eponymous_coward

So, decided to do F on the way down ($100 upgrade at 24 hours), Y on the way back with a stop in the Virgin Clubhouse.

- Ran into a problem with Red where the movie Persepolis died about 30 minutes into it. Other movies/TV played fine, though.

- The duck salad is a very good entree. And the Karma sparking wine is good as well. I didn't get a dessert, though (perhaps they ran out?), so I got a fruit and cheese plate instead for dessert- the flight team leader specifically encouraged us to get additional food if we were hungry.

- The flight crews both ways were all under 30, I think. The flight team leader for the SEA-LAX flight did his announcement WN-style: "I'll be assisted by my wife and my other wife".

- The Virgin Clubhouse rocks. The martini I got was huge, and they were serving flank steak with Cuban black beans, apricot soup, apple crisp with sweet cream, and good salads. It's $40 well-spent.

- I also ran into the issue where if someone put their chair back in Y, it jams the laptop into your chest... though reclining YOUR seat a bit helps with that.

- Other than the bug with Red mentioned above and the fact that channels at time are spotty, didn't run into issues (was able to watch one channel all the way up to SEA from SFO).

All told... I still think VX is my favorite airline to fly (with AS being a still well-regarded second place).

steve64

Hi y'all

I flew the first VX LAS-JFK non-stop on Sep 4 ... First Class ... seat 1D
A319 N523VA "Contents May Be Under Pressure" <-- photo link of the plane at LAS gate

Here's my trip report.
FYI ... this is my 2nd VX trip; the 1st one being a First Class seat on their 1st day of operation (Aug 8, 2007) SFO to JFK.

Check-in
Perfectly smooth ! Three Agents at the counter waiting and not another passenger in sight. Of course, I was there 2.5 hours before flight time. I passed the time away in the CO President's Club which is basically across the hall and upstairs from the VX gate (I'm an NW Worldclub member, admittance to the CO Club had nothing to do with the VX flight).

Boarding :-:
They started decorating the gate lounge with balloons about 15 minutes before boarding.
A brief announcement about being the 1st flight then a call for First Class boarding about 25 minutes before departure.
The Agent scanning boarding passes said "wait till you see what we have in-store for you on-board".
In our seats were the Entourage Air Promo items. <-- photo link of Entourage Package presented on boarding

Crew ^
The best !!
Overall great attitude. The girl doing highly animated mime during the safety briefing was starting to get annoying, but you know what ?? It did make me pay attention.
During Boarding, I started to wonder how many Flight Attendants were on this flight. One who did nothing but stand around the entry door and welcomed every passenger as they boarded did finally make an announcement about some of the details of the trip. Then he took his crew seat .. the Captain's Chair.
Bravo to VX for letting their Pilots dress like normal humans and to this Captain for acting like a human.

Service
Yes, this does follow closely with the "Crew" category above.
Overall, very friendly and upbeat.

Drink orders taken and delivered with the meal service starting immediately after the drink being served. I usually think of my 1st beverage as a "before dinner" drink, then switch to wine for my meal. I would call this a complaint, thought my travels the past couple of weeks have also seen me in First Class cabins of DL and CO ... same pattern. Is NW the only airline doing "before dinner" drinks

On this flight, as well as my previous VX trip, the Flight Attendant disappeared after dinner. Perhaps it takes all of them to "stand in waiting" to fullfill orders via "Red" as soon as they are placed ?? Perhaps First Class is also expected to order service requests via "Red" ?? They did check in on us about once an hour, so in the end I was well attended to, but I do find this service pattern to be very odd. I'm used to the First Class F/A assisting in Coach but more like a "back and forth" and not "I'm outta here, I'll check back in an hour".

Dinner
Lame. Absolutely lame.
Perhaps I had my expectations set too high following last year's SFO-JFK trip on VX.
But I had read here on FlyerTalk how the meal service had been downgraded, so I don't hink I'm biased here.

The appetizer was the olive/tomato/feta cheese thing. No complaints here.
Very tasty and a nice way to start the service. It was also served on a canape tray versus you selecting from small plastic ramekins of food from a cardboard tray.

For my entree, I was given the choice of the BBQ Chicken Salad or the pasta (I don't remember the description). The 3rd option of some type of "duck salad" that I've heard about here was not offerred.

I chose the BBQ Chicken Salad as did the girl seated next to me.
One of these days, my thick Texan brain will learn that most folks in the USA are clueless about what constitutes "BBQ"
The chicken breast on this salad was cold. BBQ is served hot.
The chicken was not BBQ'd, it was grilled. There is an extreme difference. Grilling outdoors is NOT the definition of BBQ (I'm not saying this chicken was grilled outdoors, but it was made to look like such as most other commercial preparations would do).

Ok .. the definition of "BBQ" aside ...
Horrible. Absolutely horrible.
The chicken was dry and flavorless. The bed of "salad" it was served on wasn't much more than standard iceberg lettuce with a few carrot srtips thrown in. And the lettuce was half wilted. The ensemble came with one package of ranch dressing. Not nearly enough to counteract the dry meat. No other sides served with this entree. Dry chicken on wilted lettuce. Period.

Dessert ^ ^ ^
Back to the familiar plastic cups on a cardboard tray selection. There were 3 to choose from. I took one of each.
Sinful. Absolutely sinful.
I say sinful, but I don't remember them (it's caused by drinking Rum-n-Cokes thru dinner versus having wine !!).

One had a chocolately-coconut pudding taste and was wonderful.

The other I only remember as being extremely good, but not as good as the chocolately-coconut pudding thingy.

The 3rd was supposed to be a "Smore". I tried to to eat it as such. I tried to get my marshmallow onto my graham cracker. I used my knife at 1st. But the 'mallow' stuck to the knife. So I used the fork to try and get if off the knife. Half stayed stuck to the knife, the other half stuck to the fork. Neither the 'mallow' portion on the knife nor fork would "roll off" onto the cracker. So the thumb comes into play. Oooops, bad idea. Let's just use this finger here... Arghhh !! It's a good thing I'm in row 1 and the F/A isn't around to watch me thru the purple plexiglass wall. The marshmallow sticks to anything and everything except the graham cracker. And I still have the chocolate flakes to add !! Screw it. Knife fork, fingers and cracker go into mouth. Quickly followed by a "chaser" of chocolate flakes. I enjoyed it anyhow (but not as much as the chocolately-coconut pudding thingy).

Snacks
Did you say "snacks" ??
None were offered (and none were asked for). When I saw my "chilled chicken served on a bed of lettuce wilted over a grill" my 1st thought was that I'd have to hit the Coach offerings before we got to New York. As it turned out, I was satisfied (a combination of being tired from "drinking Rum-n-Cokes thru dinner versus switching to wine" and "fighting the giant Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters").

Red
I hear all these bad reports. On both of my VX flights it has worked just fine.

Entourage Class
I've already included a pic of the goodies that were waiting for us in our seats.
One "Entourage Class" goodie that was never offered was the champange.
Having the other goodies in our seat on boarding made a great first impression but was quickly followed with a thought of "what do I do with all this stuff" ? It wasn't an easy answer when combined with the limited carry-on storage in VX's First Class cabin. After packing away the "take away" gifts I was still faced with where to put the blanket. It stayed wrapped in it's plastic bag and wedged between me & my seat until after takeoff. It came out of the bag once airborne and served as a pad on my footrest. While I didn't use it as a blanket, I noticed it was very soft & plush. Was black with fake wool backing and had "Entourage" embrodiered in red on the front.

The Kiehl's package looks very nice and will be in Mom's Stocking this Christmas.
The tin of Altoids were "Creme de Menth". I haven't tried them yet but usually like Altoids.
Godiva Truffles. No additional expalnation needed.
Entourage Eye Mask. A simple little promo item.

The noise cancelling headsets were passed out after takeoff (not until after the seat belt sign was off, so it was well into flight before we got to use them). They were the Bose "over the ear" style. Being that we were the 1st to use them, they were still in their factory box & wrapping. The F/A opened the cardboard boxes then handed us the headphone in their hard shell case. On opening the case we found all the cords etc still in original factory packing. After distributing them, the F/A and most of us in First (err.. Entourage..) Class were left trying to figure out how to operate the things. The biggest challenge was with installing the battery. I personally own a set of the "on the ear" style, but their battery is no-where close to how these sets operated. Once we had it figured out, the Bose headsets were (as always) a blessing.

After completing my 1st movie on Red ( "21" ), I searched for the Entourage episodes. This is a program I actually like, but somehow managed to miss the entire season last year. I was hoping to catch-up some on this flight before the new season started. Not one episode on Red. Nada. I asked the F/A on one of his visits from Coach and he said the programming had not been uploaded yet.

First Flights
I was also hit with the same issue as when I flew VX eastbound on their 1st day of operation.
All parties were on the westbound sector. Odd for an airline that is technically based on the West Coast.
And I didn't know this on either trip until after booking my eastbound journey. Oh Well. I had great trips both times anyhow.

Summary @:-)
Good Airline. Wonderful employee attitude. Best Domestic First Class seats in the USA.
For me personally (PHX based), they just don't "work" for me yet. I will probably continue to go out of my way (to LAX/SFO/SAN/LAS) once a year as I did with this trip just to fly them. I'd like to do it more often, but when I can get free upgrades on NW and (tho probably ending next year ) CO then it gets a little hard to justify paying extra in time and $$$ to go out of my way for VX. The equation swings more away from VX if they continue to downgrade service like they did with the meals. The equation will swing back to their favor as they expand; however, with the fuel situation, I wonder how fast any expansion would be ?
For now, they can't be my preferred carrier, but they will definitely stay on my radar screen.

Steve

eponymous_coward

Yeah, I flew on the 6th, and my first plane (Jane, SEA-SFO) did NOT have the new Entourage programming, but my second plane (um, forgot, too many Virgin drinks in the VS Clubhouse, SFO-LAS) DID have Entourage (I watched "Vegas Baby, Vegas!" and "The Young and the Stoned").

Both planes had the napkins, though.

Breakfast had a ton of food in F (quiche, hash browns, mini muffins, fruit, chocolate), but the quiche was underdone a bit.

However, there WAS champagne.

EIPremier

VX 836 LAX-SFO 9/9/08 N636VA

I also watched two episodes of "Entourage" in flight. "Vegas baby Vegas" and then "No Cannes Do," in which they arrive at LAX to find out that "France Airways" has canceled their flight to Cannes due to a DHS "red alert." I noticed that the ticket board said "France Airways" but then the sign over the counter said "Virgin Atlantic." Yes, it was actually filmed at T2. I did not know there was non-stop service between LAX and Cannes.
Back to the subject, RED worked fine. I watched a little CNN and CNBC also, and the picture froze once, but otherwise it seemed ok.

The F seats are simply fabulous...'nuff said, the aircraft was very clean, and the crew was personable.

Unfortunately, the ground portion of things at LAX was a bit of a mess. Check-in and security were both uneventful, but VX continued to list the flight as on-time (both on the website and the monitors), even though it clearly wasn't. VX has been using gates 68 and 69 (UA gates) on a periodic basis since F9 moved over to gate 67a from T3. So the only real "dedicated" VX gate is 67b for the time being.

The inbound parked at gate 68a, slightly late, but I figured even if we left late, we'd make it up in flight (90 minutes blocked for LAX-SFO, when the flight is only 50-55 min). After all, the flight was still showing as on-time. Then, it took the gate agent eleven minutes (yes, I was seated right by the window) to connect the jetbridge to the aircraft. It was absolutely agonizing to watch. He/she was so tentative...moving the jetbridge a foot forward, then a foot back, then a few inches to one side, then a couple inches to the other side. I was thinking it must be his/her first day on the job. The jetbridge seemed to set at more or less the right height, so I don't know what was so hard about it. Anyway, they finally got the door open and pax started deplaning. After deplaning, it took another 15 minutes or so while they wheeled a VX computer podium over to the gate area. And then the monitor dídn't work after they plugged it in. After fiddling around some more, they just decided to board us all, writing down our BP sequence numbers on a piece of white paper as we boarded, and they'd enter it into the computer at the main gate later. We finally left 50 minutes late (1 hr 12 minutes to turn around a 3/4 full A320), but only arrived 28 late due to padding.

Anyway, hopefully VX operations at LAX will be a bit smoother after they get moved to T3! I later found out the inbound was late due to having to dodge thunderstroms en route from JFK to LAX, but I certainly didn't find out any info from the gate staff...

pacificboot

Flight: VX 848
Date: 19 Sep, 2008
Scheduled/Actual Departure: 0850/0845
Scheduled/Actual Arrival: 1020/1005 (15 minutes early!)
Gate: 67A
Plane: A320 (with Entourage paint theme)

I was not planning to go up to San Francisco at all. But at the last minute, at Wed night, I decided to go up North to visit for brother. Since this was quite last minute, I was expecting flights to be extremely expensive. I wanted to go up to SFO on Friday, and return on Saturday. The cheapest was a $69 fare on VX on Friday morning, and a $69 fare on AA on Saturday afternoon! Perfect, and I booked it.

This would be my 5th flight on VX since last year. Thanks to the affordable check in upgrade fee and thank god there are no elites upgrading for free,
20 hours prior to departure, I checked in online, paid the $50 fee to upgrade to First Class Cabin. I believe three people, including me, upgraded at time of check-in, as there were three seats left when I checked just before online checked in open. I took the last seat, 2F.

Since I did not have checked bags, headed straight to T6 security. I have a question: Can VX F class pax use the CO elite Access security lanes at T6 or the United Premier security lanes at T7? I was standing in line for about 15 minutes. It was not too long, but for a First Class customers, I do expect priority security.

Arrived at gate 67A over 1 hour prior to departure. Flight began boarding with First Class at 8:20am. Everything was very smooth. Everyone in First wanted coffee for pre-departure beverage, but the flight attendent, excuse me, team member, said hot drinks only available in the air. I thought that First Class on LAX-SFO had trio tapas in a snack box. But instead, it was two mini warm muffins. It was pretty decent, but I wonder if this was cost-cutting or something. But at least VX can boost they are the only airline to serve hot food in SFO-LAX First!

I really appreciated VX's attempt to service First Class like real First Class should be. I am tired on flying on United's First, where all you get is beverage in those ugly disposable plastic cups, and packaged nuts. UA's First Class is also more than double that of VX's First Class! I just really enjoyed hot tea and muffins served in real china instead of paper cups. Whoever is paying full fare for UA/AA's First on this route should try out VX. Flight landed 15 minutes early at 10:05am.

VX is definitely the best domestic carrier in US. They put in so much effort to making their planes so nice that it is such a joy/experience to be in. But I must admit one thing, I am CX Gold (Sapphire), and I pretty much choose flights solely based on alliances. I want the lounge access, priority boarding and check in. If AA and VX had the same fare, I would most likely choose AA. In this case, AA's flight was $70 more than VX, and VX in First would trump AA in Coach even if all the perks. I just hope that VX is making money, and would stay for the long-haul, since they are truly a special airline that provides customers with an enjoyable experience, rather than just getting you from point a to point b.

aviators99

Yes, you can for T6. I have not tried T7.

nermaljcat

On a route that both VX and UA serve, there is no question in my mind. I only had to try them once (SFO-JFK in Y).

EIPremier

VX 1874 SFO-SAN A319 N528VA "Fog Cutter" 9/24/08

Excellent flight! Load was at least 75%...not bad for Weds 3:15 PM. Of course, VX has also cut the number of SFO-SAN flights from 6 to 4 (5 on fri). Noticed there were three VX aircraft parked remotely at SFO (presumably not in service). Check-in was a breeze. The "gate posse" (yes that's what the monitor said) addressed each passenger by name during the boarding process. Pushback was right on-time. The cabin crew was very good, and my Red-ordered drink showed up within a couple minutes. IFE worked fine (chat was turned off as seems to be the norm). Watched a couple of short subject films (complimentary), including one in French. First time I've seen a foreign language film/TV selection on VX that wasn't Mandarin/Cantonese/Japanese/Spanish. Prompt disembarkation at SAN.

davidsfo

I had the opportunity to fly VX for the first time this last week and here are my impressions.

SFO/SEA; 10/9, VX 740; main cabin. Checked in online and easily cleared security without any delays. Boarding started on time and we pushed backed a few minutes early. The plane was clean and ready to go. It was nice to see blankets and pillows since they are a rare commodity on other airlines these days. As many others have said, the IFE , Red, is simply awesome and makes the flight go so much more quickly. It makes the IFE over at UA look primitive. In-flight service was a beverage service. The FA’s seemed friendly, although they disappeared right after the service and weren’t seen again until just before landing. From other posts, it sounds like this is an unfortunate trend. One reason many folks are deserting airlines like UA is because of the indifferent treatment by disgruntled employees. VX should be trying to set a new service standard rather than having their FA’s adopt the UA way of running a flight. Overall, I thought that VX’s Y product was a step above other airlines.

SEA/SFO; 10/13 VX 757; First Class. I was interested in trying VX’s F product after hearing a lot about it. When I went to check in online 24 hours ahead of my flight, I was offered the chance to upgrade for $50. I selected the option and went through the purchasing process only to get an error message that said that they couldn’t process it and to call reservations. (Via FT, I learned that VX is having a lot of problems with its software for the upgrades.) The biggest hassle wasn’t that the website couldn’t process the upgrade but that when I called reservations it took 2 calls and speaking to 4 different agents and supervisors before they acknowledged that they could process the upgrade at reservations like several FT’ers had mentioned on this forum. Several agents insisted the upgrade could be done only online or at the airport. I’ll give them that they’re a new airline and there no doubt will be kinks in the system, but they didn’t handle this situation very well.

Anyway, with my upgrade now in hand, boarding of the flight commenced on time. The F cabin FA offered us a pre-departure drink before we pushed back. As others have described, the F seat is awesome; very comfortable and roomy. That combined with Red, makes for a great way to fly. However, the service was mediocre. Having flown most of my life on UA, I think I have a good feeling about what is or is not a good level of service in F and Y. On this VX flight, the FA was friendly enough, but not really engaged. Drinks came with a light dinner and refills weren’t offered when the trays were picked up. After dinner, the FA disappeared to the rear of the plane and wasn’t seen again until right before landing. No refills were offered even though several folks had empty wine glasses for over 20 minutes. As for the dinner, the choice was pasta or BBQ chicken salad. I opted for the pasta. It was basically a small amount of pasta with a teaspoon of tasteless red sauce poured over it. It was virtually inedible. The chicken salad looked a bit better. I realize that this flight was reasonably short, but if VX is going to serve dinner, it should be decent or otherwise they should just stick to warm nuts and drinks. As for the service and food, I would rank this flight in the bottom 50% of my F flights based on my experience on UA (and believe me, I’m not a big supporter of UA these days since they have degraded their product so much.)

Overall conclusion: I think VX has a good product and in many ways is superior to airlines like UA. However, they definitely need improvement in some areas if they really want to shine. Perhaps I caught them on a bad day, but the hassles over the upgrade, the lack of knowledge by the res staff, the indifferent treatment by the FA’s, and lousy meal service are things that need to be improved.

SkaterJasp

New Meals as of today!

http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroo....html?d=152298

colmc

Did a recent JFK - SFO on VX23. Here are my brief thoughts.

Ground staff/check-in: Staff a First check-in seemed completely disinterested in what they were doing. No smile, no effort to communicate..not a very "First" experience. Gate staff were pleasant, helpful and chatty to all who approached however, which was nice to see.

Onboard experience: Boarding was quick, and the male attendant in First was friendly (but not overly so) and provided pre-take off drinks. Seats were comfortable, and certainly the way to travel trans-con. One we had taken off, and reached suitable altitude more drinks were offered and we were advised lunch would be served in an hour or so. Lunch was an asparagus salad starter, followed by duck salad (I didn't quite get the salad + more salad combination. There may have been an alternative, but I didn't get offered it). Duck salad was nice though, it must be said.

Desert was the usual selection of 3 items - smores desert, cheesecake and pineapple custards were available. The pineapple custard was one of the nicest pieces of food I've had on an airplane for a while. Then again, I do like pineapple! The service for the rest of the flight was smooth and unobtrusive. Drinks were readily available, and the crew visible so you never felt like you were being deserted. Certainly, if you asked for something, you got it delivered quickly. Snacks were offered an hour out of SFO (Chex Mix, Muesli bars etc).

Red:Red worked well - though the movie, TV and movie selections were a little anaemic for my taste, but maybe I'm being picky! I did watch Iron Man and something else though which passed the time. I loved the moving map, and live TV worked fine for the most part - some patches of interferance. Still, quite good all in all, and I loved the touch-screen element.

Arrival/Luggage: Arrival was on time, and hassle free. Luggage collection though, wasn't so good. This is where VX really fell down. SFO's belt 9 isn't easy to find if you aren't familiar with the airport, and the doors to the collection area being shut didn't help. Lots of confused travellers wondering what was going to happen with their bags.

Worse than that, the bags must have taken the best part of 35 minutes to appear, with no explanation for the delay. Some people left in confusion when they head a Virgin Atlantic flight being called for belt 10 over the tannoy in the adjoining but sealed off area. Some signage, and announcements would have served them well.

Final thoughts:So yeah - all in all a good experience with VX, but there were some bits where I thought they fell down, and this took the sheen off the whole experience. I wonder if some staff are losing their "start-up" passion. However, if I had to do the trip with VX vs a legacy, I think VX would still win.

And less of the salad + salad combos

colmc

I posted a report of my last VX trip here

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/11169732-post4.html

Petdog

I flew VXU 25, JFK-SFO, on Septemer 12, Seat 13C and returned on VXU 22, September 15, Seat 10C.

Here's my trip report.

This was my first VXU trip. I bought the tickets back in November for $253 total, including a 10% discount using a coupon a fellow FlyerTalker. (Thanks!)

CHECK-IN ^
Very smooth. I received a reminder e-mail 24 hours in advance of each flight, checked in online and printed my boarding pass. Easy.

BOARDING ^
Pretty efficient. The gate at JFK was right next to security, which made it extra easy. Seems like everyone's bags fit.

CREW
Friendly and efficient.

SERVICE
I didn't really take advantage, except for the initial beverage service and to dispose of my big pile of newspapers. My friends received their food orders promptly and the crew appeared attentive.

FOOD
No idea. The Coca-Cola was fine.

RED
I didn't use it all that much. I tried a couple of games (word jumble; shoot 'em up), played a little music and watched a little TV. It seemed to work well, though there was some button lag on the SFO-JFK flight. One person sitting near me seemed to have some difficulty. I like Emirates' system better, but I'll take this one without complaining

SUMMARY
I'd definitely fly VXU again. New planes, good service, Red is better than what other domestic airlines offer. For me, schedule and price are paramount, but all else being equal, I'd take VXU.

eponymous_coward

It seems the WiFi on Air Colbert is functional.

Also, James, our flight team member in F, was able to give TWO drink services on the ground. He's on his way to JFK after this.

ETA: I rather like the pancetta and egg croissant/fruit skewers breakfast. It seems if you want full meals ex-SEA in F, you want to connect in LAX, not SFO, as they are getting full meals, not tapas.

dhuey

Greetings from aboard vx 78, sfo-iad. 7/8 F seats avail. at checkin. Three did the $250 upgrade deal, incl. me. Great food & service and, you might have guessed, wifi. The website did not indicate there would be wifi.

I love vx and sure hope it makes it.