Virgin America
How come I can go from San Francisco to London
with food and and a private entertainment system for $400 while San Francisco to
Seattle costs me $300 and has no amenities at all?
Virgin America is Sir Richard Branson and the Virgin Group’s second attempt to enter the US domestic airline market, and as a devoted Virgin Atlantic traveler I have been eagerly following their progress to approval. Every time I fly a domestic US carrier I feel miserable. How come I can go from San Francisco to London with food and and a private entertainment system for $400 while San Francisco to Seattle costs me $300 and has no amenities at all? Hopefully that is about to change.
The entertainment system aboard is the highlight. Every seat is equipped with an in-flight entertainment device (IFE). Developed internally at Virgin America, the system is named Red and provides live satellite tv, movies, mp3s, games and plane-wide chatting. Yes, chatting. There is a general chatroom, a private invite channel for your friends, and direct user-to-user messaging. When watching television, you have the option to chat with everyone who is watching the same event. Talk about a brand new way to find someone to enter the mile high club with.
Every seat includes 110v power, ethernet jack and USB ports. The USB ports are handy for charging your iPod or Blackberry, but you can also plug in a keyboard to use with the IFE…For example, you order food and drinks from the IFE, and the crew will bring it to you…Finally, the IFE has Doom on it, I don’t know if it is multiplayer or not.
Since Homeland Insecurity was made Waffenfuehrer of domestic air travel, I have only traveled in my 13-year-old pickup truck. These guys could tempt me.
Posted: Fri - August 3, 2007 at 06:36 AM