mizzou miles

As having flown on a few different airlines myself, I never have seen any huge differences of service quality. All the pilots were outstanding and well trained individuals. I did have questions about the airplanes themselves which I felt were outdated safety wise and structurally and the older ones which I have flown on have since been phased out.

Are you a FAA certified inspector who can grade the capabilities of said pilots? really? or are you judging takeoffs=landings to suggest that the pilots were "outstanding" and "well trained"

zgscl

As long as we are speculating, what about VX and HA? HA has some international routes while VX offers the mainland domestic route structure. Also as HA switches out their 767s for A330s, the fleet would become more compatible. No idea if HA is financially strong enough to buy another airline. Just a crazy thought.

adamj023

HA and B6 are together at T5. Hawaiian and JetBlue.

Virgin America's future is unknown and future is unclear. I can't say if Virgin America will go at it alone or merge with another carrier.

So many carriers out in the marketplace and Virgin has access to mostly West Coast routes.

I would hope that Virgin America's unique business model doesn't get taken over by a Legacy carrier and the carrier can grow on its own.

I sure hope that Virgin America and Delta do not merge because unlike the UK where Virgin Atlantic needed each other and Virgin will still be running the show, but the codeshare opens up loads of new opportunities for the 2 airlines.

But with Virgin America, the model is unique and it needs to exist and expand on its own accord but with a larger route network.

So I can't say what the future will be here. Delta and Virgin Atlantic was a clear and obvious approach considering Delta's lack of LHR flights.

I realize there are so many airlines and larger combined route networks make the system much better.

But Virgin America's model is unlike that of Southwest, JetBlue, and other carriers and is far different than the Legacies as well and Virgin America needs to grow and expand but due to slot restricted airports, slots have to come from somewhere.

Virgin America has so much potential for future growth but is stunted financially in a competitive environment.

I don't see any good options for mergers/partnerships for Virgin America at this time unless something I can't predict happens.

Azmordean

I hope that VX sticks around. I mostly do SFO - IAD transcons. I actually prefer UA in most respects - particularly the fact that the E+ option (usually around $80 each way, available at booking) is far cheaper than VX MCS ($129 only available w/i 24 hours of flight). I realize VX has superior IFE and food but really all I care about is legroom and comfort. And even as a non-status flyer I think UA's mileage based FF program is superior to the revenue based Elevate, especially on long routings like transcons.

Nonethless, I have been doing a LOT more travel lately on VX for one reason - WiFi.

It sounds silly, but I am a pleasure traveler, and WiFi means instead of taking a vacation day to sit on a plane, I can work from the plane and save that day off. And whatever the value of the FF miles, a vacation day is worth more!

If UA ever gets around to having WiFi on all flights, I'd start moving my business back to them. As it is, I fly VX on the long flights unless I'm flying on a weekend.

Stripe

What is VX current near-term prognosis? Should I feel safe buying a ticket for travel in late March? They have a very good BOS-LAX fare and I'm interested in trying the product at least once. I'm not concerned about losing my money -- the credit card company will take care of that -- but I don't want to find myself scrambling to find an alternate flight at last minute prices should the flight not go.

FWAAA

I don't expect VX to survive, but there's no reason to believe that it is in imminent danger of shutting down between now and late March. My guess is that VX gets at least one more large infusion of borrowed money before the cash runs out.

Mike_K

When I judge companies I always ask myself if what they sell is something I think people would want... Are they filling a void in the market? Are they offering a product that no one else is?

For example, with Apple for the longest time the iPhone was the it phone and their sales and marketshare skyrocketed. I've owned every single one. I'm that guy. In the last 18 months though we've seen a lot of nice phones coming from other manufactures and suddenly I found my eyes straying. And that's when I decided I didn't want Apple stock. Now Apple is seeing their market share slowly erode, they're trying to compete on price (something Steve Jobs was staunchly against) and there are a lot of other manufactures making products that are strong competitors with Apple. But I digress...

Domestic service for the most part sucks. I have 150,000 Avios points and it costs me 20,000 a pop to take my monthly flight to LAX but American Airlines is terrible. The service is sub-par and the planes are old and dirty. I took a flight with American a couple months ago after flying solely VX for a year. I was in First class. The seats were old, dirty, panels ill fitting... I didn't think there was a TV up front for First class passengers which just seemed silly after a year with VX but it was worse than that... After the plane pushed off from the gate a 13" tube tv defended from the center aisle. Are you serious? Then there's the plane which very likely could have been the first 767 put into service if it's condition was any indicator. It was terrible and it's not limited to American. United is similar (if not worse).

It's so bad that instead of using my avios points to take my monthly flight with American I choose to pay out of pocket and fly VX.

They need to get people on their "first" VX flight, expand their route offerings (which they're trying to do at the cost of profit) and I think people are going to latch onto this. I haven't heard anyone who's flown VX have anything bad to say about the flight/ plane. It just blows your mind if you're used to the competition. I think the only airline to come close is Jet Blue. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

They're in a position where they need to expand aggressively to get more market share but they can't expand too fast and risk running on even shakier financial ground.

Zacnlinc

@ Mike_K:

Well said... Like you, I began using VX and just cringe when I have to fly UA. Fortunately VX got me where I needed to go in 2012 and I'm expecting the same for 2013. Now I just need to burn miles on UA.

Transcon flights have been my monthly travels and once I tried VX I was set! Granted, I'm one of the lucky customers based here out West and even better yet in SFO so I do have lots of options regardless. But the service and staff at VX have not let me down at all. Besides, I am a firm supporter of the hometown airline!

UVU Wolverine

While they do fill a void that many here on Flyertalk would gladly pay for, the fact is most of the traveling public is far more price sensitive. There's really no other explanation of why Spirit and Allegiant have consistently been expanding and growing (while making profits) yet VX is expanding but losing money.

Don't get me wrong, the VX product is great, however there is simply not enough demand to keep VX profitable even if they expand and can lower their operating costs across the system.

grt2106

A product can only be out so long before competitors start to catch up or the product just gets dated.

*Plugging my laptop in 6 years ago was great, now batteries tend to make it a whole 6 hour flight.

*My own TV is nice, but plenty of guests and kids are watching shows on phones/tablet devices now.

*Reading, Chat, Online Shopping, Games worth Playing- These are coming soon!... for 7 years.

aviators99

Chat has been there since the beginning, but point well taken.

I'm still waiting for competitors to catch up. F product still the best domestic one out there (excepting single-digit subfleets like PS). Competitors catching up is what I really *want* to happen, but it doesn't seem likely.

ethanwa

If I need to pay for a flight with cash, I ALWAYS fly VX when it's an option for a non-stop flight. It's just a better flight. I love it. It makes flying enjoyable for me, if that's actually possible!

I think their biggest problem is the lack of flights outside of LAX and SFO. I'm in SEA and they have two options.... LAX or SFO. That's it. And unless I am going to those two places I would rather choose Alaska Airlines for a non-stop rather than go through SFO on a transfer.

Expanding should be a priority for them. But I know that is also expensive. I think they are really between a rock and a hard place on how to survive.

ethanwa

THIS. VX isn't a threat to anyone right now, so no other airlines care. They would rather save the money and screw the customer.

VX needs to survive simply to make the industry better as a whole!

zgscl

Do you think a point to point model might serve vx well?

bpe

How would it help them?

Point to point only works if you have two points that have lots of demand for flights to each other and can sustain high enough fares to fill a plane at a profit. There aren't many markets that this can happen in, say, JFK-SFO or JFK-LAX. Other than these and possibly to some of the other largest cities, there simply isn't enough demand for point to point flights, and those would be well-served by other carriers anyways.