Virgin America

[vansmack]

Always an early adopter, I'm taking one of the inaugural Virgin America flights from SF to LA.  Since thy are also in DC' (and I'm bored), I thought I'd provide a review.
 
 At SFO, they are located in the International Terminal, which is rarely busy, has good food, and is nice and clean.  This is a huge bonus over Southwest at OAK, especially at the same price.  Waiting for the flight, I can see that mostly young people are early adopters (or fans of Virgin) as there might be 5 people over 40 at most waiting for the flight.
 
 The staff at checkin were extra friendly - same as Virgin to Europe, which is encouraging.  Though my flight is only an hour, I'm most excited to try the 110V outlet at every seat (for the nontechies, thats just like a plug in your wall).  This will come in very handy on an SFO-DC flight.  They also claim video on demand, over 3000 mp3s, and a cashless plane where you order from your seat tied to credit card you used to purchase your flight (brilliant).
 
 The stewardesses just arrived and I'm a little disappointed that they're not as hot as the ones that fly to Europe, but they're not ugly.  Nor do they have a funny accent.
 
 One interesting thing: when picking my seat, I noticed that the emergency exit was available.  When I clicked on it, it said I could have the seat (and the extra leg room) for $15 extra.  I passed, but when I arrived at the airport, I asked the lady about it and she said that someone has to sit in that seat so she gave it to me free.  Keep that one in the back of your mind.  In addition, the first class seat is only $40 more the highest priced ticket ($120 vs. $160 one way) at least to LA.  Two weeks advance purchase is $44 for coach and $149 first class.  
 
 We're boarding now so I'll provide more after (or during if that's available) the flight.

[Venerable Bede]

how did the seat-to-seat chat work for you?
 
 btw, early adopter.  how malcolm gladwell of you.

[vansmack]

Originally posted by Venerable Bede:
  how did the seat-to-seat chat work for you?
 

I'm 15 minutes late so far so I assume you're on this flight.  Which seat # are you?
 
 I'm married and flying alone, but since you asked I'll give it a shot.  This is one of the more attractive flights I've been on....not quite the midday Friday flight from LA to Vegas (also known as the Stripper Special), but it's not bad.
 
 Hipster band t-shirts seen on the plane thus far: Interpol, Fiery Furnaces, and one bitchen Men at Work shirt circa 1983.
 
 Oh, and only one polo shirt.

[vansmack]

Mood lighting (violet) to off set the sterile white environment.  Ridiculously clean cabin, black leather seats with good leg room, with, get this a cup holder so you don't have to drop your whole tray if you only have a drink.  
 
 Free headset for standard audio jack so you can use your own headset if you'd like.  Multiple credit card readers (one in monitor and one in the remote to your monitor.  I guess its not tied the CC you used to purhase your ticket after all.

[vansmack]

Power plug, lit usb and rj45 at every seat.  The rj45 is "for future use" which means internet coming soon.  There's also a www button the remote that also says coming soon.

[Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer]

French cheese?

[PigIron]

The toilets.  How are the toilets?  Clean and sanitary?  Does the toilet paper offer luxurious softness and come as two-ply standard?  Is it scented with aloe, colored and patterned?   Is there enough room in the bathroom to relax and become comfortable or is it small with poor lighting?  Does the sink have a powerful, consistent current or is it one of those little buttons that spurts out water?  How is the ventilation?

[SalParadise]

Originally posted by vansmack:
 

not quite the midday Friday flight from LA to Vegas (also known as the Stripper Special) [/b]

that phenomenon occurs in phoenix too. sky harbor int'l airport is a lovely place to be on a friday afternoon..

[vansmack]

Well, its not going well.  We're still on the ground as there is a problem with passengers who checked in online but only half their party is here.  I'm still not sure why we can't just leave without them.
 
 When we're in the air, I'll scope out the bathrom.

[sweetcell]

smackie: no interwebs on the flight?  i guess you posted your last observations on the cabin from your phone?
 
 

Originally posted by PigIron:
  The toilets.  How are the toilets?  Clean and sanitary?  Does the toilet paper offer luxurious softness and come as two-ply standard?  Is it scented with aloe, colored and patterned?   Is there enough room in the bathroom to relax and become comfortable or is it small with poor lighting?

all i care about is bathroom size: is there enough room for two with some, uh, wiggle room?  the members of a certain club will expect a full report.  
 
 fyi, "poor lighting" = mood lighting.

[Bags]

I am thoroughly enjoying this real time review!!!

[nkotb]

Why do I have a feeling none of us geeks have joined this club and will never need to know this information?
 
   

Originally posted by sweetcell:
 all i care about is bathroom size: is there enough room for two with some, uh, wiggle room?  the members of a certain club will expect a full report.

[sweetcell]

speak for yourself.
 
 i think i remember seeing smackie at the last annual meeting...

[vansmack]

No inflight interwebs, I was inded posting from a parked cabin.
 
 The in-flight entertainment system was nothing short of a disaster.  The satellite TV (Dish Network) was picking up every transponder so the channel selection was poor.  The MP3s were not loading at all, but it looked like they had a lot of choices from a good mix of over 100 artists.  I certainly wasnt going to pay $8 for a movie when my flight was under an hour.  There were 10 free movies, none of which were made post 1990.  Even the music videos were a disaster - the pictured didnt line up with the words so you had to choose by picture, which were not always obvious if you haven't seen the video.  And I couldnt find Sweet Escape so I was doubly bitter.  I turned off the system 20 minutes in.
 
 The food ordering system was not operational.  They serve Coke products which means no Mountain Dew.  The credit card readers werent working either so my beer was on the house.
 
 The bathrooms were very clean, but not any bigger than usual and the water flow is the usual wide spray with little pressure.  There were plenty of paper products and the TP was average - not soft, but not sandpaper either.  The tissues were soft though -  I recommend using those.
 
 The luggage was delivered very fast tough.
 
 Bottomline: a lot of potential but no where near ready for primetime.  They did credit everybody with $25 n their Virgin account without prompting which was a nice gesture.

[vansmack]

Almost forgot:: the chatting.
 
 So there's seat to seat, open rooms, and theme rooms based watching TV (assuming it worked).
 
 The seat to seat was a bust my first two attempts at randomly chosen females, but when I pretended I was a reporter reviewing the features of the plane, one girl was more than willing to chat with me.  I did ask the first girl who shot me down while we were waiting for our luggage.  She apologized and said she didnt know what was going on.  Yeah right. I was intrigued by an extremely attractive female reading National Geographic, whats wrong with that?
 
 The business room was quite busy, but I don't see the chat being used for anything more than hooking up.