VIRGIN AMERICA review :  15 February 2008  -  M Monteverde    (Australia)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

First

SFO-LAX-JFK First Class. Boarding was easy. Check in a breeze . One problem though, our luggage was left at LAX instead of being transferred to the connecting flight to JFK. Had we not have checked- we would have been without luggage when arriving at JFK. Once they realized VA staff worked quickly to get luggage on to connecting flight. First class seats lovely, great IFE, seat massage not working though. One complaint, front row of First class is probably not as private as second row as there is a clear plastic bulkhead which flight attendant sits behind whilst in flight. no privacy and hard to sleep with the light that comes from the crew area. I felt like I was in a fish bowl and would have preferred a darker, more private space. Ours was a red eye flight and I really wanted to try and get some sleep. The seats on the right hand side were more private as there was a curtain in front of them. Food was nice- service great. One FA seemed to be looking after the 8 first class seats so we had what we wanted whenever we wanted it.

VIRGIN AMERICA review :  15 February 2008  -  D Gerber    (Australia)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

First

SFO-LAS in First. Great, personal service, wonderful seating. Even on this short mid-afternoon flight I was offered a well-presented box with 3 tasty canapes as well as a full drinks service. The Captain introduced himself personally to all of us in 1st class. Probably the best domestic airline service I have ever had anywhere for that length of flight - not just in the USA.

VIRGIN AMERICA review :  24 January 2008  -  C Smigliani    (USA)

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Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

SFO-IAD in Economy. I was very impressed with boarding, the new/clean A-320, as well as the seats (leather), IFE and flight attendants. What great service. I fly considerably domestically and internationally, and I can not tell you the last time I had such excellent FA services within the US.

VIRGIN AMERICA review :  24 January 2008  -  P Garde    (Australia)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

JFK-LAX excellent, especially compared to the appalling legroom and service previously suffered on this route with AA. For the extra $25 for this extra tall pax the legroom in exit row was excellent and worth every penny. Crew congenial and worked hard. Overall a better experience than even Jetblue let alone legacy carriers such as UA or AA.

VIRGIN AMERICA review :  21 January 2008  -  Matthew Lubeck    (USA)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

Economy JFK-SFO and back - impressed with experience. Check in efficient as mostly automated, and flight left on time. Onboard, as others have said, is very suave with mood lighting, electronic boarding music and comfortable new seats. Best feature is entertainment, Red. Its touch screen is extremely reactive and a large number of selections. Food ordered on demand from the screen from a selection of free and pay items. To spend 6 hours in an economy seat and have water/snacks etc served on demand is fantastic. Bags arrived quickly on the baggage carousel at SFO.

VIRGIN AMERICA review :  17 January 2008  -  Chris Matthews    (n/a)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

n/a

Value for Money:

n/a

Cabin Flown:

First

LAX-SFO-LAX First Class. A great service. The interior of the plane was relaxed with mood lighting, trendy design, great lounge/electro music as you board the plane. First Class seat was leather and very comfortable, great recline and footrest however I could not get the Massage component to work. For the short flight they offer beverage service and a small snack (three small Tapas style food in a white box) . I did not use the entertainment system much, however I believe to seat chat system worked along with the AVOD Music System. Check in fast, high tech, though no priority luggage check and no lounge access offered as yet. Would fly again with this company. A nice touch was the Captain making a short announcement prior to take off facing the passengers.

VIRGIN AMERICA review :  13 January 2008  -  Iain Ponton    (UK)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

First

JFK-SFO just after Thanksgiving in First class. The seat was fantastic. Width was good and the recline was great too. The first row has only one problem - the leg room. Virgin advertise that all first class seats have 55' of leg room but if you recline all the way in the first row, your feet hit the plastic bulkhead just in front of you. If you can book a seat in the second row there is more leg room and also a bit more privacy, as the bulkhead is transparent. The food was good, and drinks were free! Alcoholic and soft. IFE was amazing, Google maps, loads of movies and Live TV. Plenty to keep you occupied. The seat has power so if you've got a power hungry laptop or a PDA or ipod you can charge them up while you fly. Keep it up Virgin.

VIRGIN AMERICA review :  13 January 2008  -  J Faulkner    (Australia)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

LAX to SFO. This airline was great, after a horrible time with United, I was forced to buy 2 tickets to SFO with Virgin. What a nice surprise, staff were superb, it was our honeymoon and they did far more than any other airline to make us happy. Flight was on time, cabin was modern and the staff fantastic.

VIRGIN AMERICA review :  10 January 2008  -  S Crockford    (UK)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

A joy to fly with an airline where staff appear to enjoy their jobs and the service they provide. A320 aircraft well worth the extra few $ for the row of seat behind first class. Will book them again - only problem as with all Virgin offshoot airlines they do not interline with Virgin Atlantic or share FF programs.

VIRGIN AMERICA review :  5 January 2008  -  Kingsley Utande    (Nigeria)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

LAX-SFO-LAS, and was impressed with the level of service, compared to other US domestic flights. Got to LAX on time, and checked in my bag, although I had checked in online earlier on both legs and had my boarding pass. My bags were checked in straight to LAS and even though the bag was way overweight, friendly staff at the counter didn't charge it. Inflight service okay, FA's were warm, and the IFE was lovely. After carrying out my business at San Francisco, I rushed back to SFO and barely made the flight. Only downside was no snack to go with the drinks, but on the whole, a lovely flying experience and I'll be using them more often whenever I'm in the United States.

VIRGIN AMERICA review :  23 November 2007  -  S James    (USA)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

Recently flew Virgin America JFK-SFO on the 9am. The security lines were not long, but I left on a Wednesday. Because it leaves out of the international terminal, I would hate to fly during a peak time - so arrive early if that applies to you. Once in air, flight was good. It was not very booked, so room to stretch out, a whole row to myself. The inflight entertainment was only OK. I enjoyed the music selections and being able to create a playlist. The live TV was not exciting, not very many channels to view. There were about 5 ESPN channels and couple of others. The channels are labeled incorrectly, monitor would indicate one thing but it would be another channel, so it was hard to keep track of the channels. That area leaves a lot to be desired. The service was good; being able to order more beverages from my seat was great. I wish there was a complimentary snack (pretzels, peanuts, anything) to go with complimentary beverages, particularly for a flight this long. I forgot to bring a snack, and got hungry so I had to buy some snacks. That process went well, ordered, swiped my card, and it arrived in about 5 minutes. The snacks were reasonably priced comparable to other airlines, still way more than buying them at a grocery store, but reasonable. Overall I enjoyed the Virgin America experience. I flew another low cost carrier (JB) on the return SFO-JFK and while the IFE and complimentary snack offerings were better on that airline, I wished I were on Virgin America, mainly because the flight was packed, but that experience was fine as well. I would recommend flying VA now, before the quality of service deteriorates.

VIRGIN AMERICA review :  3 November 2007  -  J Lockhorn    (USA)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

Once in the air, everything was fine. However, JFK-SFO was cancelled due to aircraft availability, forcing an extra day off work. Flight left close to on time, but flying out of Terminal 4 at JFK resulted in extremely long security lines (not airline's fault). Return flight SFO-JFK was a disaster. Checked online flight tracker 2 minutes before 25 minute journey to airport, and was told the flight was on-time for an 11 pm departure. Upon arrival at the airport, I was informed the flight had been delayed by two hours. In my experience, a two hour delay is not something that is discovered within 25 minutes. The ground staff was unable to offer a consistent explanation as to why the flight had been delayed or why information notifying passengers to the delay was not available until 60 minutes prior to departure. Excuses ranged from aircraft availability (even though we could see out the window to our plane), weather (on a clear night with no other flights delayed in the terminal) to waiting for a flight from LAX to come in before we could take off. At about 1:30 am we were allowed to board the plane. Once on board, FAs informed us that as they are not paid until the flight is in the air, they would be unable to accomodate our requests for drinks and/or snacks. At 2:45 am we were surprised to see an additional 40 passengers boarding (must have been the flight from LAX, but we were left to our own devices to determine if this was indeed the case, as not even the pilot seemed to have a clue as to why were delayed). Finally took off at 3:30 am. Once in the air, when the FAs were being paid, service was acceptable, but not spectacular. Upon landing, a call to Virgin home offices to seek information as to the nature of the delay, I was again told it was a weather related delay. Today, 5 days after the flight, with a follow-up call to the office, I was told it was a fuel issue. I have yet to get a consistent answer as to why my flight was delayed so severely. In terms of on-board comfort, it is no better or worse than any other economy airline. The IFE is not as revolutionary as VA would have you believe, it was quite standard, if the screen was a bit larger. However, if the person in front of you leans back, you are unable to see the screen due to the angle.

VIRGIN AMERICA review :  28 October 2007  -  E Mallari    (USA)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

San Francisco to Las Vegas return. Received e-mail from the airline the day before our flight offering free on-line check-in and by printing our boarding passes at home pleasantly surprised we received Group "A" boarding privilege. Drop bag was very quick at the check-in counter. Previously paid $15 extra each way for the bulkhead seats in the economy cabin, worth the extra money for the extra leg room and being served early by the First Class FA. Virgin America uses the newish and commodious SFO's international terminal even though this is a domestic airline. A huge plus. Security line was short. Boarding was orderly and on time. They gave free headsets in the jet way (no need to return them). They use new Airbus A320's with cabin mood lighting, and I found their leather-covered seats very comfortable, and their individual IFE's offer free satellite TV channels, games, flight map, music and pay-per-view movies. Cabin and lavatories were clean. Since this is only a short flight my wife and I opted to watch the free live CNN News channel instead of the pay-per-view movie channel, but I occasionally checked the flight map. Non-alcoholic drinks are free of charge, you can order alcoholic and snacks from your touch screen TV and swiping your credit card. This is a non-cash airline. FA's pleasant, and the flight arrived on time. We retrieved our luggage about 25-30 mins. after we landed. The beginning of our return flight to San Francisco was stressful but not the airline's fault. "Drop- bag" at the counter took less than 10 mins. I presented our boarding passes that I printed from the internet kiosk in our hotel lobby, but this time they gave us boarding cards even though I already have the computer printed boarding passes. Then we endured the unbelievably long Sunday morning security line at Las Vegas airport. Thousands of passengers were in line that went around, and around, and around the terminal. It took 50 mins from the start of the line until we cleared the x-ray machines. Boarding for our return flight was orderly. Boarding area gate attendant very pleasant and helpful especially to the two passengers on wheelchairs. Again, free headsets were available in the jet way. Pre-flight announcements were clear. FA's were professional, flight smooth, cabin and lavatories clean, and a got bonus view when we flew over the Yosemite Valley. The short flight seemed to be made even shorter by the live satellite TV. Overall, I enjoyed my first flight on Virgin America Airlines. I agree with one of the passengers when he commented that this airline is a better airline. My wife and I will seriously consider paying for their reasonably priced First Class seats next time we fly across the continental USA.

VIRGIN AMERICA review :  30 September 2007  -  J Kanel    (USA)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

Very refreshing! The staff are wonderful. The pilot coming around and introducing himself was terrific. Would fly them again. Only drawback is that they don't seem to have a inflight magazine, however IFE makes up for it.

VIRGIN AMERICA review :  20 September 2007  -  Peter de Baaij (USA)

Customer Trip Rating :

Recommended:

Value for Money:

Cabin Flown:

Economy

LAX-JFK Return. I was impressed in some ways and disappointed in some other ways about this new airline. Their planes look great, IFE is awesome and when all is up and running this will give them a huge advantage on other carriers. the regular outlet is for me one of the best things they could have done. Be aware that there are two outlets for three seat. I was disappointed to find out that after paying 25USD extra for Emergency Exit row I found out that indeed you have more legroom but row 9 (first row of exit) does not recline which for a 5.5 hour flight is very uncomfortable. as the plane had empty seats we all went to the back of the aircraft. The non reclining seats are row 8 and 9. furthermore. the drinks, food and movies were very expensive. overall a good airline that with these prices and still a higher level of comfort will be hard to beat for other airlines.

VIRGIN AMERICA review :  24 August 2007  -  B Walberer  (USA)

SFO-LAX return in economy. This new airline operates out of the new, spacious international terminal at SFO. Boarding at SFO was a little bit chaotic. The plane was a new A320, clean, with mood lighting, comfortable black leather seats with good legroom and adjustable head rests, and an impressive touch screen IFE. Although not all features of the IFE such as chat or internet access were implemented yet, the movie offerings (both free and for pay), numerous music channels, games, and map feature are more than adequate even for transcontinental routes. Both flights left on time. Only drinks were offered on these short flights. Overall, I was very impressed with this so-called low-cost (but not low-service) carrier. I would fly them again.