Rambler headed out west for the weekend and tried out Virgin. The price is cheaper than Jet Blue and they fly into LAX vs. Burbank or John Wayne down in Orange County. For Rambler's money, LAX is one of the easiest airports to navigate in and to get to from Los Angeles.
Anyway, upon walking into the cabin you feel like you are in a disco. The crew is dressed in all back and there's electronica/dance music playing and the whole place has this pink glow to it. You almost want to find a stall, whip out your straw and have some fun.
Like Jet Blue, Virgin has televisions in every seat. You can also buy movies for seven dollars a pop or watch cable for free. There is also a pretty decent music selection. I kept listening to Bizarre Love Triangle because a) it seemed to fit the flight and b) it most definitely fit my rare ecstatic mood.
They have food but unlike other airlines, you decide when you want to eat. Just order something off the screen at anytime during the flight and they'll bring it to you. You pay, of course but I've been giving this some thought and I'm not so sure that's such a big deal to me anymore. Hell, Amtrak never gave away food, why should the airlines?
The seats are quite comfortable. Even the middle seat didn't look so bad. And the pretape with safety displays was animated and very clever vs. the same tired staid tapes we hear on every other airline. I know, safety is not meant to be fun but this tape managed to be cute and funny without taking away from the importance of the message.
Overhead storage space seems better on Virgin then other airlines. However, they don't have a coat rack at the front of the plane, which kind of sucks. Truthfully though, that's about the only major flaw I found.
I know this is more of a Consumer Reports than a typical Rambler post but hell someone has a nice product out there so why not hype it.
2 comments:
Sounds like fun. Considering your rave review, its a wonder the seemingly affable and very cherubic Sir Richard Branson did not appear with a bottle of Cognac and two tasty birds.
Glad you brought us back to earth. For a while there, it read like you were moonlighting for someone we know, writing a review of a commercial airline . . . what was that all about?
Post a Comment