My New York trip was my introduction to the all new Virgin America, Richard Branson’s long awaited debut in the continental US. I’m a big fan of the Virgin Atlantic experience and was eager to witness the virgin touch in a market that pretty much is owned by Jet Blue with their satellite tv equipped airbus and for purchase meals. We took the red eye from SF, and of course tried to book at least one of the 8 first class seats which is pretty much impossible thanks to serial advanced bookings by die hard commuters. Pretty sure those seats are booked solid on all the ‘popular’ flights. But I really wanted to get a good comparison to Jet Blue, nothing like the overnight to the east coast for my maiden voyage.
A major problem I quickly discovered is that this airline is a completely separate company from Virgin Atlantic, so no possibility to earn miles on my existing flying club membership, and none of the usual pandering I receive for being a top customer. That said, the cabin crew is equally charming and humourous as their UK ‘colleagues’, the US outfits are definitely sexier.
The cabin design and mood lighting has the virgin flair I’m accustomed to and once they get all the kinks worked out of their In Flight Entertainment system, it’ll be a decent experience. The channel selection is inferior to JB’s, but the seat to seat chat feature and online ordering of ‘food’ and beverages was pretty efficient. The snack and meal choices are lame and inconsistent, I ordered the same cheese box on both legs of the trip, even got different utensils as well as contents.
I have no way to measure the pitch and recline angles and distances of the seats, but it was completely incompatible with my 6′3″ frame and I cannot recall the last time I had such an uncomfortable flight, JB is definitely a superior ride and unlike VA, they had enough pillows and blankets on the overnight trip for all passengers. VA is still waiting for proper ‘provisioning’ of sleep stuff.
This alone is a deal breaker for me, but I was completely horrified to be denied entry to the Virgin Atlantic clubhouse before departing NY, despite my gold member status with triple stars. This reflects bad on the international company, they should be blowing me regardless of when or why I want to sit in the clubhouse for the amount I spend on them. They haven’t heard the last of that, but to say, ‘we are separate companies and cannot recognize you as a customer here‘ goes against everything the Virgin brand stands for. I am afraid I rate the Virgin America service far below what I expect from the brand, and will choose Jet Blue on future trips of this nature.
One final point about my trip. TSA, the department of homeland security that is responsible for keeping the illusion that they will thwart terrorists from boarding aircraft with malicious intent or dangerous weapons….
These people are out of control power hungry fucktards. Fuck you for taking my toiletries, fuck you for your power hungry attitude, fuck you for you inconsistency. If you are really the last line of defense against a terror attack on a plane then we are all truly fucked. I hate you so much, you are ineffective, and useless. At least before 911 when the exact same people were doing this job and you weren’t government employees, you still were incompetent but without the attitude. Stop taking my personal and completely harmless possessions and destroying them in front of me because I didn’t pack it in a fucking glad-bag or the container exceeds approved size. As if I’m going to bring down this overhyped moodlit flying turd with a lethal combination of Listerine, gel, moisturizer and shaving cream. Makes total sense that lighters are back on the ok-to-carry aboard list. One more time, fuck you.
I’m sensing a little hostility to the TSA.
I am currently sitting in a presentation on Wiki Brands, reading your post.
Clearly a good example of how not to treat potential evangelists of one’s wiki brand…
3..2..1.. breath out… and relax
I got back tuesday night from an economy flight (GB Airways – cheapo wing of British Airways) from Tenerife. You know nothing of discomfort. Mind you it’s better than the package holiday cattle-class I’ve used before.
HI Adam, glad to see airport security is universally fucked. Here downunder I fly weekly and if I go through security in Melbourne or Sydney I have no problems with my shoes. Go to some bum fuck state airport like Hobart or Gold Coast and every fucking time I have to take the shoes off, WTF, they must turn up the gain on the detector or some shit in these shite holes.
Cheers
Darrin, Melbourne Australia
What a fantastic rant!
Quoting from a Robin Hood movie, “Something vexes thee….?”
The whole TSA thing is just downright depressing if you think about it. The amount of time and money that is wasted with the whole exercise. It goes to show you what the feds are capable of when they really want to get something done. Can you imagine if they put the same amount of effort and money into something that’s actually useful?
Thanx for the the vertically-endowed review of Virgin America Adam. I feel as though you took one for the team by flying with them.
[...] Adam Curry had an interesting post on his travel experiences recently, especially with his TSA experience. I’ve had some interesting experiences with the TSA, and I generally assume I’ll take half an hour to get through security these days. [...]
I think your biggest issue here Adam is that you aren’t letting your true feelings and emotions out.
Quit holding back, tell us how you REALLY feel….
Im 6′5″ and I can NEVER fly on ANY flight I’ve ever tried, whether its first class or ploebian seating. It HAS to be exit row or nothing. So I don’t know how you manage to to sit well on any flight.
I agree about TSA too…its a bunch of shit. God forbid you may need to brush your teeth.
Adam,
You’re a Prima Donna.
* yes, the TSA rules are stupid and won’t stop a determined terrorist, but they are the rules.
* poor baby, your VS status won’t work on VA. Stop wasting the podshow VC money and start flying coach!
I don’t know if my previous comment took:
1. Get Angry
2. Become Aware, Informed
3. Organize, Communicate
4. Focus on Achieving Justice
http://pbgiltner.blogspot.com
http://911truth.podshow.com
Dude! Tell me you wrote this whole thing yourself and Ricky Gervais or Larry David didn’t have hand in it. It is so funny (because it’s true of course) because you are civil and very underplayed until that last paragraph of pure spleen venting venom. w00t! Right on brother, speak truth to power. Truth to Power. Someone should do a song parody of 911 is a joke, but subsitute all the TSA BS into the song too. That would about sum up my feeling toward TSA in my mid-sized market airport.
Doe ff lekker normaal zeg… Even los van het feit over het nut van de aldaar geldende regelgeving is het in elk geval je medemens die daar zijn werk staat te doen.
Please read and learn:
Tags: CIA, FBI, MI5, MI6, Mosques, Tablighi Jamaat, Western Elite, Western Propaganda
A Tool of Western “Intelligence / Propaganda Agencies” Serving the Elite
You are such a diva. get over yourself a do a DSC – I’m unsubscribing if there’s nothing new by Monday.
They don’t destroy your shit, at the end of the night there’s a free-for-all in that discard bin, expensive perfumes, wine, beautiful lighters, all kinds of booty that airport staff pounce upon like jackals on a baby animal. I know, I have a friend who works the counter of an airline and they do just that late at night.
Gee, Adam. Tell us how you really feel!
Sorry you had a lousy flight… glad it was at least safe… free of listerine and hair spray!
I sympathise so much with your discomfort when flying. I’m only 5.8″ and travel mostly by charter throughout Europe and by the time I arrive at my destination I am completely wrecked by trying to squeeze into the tiny seat space UK charter companies allow. Plus usually the person in front always puts their seat into recline mode reducing my personal space even more. (Why dont’ charter companies ban the reclining of seat backs when they impose such tiny spaces). If you try and read a newspaper you will dislocate your elbows and God forbid you drop something to the floor! Add to that the enormous queues to check in and flying becomes a complete bloody nightmare!!
@Rob: no need to unsubscribe, you are officially barred from listening!
AC, I just completely enjoyed reading your comment about the TSA, because you hit the nail on the head! That is exactly what they are, not to mention fucking useless, although I do believe you covered that as well.
After a recent and mostly enjoyable trip to the US, they certainly managed to lower my opinion about how things are run over there. Although the UK comes a close second as far as airport security goes. As a result, I have vowed never to fly in the US or UK unless I can help it. Voting with my feet, as it were.
Oh and in the US, they were about to take my stuff away. I happened to have a jiffy bag with me, so I took it out of my pocket and put my items in it. Now suddenly what I was carrying was “safe”. What a complete and utter joke the TSA are.
Terrorists everywhere must be celebrating. After all, was it not Bin Laden’s goal to inconvenience us in the west? Looks like the terrorists are succeeding, I for one have been inconvenienced!
Matt,
Cut the bin Laden crap. He had very little to do with what happened on 9/11/2001.
Excellent rant ! I’m 6″2, and have the same trouble on most airlines. They’re bus services without the option to get some fresh air every once in a while… And I know it sounds elitist, but some of the people that are able to fly these days thanks to low-cost airlines… jeez ! I’m not looking forward to the TSA experience every time I fly to the US either… It’s a huge waste of money and effort, and it’s hardly effective… Stopping toiletries from boarding, that is one that’s gonna stop a serious terrorist… Dude, George has really managed to turn many things to shit in a short while… Hope whoever is next can repair some of the damage…
Bummer about the Virgin America experience. A brand’s a brand, and there should be reciprocity. Heck, my Northwest WorldClub member card gets me into Continental and Delta clubs. So Virgin America and Virgin Atlantic should at least have that much.
About TSA. I’m in the middle of 10 weeks on the road. Hey, we’re all rats in a cage, alright? I’m just trying to do my job, the counter people are trying to do theirs, the TSA inspectors on the line are just trying to do theirs. Say what you want about how wasteful the bureaucracy is, how stupid the procedures are, how asinine it is to take off the shoes and the computer out of the bag, and I will agree with all of it. But I’ve had at least 400 passages through checkpoints, and I can count the number of negative experiences I’ve had on one hand. You know what the rules are, you follow them, you smile at the screener as you show her your boarding pass for the third time. And they just might smile back. Try it sometime.
Then you can write your Congress critter about how fucked up it all is.
bgiltner, so who was responsible for 9/11 do you think?
Really Adam. You sound like a conspiracy theorist now. It sounds like you have bought in to the LIE that the federal government has something to do with 911. I guess you also believe that they are doing nothing about immigration because it apart of the Communist Manifesto, or that Hiltler called is country the homeland too. NO I am not blind. But we could point to happening in the world and call it a conspiracy. And the TSA. Really you are going to complain because in England they found evidence that terrorist were going make a liquid explosive. Seriously, you aren’t better than everyone else. And they have signs everywhere that tell you what not to bring. Your fault that you didn’t follow rules. You aren’t above the law.
Bummed to hear about Virgin America, was hoping to get a break from rude FA’s and processed cheese crackers. Has anyone sampled 1st class?
Adam:
I just laffed so hard I cried.
Kenster
I agree with DMO, the British are little better when it comes to airport security. Though the US is the worst country as far as security that I have travelled to, the UK comes second from my own personal experience.
And I blame Tony Blare for the whole liquid explosive scam.
I suppose I can now say that yes, I personally have now been affected by terrorism.
So, in short – you were unhappy because Virgin America is a separate company that served you different utensils for your snack and didn’t have a pillow?
Hey, Guy -
You’re right on about Virgin America. Just got off First Class to SFO from JFK and back and everything is as you say and more! The brand will definitely suffer from this branch of the tree.
Not only did they deny me access to the lounge as well, but I noticed even more problems tha n you!
Not a single coat hanger on the entire plane for instance – first OR coach. Everything gets folded up and into the overhead – no exceptions.
No amenity kit AT ALL for First Class – nothing, nada, niente, and nunca.
Altogether a pretty poor experience. And you’re right. You could NEVER get the advertised $149.00 First fare (perhaps unless you’re Branson hisself)
Try and match with a major carrier and you’ll probably get around the fare you wind up paying and get twice the service.
http://nudekimkardashi.blog.drecom.jp
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