouses, as nice as that would be. Virgin America is, essentially, a licensee of the Virgin name, with Branson holding a 23%, non-controlling share of the company.

I should have asked about this tody at SFO, but I did not think to do so.

The VX gates for the departures to JFK and LAX were right next to a departing VS flight to London.

I suspect that they will err on the side of caution in terms of keeping things separate, although this is Richard Branson we are talking about.

Do you recall what the fee was??

I'm not excited by 32" pitch... but if their upgrade policies are ok and they let Founding Members reserve the exit row, then I'd consider them.

The cabins were nice. The F cabin has lots of leg room.

As far as I can tell, exit rows and row 3 cost $15 extra. I am not sure if there will be a status level where this is waived. I decided to go for F to try out the seats. A one hour flight is not enough time to form a strong opinion, but I definitely like not having the row 1 seat back in my face (as in Alaska's F class).

One negative: under seat stowage in F is very limited. Maybe a thin briefcase would fit, but everything I brought had to go up above. The bins above 1A-C and 3 D-F were marked "No Stowage".

Do you recall what the fee was??

I'm not excited by 32" pitch... but if their upgrade policies are ok and they let Founding Members reserve the exit row, then I'd consider them.

it was $50 I was able to upgrade my returning flight no problem at all looks like everything is fix, I'll bump the on line check in to an a now. :)

i was able to get the upgrade at the counter. Only took 15 minutes as three virgin america staff try and figure out and learn how to do the sameday upgrade. There was alot of maybe you do this hehe I'm happy now. This is like the first time I got off a flight with the that was amazing and best flight ever feeling. I'll do a full trip report when i get back to nor cal.

Wow, I wished I had been there- and pls start flying more locations soon so you can be considered a viable alternative.

One of my friends sent me the following link-

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/08/08/getting_high_with_ri.html

Virgin America as "Airline 2.0." :D

Sure, it's a work in progress but maybe, just maybe it will start changing something in the industry.

I'm curious to hear more about the first class pitch situation. For those of you who have flown, if the seats in Row 1 are fully reclined, is there still reasonable space in front of those in Row 2?

If you're in a Row 2 window, can you get up without the person on the aisle having to get out of your way?

Two of us are booking a LAX-JFK flight and trying to decide which seats we should reserve. I'm thinking that since there is little to no underseat storage anyway, we may as well take Row 1 and not even have to deal with the pitch concern. Any thoughts?

I'm curious to hear more about the first class pitch situation. For those of you who have flown, if the seats in Row 1 are fully reclined, is there still reasonable space in front of those in Row 2?

If you're in a Row 2 window, can you get up without the person on the aisle having to get out of your way?

Two of us are booking a LAX-JFK flight and trying to decide which seats we should reserve. I'm thinking that since there is little to no underseat storage anyway, we may as well take Row 1 and not even have to deal with the pitch concern. Any thoughts?

Well, F wasn't full yesterday and no one seemed to be fully reclining in row 1 so I didn't get to experience that. It looks like you could probably step over the foot rest without disturbing the aisle seat passenger, but I am not positive.

Row 1 and Row 2 are about the same given the limited floor storage space. My reaction was that I would probably take row 1 without any complaint (as compared to a typical bulkhead row which I avoid unless it is all that is left).

Row 1 has nice mesh pockets for your iPod, books, etc. The seat back pockets in row 2 are actually pretty small. There are two small water bottled sized pockets, one cell phone/PDA slot and a slightly larger pocket with the safety card and seat instructions. None of the pockets expands very much.

i was able to get the upgrade at the counter. Only took 15 minutes as three virgin america staff try and figure out and learn how to do the sameday upgrade. There was alot of maybe you do this hehe I'm happy now. This is like the first time I got off a flight with the that was amazing and best flight ever feeling. I'll do a full trip report when i get back to nor cal.

My checkin took a bit as well. I had started checking in at home, but it asked about luggage and said that the number of bags could not be changed if I continued. Given that I hadn't fully packed yet, and that I have a variety of personal and business things to do on this trip, I decided to cancel.

Apparently I had actually checked in even though no boarding pass ever printed.

The agent had to reprint my boarding pass (that part was easy for her) and then figure out how to add a bag to my record. The key was that a new boarding pass had to be printed because the number of bags is encoded on the bar code. It took a couple of people to help.

Everyone was apologetic about the delay, but I was very early, there was no line and it was not a big deal to me at that point. Surely it will get better as people gain experience. Everyone I dealt with had a great attitude, which really does make a difference. The major US carriers have really strained their labor relations and it shows.

Well, F wasn't full yesterday and no one seemed to be fully reclining in row 1 so I didn't get to experience that. It looks like you could probably step over the foot rest without disturbing the aisle seat passenger, but I am not positive.

Row 1 and Row 2 are about the same given the limited floor storage space. My reaction was that I would probably take row 1 without any complaint (as compared to a typical bulkhead row which I avoid unless it is all that is left).

Row 1 has nice mesh pockets for your iPod, books, etc. The seat back pockets in row 2 are actually pretty small. There are two small water bottled sized pockets, one cell phone/PDA slot and a slightly larger pocket with the safety card and seat instructions. None of the pockets expands very much.

In addition of a mesh pocket in row 1, there is also an slot behind it that it wide enough for a laptop, even those old big ones.

As far as I can tell, exit rows and row 3 cost $15 extra.
They seem to be $25 extra on trans-cons.

I have a flight tomorrow (<24h) and the check-in link is MIA.

I also noticed that after I checked in on Tuesday for my flight on Wednesday, there was a Reprint Boarding Pass link, but later Tuesday evening, that went away.

Maybe they've disabled OLCI pending some work on the glitches? (Or, alternatively, maybe OLCI isn't available for F pax? Not that that'd really make much sense...)

I'm curious to hear more about the first class pitch situation. For those of you who have flown, if the seats in Row 1 are fully reclined, is there still reasonable space in front of those in Row 2?

If you're in a Row 2 window, can you get up without the person on the aisle having to get out of your way?

Two of us are booking a LAX-JFK flight and trying to decide which seats we should reserve. I'm thinking that since there is little to no underseat storage anyway, we may as well take Row 1 and not even have to deal with the pitch concern. Any thoughts?

Hi AZ - I had 2A outbound and return and had no problems whatsoever getting in and out with someone sitting next to me in 2B, even with 1A reclined.

Personally, I'd prefer row 2 because row 1 (at least the A side) has you staring at all the boarding pax through a transparent purple divider (kind of like boarding an HP 737). Once the pax are boarded, you end up staring at a reflection of yourself through the plastic divider for the entire flight. B side doesn't have the boarding issue but you're still staring at yourself for the whole flight. And yes, I am over exaggerating - it's not mirror-like - just reflective enough to be kind of annoying.

BTW, underseat storage is much more limited than on other carrier's F cabins - unless you've got something the size of a small briefcase (or smaller), it's going to have to go in the overhead.

Enjoy your flight! Playing Doom on an airplane IFE system was kind of a kick... and the cheat codes even worked... :D

Regarding OLCI - I tried three times and could never get it to work on the outbound. When I got to the counter and they printed my BP, I discovered why: SSSS. It sounds like they're having consistent OLCI problems, but for at least some situations, the SSSS may be why.

Thanks to UA, I was able to thwart the TSA... :cool:

My only issue with OLCI is that I think they should tell you what TERMINAL besides the gate. As a new airline, I'm sure there are folks who don't know what terminal VX flies out of.

(FWIW I was impressed that all the local drivers at SFO knew the terminal, LAX had no clue.)

(FWIW I was impressed that all the local drivers at SFO knew the terminal, LAX had no clue.)
Somewhat OT, but I took the FlyAway from Westwood on 8/10 and didn't even finish saying "Virgin America" before the driver supplied "Terminal 6". I was pretty impressed, considering it was only their third day of operation. Maybe the bigger transit/shuttle operations get some kind of notices about new and moved airline terminal operations.

Re SFO, I suspect the LED boards on the freeway ramp signs for the international terminal help. With AirTran, Independence and WestJet all having used the international terminal in the past, as well as JetBlue now, I think folks are used to the idea that domestic (or in the case of WS, Canada) flights on smaller/newer carriers may be found there.

Somewhat OT, but I took the FlyAway from Westwood on 8/10 and didn't even finish saying "Virgin America" before the driver supplied "Terminal 6". I was pretty impressed, considering it was only their third day of operation.


My experience on the shuttle from Hilton LAX was a bit different. The driver asked everyone onboard what airline, when they got to me, I said Virgin America... the bus driver was like huh? virgin atlantic? I said no, Virgin America. He said they don't fly out of LAX. Than I was like Terminal 6, Virgin America. He was like uh I'll take you to terminal 6. It was good publicity cause everyone on the shuttle was asking me about Virgin America. I was going on and on about the inflight amenities and about how they served food in first class on my SFO to LAX flight and everyone was like WOW!