Since I fly UA and VX, I generally fly the airline which is going to be most convenient for the times I need to arrive and depart. It's not a matter of ethics, imo, but more a matter of convenience and devotion to elite status and ff miles, which the legacy carriers use to keep their customer base flying with them.

Flew the new route this week SFO to ORD. A few comments:

- I find the lack of complementary headphones on a flight this long to be pretty annoying, especially when each bag costs $25 in Y.
- F cabin was entirely empty. I think the $299 Y to F cost per segment is probably too high to entice the casual upgrader. VX should consider reducing this fee to promote last minute upgrades and to fill the F cabin.
- Service was hit or miss with two FA's for the entire plane.
- This is probably my sixth VX flight. But my second time in Y, on other flights I had upgraded to F. I was surprised that the gogo wifi was $12.95 and any movies and on demand television came with such high prices. I also found the Dish Network video quality to be very poor. Channel selection was unimpressive.

Overall I'm still a big VX fan - minus Elevate - but I was pretty unimpressed with this "long haul" flight. My only other long haul was SFO to MCO, but I had upgraded to F and it was a redeye, so most of the above "issues" I didn't experience.

Just my 2 cents....

I'm surprised about the headphone comment as to my knowledge no one provides complimentary headphones in Y. Not even B6.

$25!! Now i know this has got to be a error.

Are you sure the flight was to MCO? They have no redeyes to MCO. The only route in Florida that has an overnight is FLL.

Re MCO you are right! It was FLL, my error.

But... Bags to ORD were 25 a piece for main cabin. No mistakes there.

Even UA has complimentary headphones in Y, sometimes nicer-looking than the ones VX sells. But I always bring my own high-quality earbuds. On AA and US, it's a moot point as they usually have no IFE on non-premium domestic routes.

Thinking about it...
 

I'm toying with the idea of trying out VX for a trip ORD-SFO at the beginning of September - right now, it's $259+ on Virgin and $269+ on UA for the dates I'm looking at. I'll probably be checking a bag (with some camping gear thats prohibited in carry-on), so that actually makes UA a little cheaper once the bag fees are added in. OTOH, the only UA outbound available the day I want to leave is the 9 pm flight, which is really inconvenient. What would you do?

UA Pros
(Slim) chance of an upgrade on the 752
Earns EQM
Free Bags

VX Pros
Find out what all the fuss is about
More convenient departure time


I have VS Flying Club Silver, comped from a family member with Gold status. Is that worth anything in this case? I tried looking on the website, but kept getting turned around in the different Virgin brands. Will I get lounge access? Or a free checked bag? I know the flight will earn miles on my VS account, but those aren't nearly as important to me as UA EQM to requalify for next year

No, there is no redeye flight to MCO. Only where VX is still flying on redeyes flight for which the cities is JFK, BOS, IAD, FLL and no one anything else.