January 20, 2008

Review: Virgin America Airlines

A few weeks ago I took a flight on Virgin America from San Francisco (SFO) to New York (JFK). I can enthusiastically say it was the best experience I've had on an airline. From the purple voodoo lounge lighting, brand new planes, comfortable seats, and the Linux based video entertainment system, this is the way it should be done.

Every seat has a nice LCD screen like Jetblue to watch TV. The system however lets you play games such as DOOM, chat in a intra-plane chat room using a small qwerty keypad that also is a gamepad remote on the reverse side, and did I mention dozens of movies and thousand of music songs on demand? You can even order drinks and snacks on the touch-screen. It really is a nerd's paradise.

The prices are exactly the same as the previous king of the hill low cost carrier, Jet Blue. Unfortunately for Virgin America, it doesn't look like many people even know they exist considering my flight was half empty and most of my friends didn't know about it either. However we must get the word out, as this airline clearly raises the bar on what is possible in this industry. The more companies like this succeed, the better it is for all of us. The only downside now is they don't fly to many cities. 9/10