UA Fan

Their finances don't indicate that is happening. Plus like with IT, you can have a fancy product that can speed up your demise.

elitetraveler

You're creating a straw-man for your own OP. I've flown them several times -- like you are being told again, again and again, simply great service, good food in F compared to the legacy carriers and a consistent domestic F product. The employees also seem genuinely engaged.

Sometimes life is more than miles. My VX flights are generally when they have the best routing/timing -- so they are the most convenient and I am willing to sacrifice accruing mileage in these cases.

Do they have a strong enough network to survive? No idea. But you asked a question - it has been answered.

goodndntwin

The OP seems super concerned with their finances. I don't buy products based on the stock ticker but based on how the product best fits my needs. They are very convenient for my home market, hard product amazing, and all aspects of ground and air staff are amazing. Yes, flights may cost more than UA or DL sometimes, but I think the price premium is worth it. I bought an iPad instead of a Windows Surface because I liked it better despite it costing more and having mostly the same functionality.

I fly UA because I must, I fly VX because I love the experience.

direct

To get away from the DL blues. They only offer so much to a FO like myself. I splurge with VX in F. SFO-Mexico is quite nice.

fishy21

Miles are pretty worthless these days. It's only a matter of time before all the airlines go to a $ based point system. Everyone here is not flying on VX for the points or miles.

SFOPhD

Gosh, this sums up a lot of people's feelings in the SF bay area.

SoCalZman

So UA Fan, you have your answer. VX has a very loyal and well deserved following. A lot of the fliers fly for the overall experience vs a continually devalued FFP. Etc etc etc. Satisfied?

Are you asking because you are trying to get us to convince you to try flying VX once or something?

BearX220

If the latter sentiment were true VX wouldn't have lost scads of money for most of its operating life. VX service began in summer 2007 and until mid-2013 posted losses in every damn quarter save one (in 2010). They must be doing something wrong,

Harry Harteveldt, Hudson Crossing analyst, says: "Despite their true product benefit, Virgin America lacks a confidence in opening up new routes. They leave money on the table by not having the most optimum schedules... [which] hurts their utility, making them less viable for corporate accounts (outside the San Francisco Bay Area). They don’t offer the first and last flight of the day and they generally don’t offer particularly strong frequency.”

Quote lifted from this article:

http://airchive.com/blog/2013/06/05/...irgin-america/

So I would say VX has the best inflight product in America, but is too often non-competitive on price or frequency, and unlike JetBlue VX doesn't have enough of a system to peel business travelers away from UA. Harteveldt calls the core VX constituency the "premium leisure traveler," which I think is fair, and that's not enough of a customer base. Too much discretionary travel. Not enough return / habitual business.

My college kid likes VX though. He especially likes the sub-$100 SEA-SFO flights to go see his friends. I don't think you can build a profitable airline around his wants and needs, however.

SoCalZman

Actually there is some truth to it. Their financial results last quarter might be an indication of that.

Gohogsgo

I like VX a lot and will continue to fly them as much as possible. I live in DFW, so as you probable imagine, I don't fly them that often unless I'm going to the West Coast.

They have by far the best product out there especially in economy and at this point in time if I am headed to SFO, LAX I definitely fly them, and if I'm going to Vegas or Seattle I consider it.

Their number 1 issue is the size of their network. If you don't live in the West Coast flying VX on a regular basis is hard to justify.

Cargojon

I have to chime in here - I recently flew them when my flight was booked and paid for by a prospective employer - so no FF miles, I figured I'd give it a shot.

I did trans-con in Main Cabin Select, and it was simply excellent. If their route network was more in line with my (what will soon be) my flight patterns, I would take them more.

eponymous_coward

Some of us actually consider ALL the hours we spend in the metal tube, as opposed to "well, I'll fly this sucky airline over and over again that regularly tells us the beatings will continue until morale improves, just so I can spend a few precious hours sipping Dom and eating caviar'.

PainCorp

I don't fly them anymore since I have far cheaper alternatives, but I am looking forward to my next flight. It's always nice to see what the competition is up to.

If you're talking about their FFP, while a fair few of their partners do have YQ on redemptions, the miles needed are very low comparatively. For the ones that don't (20k RT LAX-HNL on HA) it's a good deal. I usually value 1 Elevate point at 2 of another airline's program, so this isn't so bad when looking at Amex-VX redemptions. A short haul AA LAX-SFO is only 4,500 Avios, but can be 2,500 Elevate points with the right booking, and even if you don't get dirt cheap, it's still cheaper.

While others need to hunt for a certain mileage with low CPM, you only have to worry about spend with VX to maintain status, much easier, as you don't have to hunt dates/times/routes, just find a nice expensive albeit short ticket and you're set.

Just like any start up airline, VX had issues, but they are in the black and doing better than before. They have an advantage now with brand new planes, but AA is rolling out the A321T, which is supposed to be very nice, I'll find out tomorrow for sure, but I have no doubts it's going to put a little bit of a sour note on VX's claim for seat back entertainment, in seat power, leather seats, wifi, etc.

You can still get miles on a ticket if someone else books it, just add it at the airport....

dhuey

Points and miles are generally nice, but they usually just mean you get more of an airline's home cooking. VX by far, I think, cooks up the best domestic product.

crabbing

i need to fly nonstop between LA and DC on an airplane with in-seat power. VX is the only airline in the country that meets both criteria (actually, it's the only airline in the country that meets the second by itself).

everything else that VX offers is just icing on the cake.