Virgin America

✅ Verified Review | New York to San Francisco. They sold my booked seat to other booked seat three months ahead. Their website showed my flight on second day was cancelled because of a storm. According to weather broadcast, second day would be a sunny day and the morning flights were on time. It was weird. I had to spend 5 hours to call and re-booked my seat in New jersey in other day. The most ironic part is that their website showed actual take-off time and landing time for that "cancelled" flight a day later. It was not cancelled. Most likely they sold my seat to other passenger. I found it could cost 3-5 times more in that day when I searched alternative. Because of the cancellation, I missed my school and three appointments. Virgin America explanation was cancellation due to delay in the airport. How can they know delay 24 hours ahead to cancel the flight?

✅ Verified Review | First return flight with Virgin America from New York JFK to San Francisco. Announced delay of 1:30hrs due the weather but the weather at SFO is 10mph wind with rain and other flights are taking off to there. When I gently asked the ground staff what's the issue and to tell me about the weather impact on our flight schedule she was unpleasant not willing to talk about the topic. This gives me the feeling that this company is not honest with passengers.

✅ Verified Review | San Francisco to Denver. Very disappointed customer. I've been a huge champion of the Virgin American brand up to this point. My entire experience checking into this flight was miserable. It started when I tried to check into my flight online but wasn't able to. After an hour long chat with customer service I was told that there was nothing they could do for me and that I could check in at the airport, no problem. So I get to the airport 2 hours early and proceed to self check in. I enter my confirmation code and the screen tells me that there is no matching customer reservation. So I call Virgin customer service and they are no help. They tell me to go to the Alaska terminal because that is where my flight was originally booked. So I start the process to head to the international terminal. I'm freaking out at this point that I may miss the flight. I decide to call Alaska customer service before making the trek to the other terminal. The customer service for Alaska was very helpful and the one saving grace of this experience. They told me to go back to the Virgin terminal and try the self check in again. Still no luck. Then they tell me to find a Rep. The Rep who was manning the lines was terrible and unfriendly. She told me I needed to wait in the full check-in line. The line took 40 minutes and it was only 15 people long. Finally I get to the counter and the rep prints my boarding pass no problem. 2 hours later and I'm just making it into the flight. What a terrible experience! Virgin and Alaska need to figure this merger out asap. This is terrible.

✅ Verified Review | First time flight on Virgin America, from Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles. Buckled up, waiting on tarmac and the pilot announces there is not enough fuel to reach our nonstop destination (Los Angeles) due to the expectation of strong headwinds; he states we will probably have to stop in Las Vegas for refueling. I never heard this type of announcement before and it was kind of creepy. If amount of fuel was a concern, why couldn't that have been addressed while at Fort Lauderdale prior to take-off. Though I am an Alaska Airlines fan and knowing that they just purchased Virgin America, not sure if I will fly Virgin America again. It ended up we were able to bypass Las Vegas with pilot announcing our fuel safety margin was OK and we went on to LAX. Still, I think that creepy announcement gave me a bit of angst during the flight that I could have done without!

✅ Verified Review | Boston to San Francisco. I've lived in northern CA for two years now but am originally from MA, so whenever I go home I get a redeye from SFO and a day time return trip. My flight from SFO has never had a problem - we leave on time and the plane is usually some what empty. That said, I have never gotten out of Boston with out a problem. The last time I took this flight they forgot to load water on to the plane and during the time they took to load water an ice storm came and they left us sitting on the tarmac for hours. Today we were delayed, but there was nothing indicating why, or even that we were delayed period. When I tried to change my ticket the captain came out to announce that the flight would take off, and even though we were now going to arrive in SFO after all public transit was closed and the bus I was scheduled to take to Sonoma county will be gone. I couldn't change my ticket without incurring a 150 dollar charge. While the staff was apologetic they were incredibly unhelpful, one member literally had a tantrum while I was talking to her partner. Virgin has done nothing to earn my patronage and I suspect they will do little to earn yours.

✅ Verified Review | Flew from San Francisco to Boston. I use to love Virgin but now two flights in a row I have sat on the tarmac while they fixed an issue with the plane. Twice now with well over an hour delay in a row for an airline I use to consider reliable. The worst part was the complete lack of information. The employees ran for whatever hidden cover they could to avoid questions. The captain came on just to give a 15min update of we aren't moving yet and they are working on it because in his words, "he was required to by law" as if the law wasn't there he wouldn't care. The lack of communication is dumbfounding for an airline who use to pride themselves on customer service and quality. The least they could do is give us a free movie for the delay but they didn't last flight that had a 2 hr delay and I have no faith this one will either if we ever get off the ground that is. Should have stuck with Southwest. They are bare bones but at least they seem to care.

The flight San Francisco to Los Angeles was delayed while we waited for crew to turn up for work for nearly an hour. This cost me my connecting flight. They accepted no responsibility as my connecting flight was not booked through Virgin America, but Virgin Australia. I then had to pay for another ticket to continue my journey back to Australia. The staff member was smug and and would offer no assistance to my predicament. When I arrived at LAX, Virgin America had then lost my luggage. After waiting around I finally hurried a lost luggage report that took so long I was in jeopardy of missing my newly booked flight. I had to argue with the attendant as he would not accept the fact that my phone number was an overseas number. He was adamant that I needed to provide an American phone number(?), which of course I could not provide, as I live in Australia. We agreed on my email address. After arriving back in Australia I did receive an email saying that they had found my luggage and it was ready to be picked up.I replied that this was impossible and how was I to get the luggage and would it be couriered to my house. Their reply was that it was "a courtesy" that they would place it on a plane back to Australia, giving me a ticket and flight number.

✅ Verified Review | New York JFK to San Francisco. We boarded on time and after seated were told that strong headwinds meant the plane did not have enough fuel to fly direct to San Francisco, so we have to fly to Salt Lake City instead. Then we spent about an hour on the ground before departing for Salt Lake City. Inflight food ordering system showed limited availability of snacks and no special cocktails. I have not flown Virgin America for years so not sure how long ago they discontinued that gimmick. Cabin crew seemed on edge. Flight landed at Salt Lake City, refueled, waited, then departed for SFO and arrived more than 2 hours late - at 12:30 am. Cabin crew distributed what was left of beverages on second leg of flight. Passengers were worn out and irritated. No offer was provided. Aircraft on this route and leg from SFO-JFK were worn out and no longer look modern.

San Francisco to Boston. I am not reviewing Virgin America's flight or aircraft, I am reviewing the customer service leading up to my flight. I have called 6 times to try and find someone on the other end of the line that could help me. I am now on my 6th call and have been on hold 45 minutes! I recently saw Richard Branson speak at LinkedIn's Talent Connect and I thought, "I am going to book my next flight on Virgin America!" what a mess. Richard, there are a ton of people out there that want to give 150% to their employers, and 5 of the 6 individuals that I spoke to representing your airline have been rude, unhelpful and left a very bad customer experience with me.

✅ Verified Review | Flew from New York to San Francisco. 3 hour delay without a proper heads up. It's clear that Virgin America lacks adequate gate access and packs way too many airplanes to the few gates they have which causes significant delays. Staff are decently trained but 3 hour delay still is not acceptable.