VX booking advice?
 

I am flying VX from SFO-LAS in June and I am debating to fly First Class or not.

Right now I have coach booked at $49 one way but First Class is $149. I figure that if I get a full meal plus bottomless booze (being that I'm going to LAS:)) it will be worth the upgrade. It is an 11:45am flight. Will there be full meal service with full booze service?

I believe it was stated on this forum that "full meal" service requires a 2 hour scheduled flight time, so I guess this won't qualify for the duck ragu or ravioli. Full booze service should be on all flights, though. At least do F/C one-way to see how you like it. I think it's superb.

Not a full meal. You will be offered a trio of tapas. You could ask for a bag of chips from the back, too, if you like.

That's too bad, I was hoping for a full meal. the SFO-LAS flight checks in right under 2 hours.

Not even close. The flying time is actually 1 hour 9 minutes. They may have padded the schedule a bit for ground delays, but time in the air is short.

I agree with SFO 1K. The flight from SFO to LAS will not take anywhere near two hours. You basically reach your cruising altitude and then head back down.

And you will receive the tapas trio, which is tasty, but I wouldn't consider it a meal by any stretch of the imagination. I think F has access to snacks from the back, too. So your decision comes down to a more comfortable seat and whether you can drink $100 worth of alcohol in about an hour. :)

Here's a flight track from yesterday's flight VX 777: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/V...150Z/KSFO/KLAS

You can see the flying time was 1:09 exactly!

It doesn't matter what the flight time is. It is the *scheduled* flight time. JohnDunn was commenting about the scheduled flight time, which is just a bit too short for a full meal.

Tell that to the people on the United forum. United's meal windows are based on time in the air. I think that's the case with most carriers.

But we know that VX is based on scheduled flight time (see SEA-SFO).

I was thinking of trying VX in First Class, but honestly, after 4 airlines have shut down in the past week, I'm getting a little worried about VX's future! If I buy F fare SEA-LAX, I'm out of a lot of money if they close down versus buying the cheapest coach fare. Aside from which, I have heard VX allows day of departure upgrades for $50 (at least on short flights).

Anyone else getting nervous about booking on VX?

Nope. They have plenty of money, and loads are looking good, especially out of Seattle. The fare difference between F and Y is $100 if you book in advance, so I don't know what you mean by being "out a lot of money", considering you seem to be willing to pay $50 for standby.

Well it's 162 r/t for Y and 398 r/t for F (booking in advance). It's wonderful to find F fare for that cheap, but it's still over twice as much money as Y.

That's $118 difference each way, which I assumed is what you were talking about, since you were talking about the $50 upgrade, which is also one-way.

I wouldn't worry about VX. They have lots of money. And there are certain billionaires who wouldn't want the Virgin brand damaged by a failed venture in the US.