MattJ

When will VX cease?

CDKing

Whooptie do, multi color headrests, still gotta stare at the back of someones head. Also the F seat looks exactly like AS current seat but with a leg rest which AS is adding

VX rarely made a profit, even when they started making a profit, they still couldn't survive. Someone was going to take it over or it was going to disappear on its own.

Qantas, not sure why they would retire the Virgin brand and keep the virgin partnership. Even VS dropped its partnership with VX before the merger. I don't see AS making major changes to their existing partnerships.

MikeBOS

IMHO Mint beats VX F hands down on every factor (seat, food, drink, service). No mood lighting but on the points that matter it is much better. VX F was long overdue for an overhaul...

Often1

Every time there is an acquisition, there are threads in which people moan about what went away. Left out is that this is a business deal for the benefit of shareholders. Period.

AA was a great brand, but it could not compete, so US acquired it (but happened to keep the AA branding). Now, people rant that the good old days are gone.

Well, the good old days are gone.

lowfareair

I do wonder if AS is not keeping/improving the VX F on premium transcon routes in order to provide a unique value prop against Mint and the Big 3. AS can put about 70% more F seats into the same space as the Mint cabin and about 55% more seats into the same space as the B/E Diamond seat on AA/UA/DL.

They would be the only nonstops from NY to LA/SF without lieflats, but it may allow them to gain marketshare on paid flights by being significantly cheaper in F while still profitable, and gain loyalty from elites who are still able to upgrade (I believe AA/UA/DL has a more stringent upgrade policy on NYC-LAX/SFO than their domestic routes with traditional F and B6 has no upgrade policy at all).

MikeBOS

I am based in BOS so the competition is different, but I believe JetBlue has already taken the niche that VX had with it's distinctive F product. There is a community of VCs and others that commute frequently from BOS to SFO (and to a certain extent LAX) who will choose the best product regardless of price. VX had a monopoly on that market until the last year, when JetBlue pretty much took it over as far as I can tell, with a superior product. If AS goes to an F product similar to the legacy airlines, they will be competing with United on the Boston routes, whose F product is similar, not really with JetBlue. United is, in general, cheapest for F, so it is really a mid range product at a mid range price. VX will have to lower their F fares significantly (>50% reduction) to be competitive.

shza

So get rid of the seats where they are industry-leading but keep them where they are below-average . . . .

tuolumne

Looks like UAL is going to start flying 777 w/ their old intl. 3-cabin United biz seat into BOS, awful 3-4-3 in the back, but supplementing with intl. 757 with similar lie flat seating. That will be a product that's enough to keep them in the mix. But it would have killed VX on the transcon routes, who had no lie flat option to speak of. The old VX seat is better than lets say, United's new domestic F seat, but not by a tremendous enough degree to drive any sort of rev premium. It was already dead.

UAPremierExec

I'm super duper sensitive to my VX travelers - I was an Air Tran A+ Elite and really enjoyed Air Tran. They flew where I wanted to go, gave me great perks, and had staff who would bend over backwards to help you. So I get it. Its hard for me to fly Southwest thru Atlanta nowadays.

At least Alaska is paying attention to your needs. Southwest kicked mine to the curb. I lost the ability to fly nonstop to a LOT of markets, and that meant lost productivity.

MCS is a different animal on Alaska, and the new premium economy gives you about as much legroom as F now on the older AS birds. The "new" Alaska F is nice. And on a side note, I flew LAX/MCO on VX in F and do a lot of AS MCO/SAN, a comparable run. I got a heck of a lot more food on AS than I did on VX.

So, I'm not going to talk like the WN people did when WN took over FL. That was rude. I like(d) the VX product, its a good one, and I see where everyone is bummed about this. I'm glad the merger happened, from my perspective, because its forcing Alaska to upgrade its core offerings.

tphuang

Is it just more quantity or actually more healthy and better tasting? I got plenty of food on AA's F Cabin, but it tastes horrible.
From https://newsroom.alaskaair.com/2017-...for-the-future
it looks like the new MCS (or premium class seat as they call it) will now have less pitch and no more complimentary snacking. And on top of that, it looks like no more live TV so we can watch free movies and tv shows. From what I remember, MCS already had free movies I could watch, I got drinks and a nice cheese platter all for complimentary. This is a major downgrade from what I can see.

This is more comparable to B6's mint economy seat at 35 inch vs 33 inch. Sure, there is free alcohol, but B6 also has free snacks, high speed gate to gate wifi and live tv.

UAPremierExec

Ha, Ive had my share of nasty meals in F on everyone. If you are 75K, you get free booze & a digeplayer/tablet. Movies should be free moving forward.

VX doesn't give us anything for our Alaska status. I spent 25 minutes on hold with Alaska who had to call Virgin just to get me a non-middle seat. Hopefully we get a bit more harmony in the future.

bergamini

This is sad. Alaska flights have always been dreary for me, except one time from OTZ --> ANC when I got an upgrade on a 737 Combi and it felt like a private jet after being stranded 2 extra days of sleeping on a gymnasium floor in Selawik where I had gone to teach Junior Achievement and the weather turned really bad and we were stranded. After all that, then an Alaska Airlines first class cabin felt great. The rest of the time, meh.

I paid extra and am driving to O'Hare this summer just to fly Virgin first from ORD --> SFO. That would not happen with Alaska.

I hope the sale allows Branson to start another Virgin and offer a unique product again vs. this legacy carrier trying to grow through acquisition and sucking the life out of a great airline.

Bohemian1

I only flew them a couple of times, but they will be missed.

Maybe the domestic carriers should all just get the same dismal 737 Max (or similar) a swap out the logs for each flight. That seems to be where we are headed.

chenalex

Which airline other than Jetblue now offers live TV out of LAX? Jetblue only flies to like 5 places out of LAX, so its not really a viable option for me.

tuolumne

Well I mean on that route, I can think of quite a few widebody UAL aircraft with lie flats that is far prefer. If the 747-400 was flying, game over.

VX's F was too much for mid-con, and too little for transcon. Sad but true