By Kim Voynar Voynar@moviecitynews.com
Like a Virgin
Pretty much unrelated to film, other than that a lot of people I know in this biz happen to work in NY or LA, so just thought I’d share: I flew down to LAX this morning on Virgin American, and I just have to say, it was one of the best flights I’ve ever had. The seats were incredibly comfy (and stylish black leather, even), there was ample legroom and “mood-enhancing” lighting that reminded me of the lighting in the tunnel at the Detroit airport, only more mellow and less trippy.
More importantly, every single person I dealt with at Virgin was happy, perky, and inordinately helpful and pleasant in every possible way. They had good music playing at their ticket counter, and when they announced boarding for the flight they made it into an event, with Earth, Wind and Fire seranading us down the walkway. I didn’t fly first, but the first class section looked great, and you can buy a coach ticket and then upgrade to first for $100 at the gate if there’s room (at least, that’s the rate on the Seattle-LAX flight, I’m sure it’s more if you’re flying SF to NYC.
If you have to travel a lot between NY and the west coast, Virgin is awesome. I swear, I have never seen so many happy, smiling passengers boarding an aircraft; the employees and the overall branding set the tone, and we all sat back, enjoyed our flight and marveled at all the nice touches and the spectactular service. And? No checked baggage fee, which surprised me (their site says something about the price of your ticket should include two spots, one for you and one for your checked bag.) If you travel a lot, you know what I mean — those $25 first-bag fees add up a lot when you’re on the road frequently.
It just goes to show how quickly people will acclimate to shitty service as the norm and then just expect airline travel to suck. I’ve flown United a lot, and lord, do I loathe that airline. I never use them anymore unless it’s unavoidable. This flight this morning made me realize how much I’ve come to just accept substandard quality as the status quo; Virgin is showing that it doesn’t have to be that way. I hope they’re able to sustain, grow, and add more routes over the next few years. I would absolutely fly them everywhere I go if I could.