Virgin America

✅ Trip Verified | San Francisco to Orlando. I could not believe an aircraft of this side that offers movie, music, games and TV entertainment did not have earbuds available for purchase. I sat in flight for 5.5 hours with basically nothing to do. What a gruelling experience. Although this is my first time flying with Virgin America, next time I hope my employer will make a better choice.

✅ Trip Verified | San Francisco to San Diego. Virgin seems not to have the super positive attitude that Alaska has. The passion and enthusiasm seems to be waning. The airline is nonetheless Leaps and Bounds better than United or American or even Southwest. The aircraft was clean and comfortable. The snacks and beverages were top-notch. The staff however seemed to be distant and indifferent. This is the opposite of Alaska where the staff is so passionate and helpful. The departure and arrival were prompt and punctual. All in all, the flight was very good. I just wish the staff seemed to be more connected and not so apathetic.

✅ Trip Verified | San Francisco to Dallas. Yesterday when I was checking in for my flight today, I decided to spring for the upgrade to the exit row. I was re-assigned seat 9D. I printed my boarding pass at home. At the gate, the agent took my boarding pass from me and handed me a different one. I didn't notice till I got on the plane that my seat had been switched to a non-exit row 7A. When I brought the discrepancy up to the flight attendant she said I had to go back to the gate agent to rectify the problem. It took a few minutes to swim upstream to get there and by that time the gate agent was coming down the gangway and he refused to help me and told me to take it up with customer service. When I went to the seat on my boarding pass 7A, there was a child sitting in the seat next to his mother who was in the middle seat. When I sat down in the aisle seat, the other passenger asked me to move to another row since there were other seats available. There were two open seats in Row 9 so I went to sit in one of those and the gate agent and flight attendant insisted I could not sit there even though I had paid for the exit row. The gate agent was incredibly nasty and threatened me that if I didn't go sit in the back of the plane he would throw me off the flight. At no time did they ask the woman who put her kid in my seat to either move or let me sit in the aisle seat. As I had an important meeting in Dallas, I did find an open seat in the back of the plane. The flight attendant was by this point thoroughly embarrassed and came back to apologize and brought me a glass of wine. She was great but I will never fly Virgin America again.

✅ Trip Verified | Los Angeles to Orlando. Not really worth the money. The first time I flew with them from Orlando there was a 2.5 hour delay without advanced notice. They stated the reason that there was a lot traffic in LAX. I wish they could have let us know earlier, not when we were at the gate. The second time I flew back from LAX. My car seat was missing and then they delivered it to my home later in the week. However, the car seat was broken when we received it. I called them to locate the missing part so that we could fix it ourselves. People that spoke to were nice but they did not do anything to help me solve the issue but told me to call different departments. Finally I was told to call central baggage which is voicemail only department. Called and left voicemail twice but never got a call back. Our car seat is for our new first baby which is designed for use up to 2 years and we could only use it for 2 months. Another thing is that I wasn’t asking them to pay or compensate, I was just asking to help find and deliver the remaining part to us so we could put the car seat together and fix it ourselves but they never contacted us to give us an answer. The ticket was $350 round trip but our car seat-strolller system cost about the same. It’s even more costly to fly with virgin America. I don’t recommend this airline.

✅ Trip Verified | Boston to San Francisco on Sunday morning, January 7, 2018. It was the worst situation and the worst customer service experience I have ever encountered. The water in the plane was frozen so our flight was delayed taking off. I was seated in the very last row of the airplane and when the repair crew was trying to defrost the water they kept the exterior door open. It was windy that morning and the outside temperature was around -6 below zero. I put on all the layers of clothing I had with me but was still completely frozen. I asked for a blanket or some sort of assistance and the flight attendant just kept saying no ma'am but the repair will be done soon. This went on for about 40-45 minutes with no resolution or even basic assistance. Every time the flight attendant walked by me visibly frozen, upset and uncomfortable he just kept repeating it will be warm soon. This is outrageously bad customer service and I recommend that no one ever make the mistake of flying Virgin America.

✅ Trip Verified | Flew Los Angeles to Fort Lauderdale with Virgin America. Air quality in cabin on both flights was very uncomfortable, it was hot and circulation was poor. The crew were less than friendly at FLL checking in and there was only one person handling the massive travellers checking in for all three rows. Our seats were very uncomfortable. Virgin is not what it used to be.

✅ Trip Verified | Seattle from San Francisco. Although there was no lounge available (Los Angeles has a lounge), the flight was better than the previous one. First Class gave us priority check-in, priority security check, priority boarding and they all saved time and came in useful. The seats were comfortable and this time, the flight attendants were extremely nice, friendly and approachable. Service was just excellent. They served food for the short 2h flight and it was delicious. Of course, a negative point of first class was the IFE being in the armrest which was inconvenient. However, the IFE was easy to use and very responsive. It also had sufficient content. Virgin America provides free messaging services and it worked well on my WhatsApp as I was able to stay in contact with my friends although it was a little slow.

✅ Trip Verified | San Francisco to Newark. Virgin America used to be my preferred airline because they used to be very good with their service, even if their price sometimes is higher than others. But this time was different, flight attendants had bad attitude, took them forever to get some water, and I was forced to paid $50 for a worthless kennel by their staff (I never had problems with my original kennel before). That kennel could barely fit my dog, My poor dog (sized small) had to sat in that little piece of junk from San Francisco to Newark. The staff even said if I don’t get their kennel then I have to wait for their next flight. If I did not have to go to work the next day I would take it to their office to make it right. However, this will be my last business with Virgin America. So good luck to whoever flying with their pet by Virgin America.

✅ Trip Verified | Palm Springs to San Francisco. The experience has gone from bad to worse and we haven’t even boarded the flight yet. Making the reservation ended up in my having to cancel what I had already booked because they wouldn’t let my small dog on that flight. So an agent in Denver assisted me in canceling that one and booking a new one. However he forgot to assign seats. When I discovered this error 2 days before the flight, I was told there were no free seats left and would have to pay $60 for premium seats. I should have fought it because it seemed like an agent error but I paid it. Then we got to the airport and paid another $100 for the bags. So for a short flight, we paid $160 just for seats and bags not including the actual flight which was around $475 including $100 for my dog. I kept getting flight status emails for the canceled flight, nothing on the new flight. Once we arrived at Palm Springs airport, the flight was to board at 4, take off at 4:42. At 4:15 and no plane at the gate, we asked the agent for an update. Then we were told there’s a mechanical problem, no plane will arrive until 5:30, take off around 6:10, an hour and a half past the scheduled time. When I expressed how horrible Virgin is, the agent agreed and said it will all be Alaska Airlines after April 2018. We finally left Palm Springs 3 hours after the scheduled flight at 7:20. Once in SF), we waited 30 mins for our bags. Worst experience in the US ever!! Oh and no free drinks, no apologies, the customer service was very sad.

✅ Trip Verified | Los Angeles to San Francisco. This trip was average, considering we had booked First Class. First Class did come in useful during check-in, security and boarding, where we were given priority. However on board, the service was like Economy Class. Other than having a wider seat and more legroom, the IFE was stowed away in the armrests and took ages for me to pull it out. We could not watch anything on it while taxiing, taking off, climbing or descending. The flight attendants were nice when talking to me, but did not smile.