I doubt I would pay for WiFi often. It is good to be disconnected once in a while to read a book or to listen to an audio-book. E+, on the other hand, is a life-saver.

OK, somebody enlighten me because I know little about Virgin. I know they fly UK-US, a little bit of domestic US, domestic Australia, and presumably Australia to UK (?). Do they have some other partners? Are they sort of like a "fourth alliance"?

People keep referring to Virgin, and in my mind I don't even think of them as a competitor to UA/Star Alliance. Am I just ignorant of all of the great possibilities of VX? Or V-whatever?

I have a dormant Elevate account because I saw the ad to sign up on FT when they began domestic U.S. service. I see their widebodies at IAD or LHR from time to time. I assume the narrowbodies they use for domestic US flights are also around at IAD but I've never seen 'em.

That comprises the extent of my Virgin knowledge. Oh, I liked those Virgin Megastores back in the 90's when people bought physical CD's... :D

I'll bet that at least when UA first offers wifi, it will be in First and E+. I continue to see E+ as a de facto separate class. (On a 757, that means First Class, Second Class, and Steerage.) What has "class" meant in all forms of travel, as far back as it goes? First, room. Then whatever frou frou. Why wouldn't UA offer it to First and E+ to further tease people to buy up or gain status? Or offer it as part of E+, and for "a la carte" purchase in Steerage? E+, aka, "The Tease". To be mined.

What good is Wi-Fi if you don't have enough room to open your laptop up.

Ditto <<EOM>>
 

Live TV?
 

I would pay a bit extra to be in row without TV. Ugh.

Think of Virgin as a non-aligned, loosely coupled set of airlines in which Richard Branson has more or less of a stake. In the US, because of the well-known rules he has minority ownership, of course, though he is the primary owner of Virgin Atlantic (SQ has a significant stake, much to their occasional chagrin).

Each of the airlines is in fact a little different, even when they serve similar markets: Virgin Atlantic is fairly different from Virgin Australia.

Because of the tie-in with SQ, there have been persistent rumors of Virgin Atlantic joining *A. Not too sure about that. Most noteworthy facts about the main TATL airline: a great bar in their combined Biz/FC type cabin, and probably the best airline lounges, especially their LHR one.

No, they don't-- at least not as a single airline or alliance. For various legal and possibly business reasons, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America, V Australia/Virgin Blue (and formerly Virgin Express and Virgin Sun) are all independent airlines with separate, non-cooperating loyalty schemes.

Easy. iPhone/iPod Touch/netbook. I have a full-featured 12" laptop that handles incredibly well in AA's steerage.

Easy, E+ (which is one of the few reasons I am sticking with UA for now)

I read somewhere that one of the inflight wifi providers (either gogo or row 44) used the same satellite/band from Wild Blue. Latency for the ground-based receiver is horrible on that system. Anyone know the upload bandwidth being offered? I would expect anything on an encrypted site (not that anyone should use them over a public hot-spot anyway) would be non-functional plus the upload latency could easily grind the sat based systems to a halt. So for the times I would appreciate a connection when I need to send a file somewhere over an encrypted connection, it would likely be mostly useless. So I ask, what's the point of inflight wi-fi?

It's less like satellite and more like cellular data. GoGo is based off of CDMA EVDO technology, similar to what's used by Verizon and Sprint 3G services on the ground.

Agree with WineCountryUA. Being comfortably seated is my primary consideration. Along with frequent access to liquids, I would add easy access to a lav. The passenger to lav ratio in F is always a big plus for me! :)