SFO-SJC Flyer

Virgin America will be a mover and shaker at SFO and will positively influence U. S. air travel. Many of us have no doubts about that. At some point, hopefully sooner than later, FT will need a separate Virgin America forum. With so many postings already, a separate forum will be needed soon.

As for their Frequent Flyer program, I think a Virgin Frequent User Program encompassing a Virgin Companies could be winner. I am sure that point accrual and awards could be figured out.

Mrs. SFO - SJC Flyer have already booked our first Virgin America RT from SFO to JFK. We are flying First Class. The price is right. It is even better than using our Delta or AA miles.

So, go Virgin America! You are going to be a winner! ! ! :-: @:-)

Jenbel

Only 5 planes? I hadn't even realised the operation was going to be THAT small... seems like they've really got maximum hype going on.

Just as an example, it would seem like Eastern Airways, a UK regional/domestic carrier has a bigger operation and fleet, and I'm not about to propose a forum for that airline, despite the fact they are a super wee airline.

I'll tune in again when they are a decent sized airline with a decent sized operation. Until then, Other North American seems like the perfect place for such a small operation.

ScottC

For the time being I agree with this.

xj47

Fleet size: 34 Airbus A319 and A320-214 aircraft
(12 running at launch with three destinations: SFO, LAX, JFK)

Researching your posts is fun and easy!

itsaboutthejourney

FlyerTalk has a long and proud reputation of being a source for most things FF. It's a total no-brainer to start and eleVAte forum. There is a lot of confusion & dis-information (their competition is afraid!) out there and one clear place on FT to post & discuss eleVAte is the right thing to do.

Kiwi Flyer

I thought that the level of discussion was (one of) the grounds for a separate forum? The level of discussion has been used to reject or vote in some new fora. I haven't seen any new fora voted in or rejected based on the number of aircraft (otherwise why not a Virgin Blue fora to use ozstamps example, or eliminate the Varig forum?).

Virgin America already has a lot of discussion - more than Air Tran for example. Whether it succeeds or fails it appears there will be a lot of discussion over the coming months or year. Being a new airline with a seemingly different offering to the major airlines, I'd expect a lot of discussion on the product, service, lounges or lack of, how the FFP is different and how best to utilise that to advantage, is it living up to the hype, etc.

I think that it would be nice to set up a forum early and keep the discussion flowing in one place. That way other american ffp forum will not get dominated by Virgin America discussion and it makes it easier to find information (which really is the whole point of having separate fora in the first place).

whlinder

5, 12, whatever. The point being that as of right now they have 6 routes announced. Looking at their online schedule, in Dec they have the following routes:
SFO-LAS 3x daily
SFO-LAX 5x daily
SFO-JFK 4x daily
SFO-IAD 2x daily
LAX-IAD 2x daily
LAX-JFK 3x daily

The number of aircraft comment was basically to question how much discussion there can possibly be about an airline that has announced plans to gradually build to 38 (domestic US narrowbody) flights a day by the end of the year. And if there is a lot to discuss next month and it is tying up the other North American forum, then great, it should be pretty simple to get the Talkboard to agree to add the forum.

Jenbel

It's another measure. If an airline only has a few planes, serving a few destinations, it's going to be much harder for FTers to actually be able to fly it and thus be able to talk about it. Hence my comparison with Eastern - Eastern has a larger fleet size, and a larger route network than Virgin America currently, but I'm not going to be recommending Eastern gets a forum, because although FTers do fly them, there is a limited number of people who have had the opportunity to fly them, and so the forum would not be sustainable.

I'm pretty sure I'll be in a position to vote yes to this airline in the future. But I don't think the future is now. I don't see a real downside in not creating a separate forum now, since there is always Other American as a home forum, until such time as it does become supportable. At the moment, we've got hype and conjecture, and not much else, and I don't see that as a long term sustainable topic for a forum. I'd rather wait and see what the actual level of discussion is, once the airline is operational, and base my decision on that.

aviators99

What is the downside in creating a separate forum?

xj47

For some very good reasons (cleanliness, organization, the feeling that your posts will have an audience), FT waits until there is substantial traffic on a topic before creating a new forum. Doing so prematurely will lead to stagnation of discussion and could encourage people to post in the "wrong" place so as to at least get a few thread views.

That said, I think we reached a tipping point the moment tickets went on sale. I've already bought a few tickets and I'm sure there will be a flood of commentary the moment we start flying.

Best seat in F?
Best seat in Y?
Is it worth the $15 to get an exit row seat on a short-haul?
How does VX do compensation for delays or poor service?
How does eleVAte actually work?
Is there any status to obtain?

Lots of wonderful questions that I'm looking forward to exploring. -xj

aviators99

I agree, xj47.

For example, there is a thread on the Continental forum that was started July 11, and has nearly 4500 views, 132 replies over 9 pages.

Milesbuzz! has a thread started July 19 with 921 views and 17 replies.

American Airlines forum has a thread started in May with 71 replies.

United Airlines forum has a thread started July 19 with 7,600 views, 163 replies over 11 pages

Other North & South America FF Program forum has a few threads, but none of them are as large as the one on the United forum.

OMNI forum has a thread started July 24

Virgin Atlantic forum has some

etc., etc.,

TonySCV

As a TB member you should base decisions on indvidual merits, and not shoot down a proposal just because two airlines happen to have a similar name. Virgin Blue and Virgin America share a name, that's about it. That shouldn't be the basis for determining the worthiness of a forum.

If a FinnAir mileage forum can get a green light (which is laughable), VX should be given a forum wthout question.

It also seems ill-advised to wait until the airline actually starts flying, which will generate a plethora of threads throughout multiple forums on FT (just as it is now). Why not be a little proactive?

Taking a wait and see approach just means that people will stick to doing what they are doing now - talking about it in a variety of forums, creating more work for moderators, etc.

- T

Cholula

That's exactly the way I feel about the situation and even said pretty much the same in our private TB forum.

We're most certainly going to open a forum for this airline sooner or later and it seems to me to be better if we did it sooner rather than later.

Virgin's got a great PR department and seems to be able to create a lot of hype on their new airline. And this hype has led to numerous threads in numerous forums strewn all around FT.

The creation of a forum would allow us to collect these threads in one location so that anyone interested in wanting to fly VA could learn more about the airline and share there experiences. Right now it's very difficult to find all these threads and to make any sense of them.

I realize that it's somewhat unprecedented to start a forum for an airline before their first flight but the buzz and hoopla surrounding this airline is somewhat unprecedented as well IMO.

But to get a forum created requires 2/3'rds of the TB members voting in favor and we're a long way from that at this stage.

Jenbel

Actually it's not. We had it on Virgin Trains, Virgin Cola, Virgin Phones... it's Virgin's usual MO. Perhaps why I don't get caught up in it - I've heard it all too many times before from Branson and his minions, so forgive me if I'm cynical. You've only to see how badly Virgin Trains did post launch to see that believing the hype is dangerous. As a result, I want to see the substance before I vote in favour of a forum for an airline which is currently a paper entity.

aviators99

Most of the hype has nothing to do with how well they will do post launch, but the amenities that are on the aircraft. There has been enough video documentation from the inside of the aircraft showing these features in use that you should know that it's not just hype.

You should also know that it is not "currently a paper entity", as they have real live aircraft. I've seen them myself. You could say that they are not yet flying and you want to see that happen for yourself. That's only 12 days away.