I suppose I was a bit clunky... the impression I was trying to get across was that I don't THINK my flights this upcoming weekend were half-full flights with 30 seats under airport control, but that the plane was pretty full.

hehe...I don't think VX ever has 30 seats under airport control. Gotcha, though. Looking forward to hearing how the flights are and how full.

My understanding is that they only have all seats in row 4 and the seats that make the difference between the A319 and A320 under airport control, and that's it. The 319/320 seats open up as it gets closer to the date of departure.

By my count, that's 18 seats for a scheduled A320 and 6 seats for a scheduled A319.

I want to pay the extra $25 for an exit row or bulkhead row seat on an upcoming VX lax-jfk/jfk-sfo flight, A320 both ways, but the only "premium" seat was an exit row middle. Personally, I wouldn't pay more for a middle seat in an exit row. However, there are still at least 40 or so "non-premium" seats showing available for assignment. Either lots of people are upgrading to the premium seats at the time of booking, or VX is holding some extra legroom seats back for day of departure assignment.

Edit: since we're on the topic of loads, the lax-jfk red-eye was about 70% full on a sat eve and the jfk-sfo was about 60% full on a tues afternoon. Both flights full in F. And, no I didn't sit in the exit row, but since I had an empty seat next to me, it was fine. And yes, row 9 on the a320 is non-premium and appears to be airport-controled.

I'm fairly certain it's the former.

Also, I wouldn't risk it by paying extra for seats that might not recline! I'll see what I can find out, though.

The first flight of the day 6:30am from SAN to SFO has been pretty empty on Tue. Maybe 1/4 full, but I doubt even that much. Has left early twice so far 6:20 - once when everyone checked in. A 2nd time when I heard the captain say in response to "still one not here, checked in yesterday online" with "let's go"

The Thur night 9:15pm SFO SAN seems to run 1/2-3/4 full on the 2-3 times I've taken it. (Compare with the 8:30pm Southwest flight which is usually 2/3-all full, and 15-30 mins late).

VX235 of 13 May, SFO-JFK, full in First, about 40% full in economy.....

I was on VX 318 from LAX to JFK on May 27, and the flight was full in F (I got the last upgrade seat... just lucky!), and Y was near 100% full (I saw a few empty middles.)

That's pretty good for a Tuesday ^

May - Wed morning - LAX-SEA - First: Full, Economy: 50%

May - Sat evening - SEA-LAX: First: 3/8, Economy: 50%

I think all customers in First are upgraded via the $50, or the $100 upgrade fee, because all First Class seats were empty when I checked in at the airport 2 hours prior to departure.

Forgive me if this is posted somewhere already, as I don't fly Virgin America much (their service to Seoul-Incheon is pretty sparse ).
On day of departure, are the transcon upgrades only $100 (based on availability)??!
Is it $50 for West Coast runs and $100 for transcons?
Whoah....

no, VX recently changed SEA-LAX upgrade fee from $50 to $100. $50 is the fee for all other West Coast flights, and $250 is the transcon fee.