carlo

Flew VX for the first time this weekend, LAS-SFO and back. Got the tickets for $44 each way/$108.50 AI, so no complaints at all there.

We were scheduled to leave at 9:10am Saturday morning, and things got a little bit strange when I got a call on Saturday morning at 7:20am from a VA rep saying they wanted to leave early, so we needed to get to the airport as soon as we could. She claimed that they had clearance to leave early, and the weather was supposed to get bad at SFO, and if we left at the scheduled time, we'd face a three-hour delay, so they wanted to leave by 8:40.

That was the first time I'd received such a call from any airline about any flight., and thought it a little bizarre. Of course, we ended up leaving the gate at 9:10 anyway, and the weather in San Francisco was gorgeous all weekend.

In-flight experience was mostly fine. Seats are comfy with nice pitch, but Red needs some work. The live TV was particularly poor. On the outbound flight, CNN was the only channel that appeared to stay watchable for the entire flight; on the return, more than half the channels were showing a Dish Network info channel or the "signal has been lost" message. Roughly another quarter of them froze up mid-flight. My SO said she had a really hard time getting music to play properly, and I found the user interface for that part of the system fairly difficult to use.

I'm sort of in two minds about this. On the one hand, given the $44 fare and for such a short flight, I'm not really bothered. On the other, the in-flight experience was a bit disappointing because of Red, and the upshot is that I probably wouldn't pay a premium for VX over other airlines. Red is an additional amenity rather than a necessity, but VX pitches it as one of their big differentiators over other airlines, so when it's disappointing, I feel like VX hasn't fully come through on the promise of their brand. For such a short flight, as I said, it's not a big deal, but it's something I'll keep in mind for longer itineraries that fit VX's routes. (The lack of details on their FF program is also a sticking point for me.)

I'm still a bit perplexed by the Saturday morning phone call, too. It came about 10 minutes before I was planning to leave the house, so it wasn't a real problem. I was thinking about what would have happened if it was on the return leg, though. We had plenty of things we wanted to do in SF, and we planned our schedule with the scheduled departure time in mind. Moving that up to an earlier time would create a bit of an annoyance if it meant we couldn't get to do some of the things we wanted to do. Of course, a three-hour delay on the outbound flight could have the same effect, I guess

Edit: for those of you interested in load details, I'd estimate there were approx 30-40 people on the outbound flight, maybe 50-60 on the return.

nermaljcat

I'd actually be happy to get a call like that. If it meant that I could possibly avoid a 3-hour delay by trying to get there earlier. Very proactive and courteous IMO. I'd never expect that level of service from UA.

I found the music player very easy to use, but I write software for a living. How comfortable is your SO with technology? I'm sure a FA would have been more than happy to help out.

The in-flight TV signal is a little flaky. You're in a (relatively fast) moving object traveling (relatively large) distances, in and out of broadcasting ranges, so it is not surprising the signal may come in and out. There's always pre-recorded content (movies etc).

Red can do with a bit of refactoring. Hopefully they come out with an update soon. It is a beta version after all (which is still 100x better than typical legacy IFE).

Hayden

I've had similar experiences with Red, but while there are technical challenges to getting a signal in an airplane, they seem to have been much better overcome by the system used in Frontier and Jetblue, which seems much more stable. Also, Red seems to hang a lot when one plays games--frustrating. A rework to improve it would be welcomed.

When Red hangs, it is often worse than legacy IFE, whether that IFE is 'one movie in the whole cabin' or, say, the new IFE system on AA's 777s. Of course, the new IFE on AA's 777s has been a bit buggy, so perhaps one could say it is 'as good as' Red, at least when neither of them is working.

itsaboutthejourney

I've found that on VX as well as DL. Thankfully VX Red has a really good library of music, videos and TV episodes that you can watch no matter the signal the DISH is getting.

bowdenj

Flew my first VX flight:

Thursday 04/10/08
1200p - 130p
SFO - SAN VX 1868

Oops - crackberry died at night and my alarm didn't go off (and like an idiot I didn't do a hotel wakeup call!).

So I wake at 745a and realize since no alarm is going off I am probably in the middle of missing my flight.

missed:
912a - 1119a
SFO - SEA AS 399
1245p - 329p
SEA - SAN AS 580

At 800a booked my same day departure SFO - SAN for $156.00 one way (upgraded to the front bulkhead seats).

Camped out at the NW Club for about one hour after using Clear at the International Terminal (I've never been to the SFO International Terminal).

The entertainment system - wow! Since I fly NW/CO mostly I am not used to the inflight domestic entertainment systems. I have flown Frontier (DirectTV) and Airtran (XM Radio) but the entertainment system on VX is amazing. Tons of music selections, a good number of live tv stations, etc.

The snack inflight order system is pretty cool.

We had a beautiful clear day from SFO - SAN and I took a ton of pictures - we skirted the coast the entire time (I was on the right side of the plane).

A great flight with comfortable seats, plenty of legroom, and clean airplanes.

Surprisingly didn't get SSSS and it was a one-way ticket purchased 4 hours before my flight. I signed up for Elevate when I purchased the ticket.

DFWSkylink

I flew on VX LAS-SFO in march and had a great time.
My only beef was that on the way back, I decided to take advantage of the upgrade to first only to find out that our plane wasn't "finished" yet
It had no IFE, the seat recline didn't work. The FA had to come and manually release my seat so I could recline. There wasn't even the plastic bulkhead between me in row 1 and the galley.
All that being said the crew was wonderful. We had to wait for a replacement FA because the lead FA twisted his ankle and couldn't fly. The pilot actually came out into the cabin to do his announcement that we would be delayed and stayed out to talk to us. I have never seen that happen preflight before.

All in all, I will probably fly them again

nermaljcat

I think you got bitten by the mysterious "Dark A319".

It appears to be the VX norm for the pilot to come out to make his announcements and have a bit of a chat. On my last two flights in F, they have also invited kids into the cockpit to take a look and even pose for a photo. I am so jealous...

JohnDunn

I didn't know that was allowed with the post 9/11 rules in place.

nermaljcat

... pre-flight, before the door was closed/locked. The kids kind of just stood in the door and talked with the pilot. I personally don't see any problem with that.

At least the kids were not at the controls in-flight

sltlyamusd

Wow, that's a rather roundabout way. Did you get some kind of deal on that fare?

bowdenj

Ya just banking miles on NWA - that was the plan!

articos

It seems the pilot announcements in the cabin are more hit or miss now. First 6 months they were pretty regular, but not so much anymore. Some still do, though. Some try to make sure they do every flight.

nermaljcat

It's a nice touch. I hope they keep doing it.

aviators99

They should consider wireless mics, so that they can walk through the cabin as they are making the announcement. It would seem to follow with the "look&feel" of the airline.

Of course, it would also create more funny stories about when the pilots leave their mics on.

:-)

articos

Agreed.