Virgin America Elevate - First experience with Virgin America

This past week I and my son had our first experience with VX. Loved the clean planes. Mood lighting? Blah. Didn’t pay much attention. We did three segments from JFK-LAS-SFO-JFK. One thing really aggravated me is the much talked about entertainment system. Two hours into first flight, it completely went dead for a me and few others. I was told it will be reset and then rebooted. Didn’t work. On the short hop from LAS-SFO, the same damn problem again. One SFO-JFK, intermittently we would get message saying Service Not Available. Some channels were nver available to view. The power outlet wouldn’t work either. I am very unimpressed with the much ballyhooed features that VX touts. What good is it to have them if they don’t work?

Yikes, that's a bummer. I've only flown SFO/SNA (ie hour flight) and loved the IFE so much that I "complained" that the flight was too short to hear all the songs I put on the playlist.

On UA C my wife had a problem with IFE and received a "skykit" that was worth several thousand RDMs or $$ voucher. Carnt remember which option she chose, but the gesture was decent... even though we'd have preferred a working IFE!

It's definitely triple bummer when IFE isn't working :( Doesn't sound like VX gave you anything for it, either. I definitely think IFE is the best element of VX.

Have you written a letter of complaint? Perhaps others here can advise about that...

I didn't write any complaint letter. One the first leg, the FA did offer to let me sit in the Main Select row so I can watch but I declined since my son is 11 and he can't sit in that row with me. I fly jet Blue quite a bit. While their aircraft are not as cool/clean as VX's, I never had issue with entertainment system (I mainly watch TV, not much of music fan). I would fly VX again but I don't believe they are awesome as they would want me to believe.

What did you think of their employees (which I think they tout at least equally as their entertainment system)?

I didn't write any complaint letter. One the first leg, the FA did offer to let me sit in the Main Select row so I can watch but I declined since my son is 11 and he can't sit in that row with me. I fly jet Blue quite a bit. While their aircraft are not as cool/clean as VX's, I never had issue with entertainment system (I mainly watch TV, not much of music fan). I would fly VX again but I don't believe they are awesome as they would want me to believe.

Your son could sit in Main Cabin Select row 3, by the way. Perhaps it wasn't available.

Employees were nice, not competent enough to get the "Red" working.

I was sitting in Row 11, was offered a seat in row 10 which was totally empty.

My first experience on Virgin America will be my last until they finally reimburse me for the repair of my luggage last fall. :mad:

I can get enough routes on SW, United or AA in the mean time. ^

Is there a lurker here that I could talk to about my issues with Customer Service at VA?

You might try subscribing to the VX Twitter feed (http://www.twitter.com/virginamerica)- they tweet back to people, as you can see.

Flew LAX-JFK 6/17 and returned on 7/15. Both times, it seemed that the flight attendants were blocking the aisle for a longer period of time than on other airlines. I think it has something to do with passengers ordering different food items from their seats rather than the standard practice of just quickly tossing everyone the same food and moving on.

Flew LAX-JFK 6/17 and returned on 7/15. Both times, it seemed that the flight attendants were blocking the aisle for a longer period of time than on other airlines. I think it has something to do with passengers ordering different food items from their seats rather than the standard practice of just quickly tossing everyone the same food and moving on.

Were they using the black trays? I always thought there was enough room to squeeze past.

The food ordering system is one of the things I love about VX - you can eat when and as often as you feel like it. You do not have to buzz the FA or wait for the cart to crawl down the aisle.

Were they using the black trays? I always thought there was enough room to squeeze past.
There was a normal beverage cart blocking the aisle on both trips for what seemed like an unusually long time. I like the idea of a food ordering system too, but the FAs seemed a little disorganized to me. When I finished my sandwich, it took a long time for someone to come pick up the trash. I like the lighting and the general idea of the whole thing so will likely fly with them again.