financialhippie

Morning FT, I want to fly a Virgin America livery while they're still here. No real reason, just have a "wanna catch them all" urge for airlines/flights/planes. Home airport is Boston, so it makes it tough, but I'll be flying to the west coast later this year, and want to try and get Virgin metal at least one way.

I found this link: https://blog.alaskaair.com/virgin-am...eet-the-fleet/ and I'm thinking I should just cross-reference my flight options with the list here. I'm assuming the registration numbers all stayed the same, or would Alaska have any reason to change those?

jsguyrus

Right now there are only a couple of old VX aircraft that have been painted in AS colors and the repainting process seems very slow. They are changing the routes the Airbus fly all the time but mostly they are on the west coast. Any flight in the 1000-1999 range is an old VX aircraft.

DrAlex

sfozrhfco

Seems a bit pointless as VX is already gone but later in the year it is unlikely that any former VX airbus will arrive in Boston. Only SFO is left in September and that is likely to get switched out soon thereafter as SFO is the longest route from BOS and the least likely to make it without a stop as winter approaches. Your safest bet is probably to take your preferred carrier to the West Coast and then just get a short hop on a cheap flight once you arrive in the West Coast AS hub. The VX amenities are all but gone at this point so if you are going for an experience, you are kinda late to the party.

financialhippie

1000-1999, good looks, thank you!

Not so much looking for an experience. I just like collecting the airlines, but I won't book a flight only to collect an airline, even if it is short/cheap

pcoll

I kinda get what he is after. We are still trying to fly pmVX metal as long as we can. We book P fares and really do appreciate the seats. . Yes, meals, snacks etc have pretty much main lined with AS. Just really love those seats. Will miss those the most .

CDKing

BOS-LAX is moving to AS 737 on 8/26/18

sltlyamusd

The way I look at it, if the catering has been normalized between Boeing and Airbus equipment, I will still choose Airbus (1000 series) as long as the old VX seats are installed and the PTVs with Red are operational. The VX seats are actually comfortable, not slabs of brick, and 32" pitch in Y, 55" in F. Also, I don't like Digeplayer or streaming IFE on AS transcons. Sure, I don't care about IFE on a 1 hr flight, but on a 6 hr flight, it is nice to have something other than laggy IFE that requires the use of my tray table. I think AS management is very much mistaken if they think customers don't care about having seatback IFE on a 6 hr flight. I do like AS flight crews better (cabin presence and more beverage services) and the power ports at every seat. I used to like the hot BOB meals on AS metal, but those are apparently gone indefinitely...

3Cforme

So, equipment is identified whether one buys on Alaskaair.com, Orbitz, Travelocity, etc., right? Alaska wasn't operating A320s or A321s at time of merger so looking for Airbus gets you a VX plane. Has Alaska started receiving Airbuses in a different config?

DrAlex

OP, if you'd like to dork out a bit, read the wiki here:

VX/AS Airbus A319/20/21N Reconfiguration/Repainting Tracking Thread

There are a few planes that look AS-like on the outside, but are still VX-like on the inside...

sfozrhfco

Yes, it is indicated but there is no guarantee the flight--especially a transcon--will be operated by the airbus if booking in advance. They are gradually shifting 737s onto those routes. Only A321s have been received since the acquisition and those were in the VX configuration.

jrl767

kevincrumbs

N928VA, an Airbus A321-200neo is in AS colours. Flew it yesterday and had no idea I was on a neo until I got home and looked up the aircraft online.

Flying for Fun

Which route?

James

kevincrumbs

Flightradar24 or FlightAware can answer that better than any of us on this board:

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/n928va