hiima

So I status matched to VX gold since I had a flight today. Wasn't very impressed. First of all, no free or even discounted first class upgrades for gold. With AA I can use coupons if I'm gold or plat, or complimentary for exp. Then the whole MCS seats, VX says they have space available upgrades to MCS, I don't understand when they become available. At check in, there were a couple available, but needed to pay. Then baggage claim, VX doesn't have priority baggage tags for gold status. Half the bags came out then the other half came out about 15 min later. My bag wad in the second half. AA has priority baggage tags, although not always the first ones out, but most of the time. Also, there was no recognition of status on the flight by flight attendants, no free snacks or premium drink, which isn't such a big deal, but I would've loved some free jerky or a GnT. So I think I'll stay with AA, since I can waitlist for FC, if I don't get it, then I can stick with a bulkhead seat and they have lie flats on most of their international and transcon flights.

ptownca

Interesting comments, but I have to say, I think you missed some steps which VX FF know:

At t-24, you should be able to upgrade to MCS if space is available. Did you book on the VX site or 3rd party booking site. If you did the latter, you need to call the Gold Line to be put on the upgrade list.

There are discounted upgrades to F also available at t-24.

Did you have a look at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/virgi...aq-thread.html ? I think this would help clear up your misconceptions.

To the contrary, I did a few flights on AA recently and was completely unimpressed, although I do not have status. No IFE on SFO > BOS or SFO > ORD. I did a run on legacy US from PHX which was even less impressive. They wanted $68 for a middle seat on an exit row !?

In the 4 years of flying VX, I've never had a serious delay, except for weather and the crews did a phenominil job, both on the ground and in the air to keep everyone imformed, as well as minimizing the delay.

Golds and Silvers definitely get priority bag handling and did you know bags are hand counted by ground staff to make sure they get to the right destination? Never a lost/delayed bag on VX for me.

In my experience in the past four years, flying all over North America as well as internationally, VX is by far the most consistent, reliable carrier I've flown in North America. I could relate quite a few stories about VX staff going the extra mile for whatever reason. The staff are usually good to great and genuinely love their job. One pilot who came over from a legacy carrier told me after joining VX "I look forward to coming to work here. Before I did not."

bevnetcraven

Spot on ptownca.

However, if you are someone that has status on AA and can fly on their new equipment in a lie flat I see where hiima is coming from. The VX F hard product doesn't seem as good as it used to be with other carriers like AA and JetBlue starting to roll out their new product. It will be interesting to see how they try and keep up.

hiima

Ok, so my booking was made with Citi TYP. I was able to add the PNR without problem onto my VX account. I expected that to be able to add me to the upgrade list since it showed gold on my account and booking. My boarding pass also showed gold at check in. So I read the FAQ and I guess there is a discount for gold from 299 to 199(my guess since my price said 199 at check in), which I don't think is worth it for the distance of DAL-LAX. I've used coupons for DFW-LAX on AA and was lucky couple times and got upgraded on a 787, and otherwise sat in the bulkhead. As for baggage, I got my BP from the little tablet, since the gold check in was closed and check in area was empty. I went over to the baggage lady and put my bag on the scale and showed my ID and BP and she told me that I was all set. I didn't wait around to see if she put on priority tags, don't know their whole procedure.

Eastbay1K

VX isn't going to work for everyone, and it doesn't even work for me all the time. Next trip to NYC? AA F because they had a fire sale. VX didn't even come close, and I wasn't going to risk (1) the upgrade chances, and (2) the cost of the UG + even the cheapest Y fares (and assuming MCS upgrade) would have come close to the AA fare.

They've done a better job at monetizing the F cabin than any airline out there. It is also very rare that I miss a full flat seat on any of their routes.

If the price is the same or similar to someone else for an F seat, I'll pick VX. (Check with me on that the next time I have a transcon redeye, which is quite rare.)

I don't think I've missed a MCS upgrade as a gold. AA's "similar" seats don't even come close, service wise, although I've never sat in one for more than an hour. Nevertheless, I did love perusing the touch screen of complimentary food and beverage items on AA, pushing the screen, and waiting for arrival to my seat. I'm still waiting!

MikeBOS

I realize that many of us have drunk the VX kool-aid, but the OP has some valid points IMO.

MCS upgrades are not nearly comparable to F upgrades on AA and other legacy airlines, mostly because there's a high probability you end up in a middle seat, which can arguably be worse than the non-MCS seat you've come from (especially if the MC seat was an exit row window or aisle). For anyone traveling on business the other benefits of the upgrade (primarily free food) are not particularly valuable because most companies will pay for the food anyway while traveling.

It used to be the case that any MCS seats were available for upgrades at T-24, but that is no longer true; on crowded flights they hold back seats for paid upgrades, rendering the upgrade benefit even less useful.

For me the primary benefit of VX Gold is the 6 hour advantage on purchasing F upgrades, but even with that benefit, on the route I fly (BOS-SFO) I am only able to upgrade about 10% of the time.

On AA you get pretty much guaranteed extra legroom (Main Cabin Extra), which you don't get on VX, with status. You also get miles that are worth considerably more than Elevate points, if wisely used. The rest of the experience is better on VX, IMHO, but there are pretty good arguments for the legacy airlines as well...

gooseman13

Being based in Dallas, flew about 50 flights VX and 50 flights AA last year.

What I like about VX:

Just generally friendly staff, folks at DAL remember me and will help me try to get an empty middle seat next to me if possible. Good IFE, food choices much more varier than AA, better, and on demand. While I get a comp food item on AA, its generally crappy food. For me, flying from DAL is much more convenient. While they're only about 20-25 minutes apart, because I can get to DAL in <10 minutes and its a small airport, it allows me to leave for the airport at the last minute, particularly if there is a delay.

What I like about AA:

I'm almost always guaranteed one of their best coach seats at worst. Being able to get first is good, and probably has happened to me 50% of the time since I've been EXP, but its not a game changer. AA Reservations (explat) desk is excellent in my experience. AA frequent flyer program is great, although that may be changing. Be able to book on One World in business class makes my miles fairly valuable, although we'll see with the new devaluation. AA is modernizing the fleet, and that's definitely noticeable, but I even like the old MD80.

ptownca

The best way to assure not getting the middle seat is call the Elevate line and ask them to upgrade you. They will give you the options for seating, where you can refuse a middle seat in MCS say if you have 4C or 4D my favorites for Main Cabin.

VX miles can be worth a lot, depending on how you use them. On SQ they can be significant.

I've not seen MCS seats available at T-24 where they did not clear for Golds. If that is seen on line, then get on the Elevate line. Both the Gold and Silver lines have the power to adjust inventory over what is seen on the website. I've had them do this on more than one occasion.

As for F on the BOS<>SFO route, I can agree it is tough to even be able to buy the F upgrade, but this route has one of the highest load factors in their entire route map as I have experienced personally on more a few times and have my impressions confirmed by VX staff.

Hoping they put the new A321neo on this route pronto

cmd320

The primary valid complaint here seems to be with upgrades which are of course a hot button issue. I personally like that VX does not offer complimentary upgrades to F and monetizes the cabin. It allows them to offer better and more comfortable seats with far better legroom, far better recline, and a far better soft product to accompany in comparison with AA/DL/UA, etc. (premium transcon markets excluded). I also enjoy the 8 seat F cabin as it feels like you receive more personal and attentive service, of course, that's also aided by a general lack of some of the grumpy drAAgons that can be found around the AA network.

So yes, if what you're looking for is complimentary or sticker upgrades, definitely better to stick with AA. It's nice to have VX available as an option for those who actually do desire a premium F experience.

As stated, VX doesn't always work for everyone. I only really find them useful when going places on the West coast or when I'm in the Dallas area headed elsewhere. However, given the option to fly DFW-DCA on AA or DAL-DCA on VX, I'm flying VX F 100% of the time.

DA201

Personally, I like VX's product more than AA's product (except if flying in business on a route AA offers lie flat beds), so I would take a VX nonstop over a AA nonstop. Unless I tried to stick to one airline and gain miles on that airline, in which case I would choose AA unless >90-95% of the routes I would fly in a year are served nonstop on VX.

GrayAnderson

A lot of this comes down to "What do you want from the program/airline?" For me, VX wins my business because they offer a consistent, reasonably high-quality F hard product and a fine soft product on all routes, rather than on just a few routes (e.g. NYC/WAS-LAX/SFO), meaning I can often derive more benefit from heading to Florida and catching a flight from there (or from diverting through DAL)...and in almost all cases I still get a respectable meal on each flight in the process (something that I'd note has gotten dropped on at least one carrier...I want to say Untied or Deltoid...on everything but their super long-haul domestic flights). The exception is the occasional super-short-haul flight (LAX-SFO, I'm looking at you...).

With the other airlines out there, I've seen far too many cases where you end up on an off-brand flight with no improved class of service available (and/or have to pay an annoying amount of attention to what plane you get). For me, Virgin gives a stunningly straightforward product, doesn't play round-trip fare games for the most part...really, it's the easiest airline to work with in many respects IMHO.

shza

I basically agree with this. I am 100% loyal to VX to the extent they have direct non-stops for my routes. But I would not accept a 1-stop flight (much less an inefficient route with a stop or stops) just to fly VX (or any other airline, except maybe if I had the opportunity to fly free/cheap in a suite on one of the Asian or Middle East carriers).

I was fortunate that last year almost 100% of my travel was on routes where VX has nonstop service from SFO -- LAX, NYC, DC, SEA, ORD, PDX, DAL.

Alex_I

- OP was writing about flying with status on VX vs AA rather than no status experience. I (EXP) just flew with my son (PLT) PHX-ORD-RDU. PHX-ORD did not clear but GA proactively put us on the best Y exit row seats on A320 (no middle seats). You only pay for better seats in Y if you are not elite on AA. Snacks and alcoholic drinks for EXP at no charge without asking. We got to ORD earlier and decided to do standby for an earlier flight. Got to the gate <30 min before departure and were given 2 MCE seats in front with no one in the middle seat between us. For sure, no IFE on both flights but I do not care about IFE at all: I either sleep of work on the planes.

GrayAnderson

Granted I have more time flexibility than most, but I don't place much of a premium on direct flights. If anything, I've wanted to scream at VX for not listing some three-leg options which have the potential to whack a couple hundred bucks off a one-way F fare (e.g. DCA-DAL-LAX-SEA instead of IAD-LAX/SFO-SEA, or OGG-SFO-DAL-DCA instead of OGG-SFO-DCA/IAD)

eponymous_coward

They can probably make more money selling the F seat you occupy to two passengers instead of one by not supporting excessive connecting traffic.