Date: December 2008

Price from New York to Las Vegas: $418.50/person including taxes. This seemed like a good holiday airfare when I booked it but when the economy tanked so did ticket prices. Since we had already paid just $42.50 less then the cost of a round trip Main Cabin Select ticket, I paid the difference and upgraded us. On the way back, we were able to upgrade to First Class for an additional $150/person. If First Class is available, you can always upgrade from a regular economy ticket at the airport for $250/person.

Check-in: VA has online check-in so we printed our boarding passes and were ready to go.

Plane: The planes looked new and clean. The leather seats are the most comfortable economy seats I’ve ever sat in and the seat back TV screens were great. Premium movies, games and Wi-Fi (when available) cost extra in coach. First Class seats have a massage function though it isn’t as nice as a typical massage chair. Main Cabin Select seats are simply the exit and bulkhead rows but, in addition to more legroom, you get priority boarding, reserved overheard space and free snacks. The snacks and legroom were nice but, on one leg of the flight, boarding was a free for all and I saw non Select passengers putting their luggage in the “reserved” bins. Also, I noticed some late passengers got assigned to Main Cain Select without paying the premium fare. It’s not really worth it unless the price drops after you’ve already bought a ticket and the difference is small.

Service: Virgin America aims to build a loyal customer base by providing the best service in the industry. One of their tactics is to deliver food and drinks that you order by touch screen directly to your seat. This would be cool if it worked. Will had to order food three times before the flight attendants could see it on their screen and I noticed others having the same problem. On top of that, the staff blamed the passengers for not ordering correctly. The flight attendants also seemed to resent having to run around serving people and complained about their lack of space at the back of the plane. Now I may agree with them that serving people and having no space is annoying, but since service is VA’s selling point, they shouldn’t be complaining out loud. Once it arrived, the food was pretty good.

Verdict: Virgin America has all the tools and amenities in place to become the top U.S. airline. Their biggest problem is they don’t provide the great service they promise. Right now, I think Jetblue tops them in the service category. They are a fairly new airline and may still be working out their procedures so I would give them another try if the price was right.

Grade: B-