A few minutes with Richard Branson
Last week, Virgin America launched new nonstops between San Francisco and Palm Springs (one daily in each direction; $180 round trip).
As usual, the swashbuckling Brit billionaire Sir Richard Branson showed up from the other side of the world to lead the celebration for the new service.
The fete included free cosmopolitans for everyone at SFO’s new Terminal 2, speeches by dignitaries, paparazzi and a troupe of crooning Rat Pack lookalikes as passengers waited to board. Plus, there was the obligatory ribbon cutting with Palm Springs mayor Steve Pougnet. (SEE PHOTOS BELOW)
After the short flight south, an 8-foot wide red carpet welcomed passengers at Palm Springs International– and led to a catered party at the terminal including a full bar and thumping DJ for the enjoyment of all.
In the midst of all this, I was able to snag a few minutes with Branson in seats 1A and 1B on the flight to Palm Springs.
He told me that his spin through SF was actually at the tail end of a weeklong business trip that made my eyes crusty with jet lag…
He started from home base in London and flew to Nairobi, Kenya for a conference about overcoming barriers to business success in Africa. Then it was on to Johannesburg, South Africa to promote his new book “Screw Business As Usual” and to open one of his new Virgin Active gyms.
From there he jetted up to Israel to promote his new space travel venture, Virgin Galactic.
From Israel he buzzed over to Portugal to investigate the country’s decriminalization of personal possession of drugs– “It is time to end the war on drugs worldwide. We must stop criminalising drug users,” he says on his blog.
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After Portugal, there was quick stop back in the UK before flying to San Francisco for the Palm Springs launch plus an appearance at an environmental conference with Governor Jerry Brown out at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park.
As soon as Branson got off the plane in Palm Springs, he made some witty remarks on the tarmac and cuddled with a couple leggy flight attendants (our arrival in Palm Springs was surprisingly wintry). Then it was off to a waiting helicopter that sped him to LA where he filmed a television commercial with Nike that evening.
After that, he told me he was headed to Necker Island, his private Caribbean island, to celebrate his 29-year-old daughter Holly’s wedding, “under the stars on the ruins of the main house, where I was married many years ago.” (The house was destroyed earlier this year by a fire caused by lightening.)
During his 24 hours in San Francisco, Branson told me he bedded down at the posh St Regis (“lovely Christmas decorations in the lobby; that hotel does on the ground what Virgin does in the air,” he said.). He also said he had an excellent, fresh lunch next to the fireplace at the super-hot Cotogna in SOMA (reportedly with financier Dick Blum, spouse of Senator Dianne Feinstein).
Just before our chat, Branson had walked the length of the A320, shaking hands, flashing his big toothy smile back at the cameras, and chatting with the media and astonished passengers—he was totally “on.”
But after hearing him describe his business trip and brutal itinerary leading up to this flight, I had to ask, “How do you deal with all this…the cameras, the conferences, the jet lag?”
“Well, I drink lots of water, avoid alcohol and occasionally take melatonin or a sleeping pill to help get some rest.”
And then, looking wearily and longingly toward the front of the plane he said, “And sometimes I sneak into the lavatory for about three minutes just to be alone.”
Richard Branson, Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet and SFO chief John Martin cut the ribbon (Photo courtesy: Joe Enos)
A red carpet welcome under wintry skies at Palm Springs International
Virgin America’s Puerto Vallarta fiesta flight (photos)
Last Friday Virgin America inaugurated new nonstop service between SFO and Puerto Vallarta. Below are photos from the kick off fiesta at the airport, and from the carrier’s first flight down to PVR on which The BAT was invited. To celebrate, Virgin’s offering sale fares as low as $316 round trip for travel through March if you book by Dec 5.
Arriving for the 9:30 am departure SFO-Puerto Vallarta
A little holiday spirit in the air
Media credentials for the event
At the gate in T2
Free Mexican breakfast buffet for all passengers (that's our plane in the background)
Mariachis on hand to serenade passengers
Yes, there were frozen margaritas for the morning departure
Ribbon cutting by Virgin VP Ross Bonanno
Adios SF! We are headed south for the 3.5 hour flight
Tequila con Chocolate served in flight
The mariachis flew down with us...and serenaded us
Puerto Vallarta Airport shows Virgin America their love with water cannon salute
Paying up pays off for holiday trips
Why wait in a long holiday taxi queue? Reserve a car instead! (Photo: Enrico Salad / Flickr)
As the peak holiday travel season approaches, everyone’s looking for a deal or a steal. But the truth of the matter is that bargains are difficult to come by during the Thanksgiving and Christmas peak travel season.
And if you snag what you think is a bargain, you might end of “getting what you pay for.”
As a matter of fact, paying a little more at this time of year usually translates into more peace of mind, more quality time with friends or family, and the increased likelihood of a low-hassle trip home for the holidays…. which is what we all want.
Here are six examples to illustrate what I mean:
1> Take a nonstop flight. While you might be tempted by the price of a one-stop flight, by choosing one, you are increasing your chances of a delay or cancellation by 100%! Why take that chance, especially if you are headed home for just a few days, and a delayed or canceled flight could spoil the entire trip?
Cost: $50 to $200 depending on flight length
Example: Flying during peak Christmas week between San Francisco and Atlanta, you’ll pay $660 for a six-hour one-stop journey on Frontier connecting in Denver. On the other hand, fly four hours nonstop on Delta or AirTran and the fare is $730– $70 more. Worth it to fly nonstop? I think so. (Fares checked Nov 13 for flights departing Dec 23, returning Dec 27 and are subject to change.)
2> Book your trip via a real, live travel agent. Most budget-conscious travelers shy away from travel agents who charge fees. But as the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) likes to say, “Without a travel agent, you’re on your own.” Most travel agents can use their experience, connections and clout to help get you out of sticky situations, plus they’ve got knowledge and experience to offer you the best alternatives when or if you get stuck.
Cost: $20-$50 or negotiable
Example: ASTA’s motto surely rang true last year when a monster storm blew up the East Coast on Christmas day, stranding travelers across the country. Most of those who booked trips via travel agents were able to get through to them by phone and adjust travel plans faster than those who only had airline 800-numbers. (Note: Be sure the travel agent you choose has an after hours emergency number.)
Rooms dip as low as $80 over Xmas at a brand new Best Western near Dallas, TX
3> Stay at a hotel. Why burden the in-laws with the stress of houseguests during the already stressful holidays? Instead of bunking on that lumpy sofa bed or stuffy guest room, book a nearby hotel. Tip: Due to lack of demand from business travelers, most hotels are dirt-cheap during the holidays, especially those located in suburban office parks. Travel expert John DiScala, who edits the popular johnnyjet.com website suggests that the holidays are a great time to consider redeeming loyalty points for nicer hotel digs, saying, “For example, Hilton HHonors points can also now be used to upgrade an existing reservation to a premium room or suite at hotels worldwide, with no blackout dates.”
Cost: $50 to $100 per night, depending on location.
Example: A nice, newish Hilton Garden Inn in the northern Atlanta suburbs costs only $67 per night during Christmas week—but book it two weeks later when business travelers are back on the road and you’ll pay nearly twice that much– $127.
4> Review your charge card benefits. Most banks have added a slew of new benefits to charge cards in recent years to woo free-spending, credit-worthy frequent travelers, so you might be packing more power in your pocket than you know. While annual fees are higher for such cards, many now offer benefits that come in handy for holiday travel such as waived baggage fees, access to airport lounges, early boarding privileges, early check in/late check out or upgrades at hotels, concierge services and more.
Cost: $100-$500/year
Example: While the American Express Platinum card sounds expensive at $450/year, the benefits can pay off big time when it comes to peak travel season. For example, the card gets you out of the airport holiday mayhem and into 600 airport lounges (gratis) around the world, covers up to $200 airline fees from checked bags to in-flight food or cocktails, and Global Entry membership, which gets you to the front of the line US Customs and Immigration. For a $95 fee, the new Chase/United Explorer card offers early boarding, one free checked bag, and two United Club passes. Many high-end cards also offer concierge services that can help get you out of travel jams—worth a call if you get stuck!
5> Book roomier airline seats. While you can always pay a lot more to sit in first class, you can now pay a little bit more, and get a more comfortable coach seat. During the busy, crowded holidays, that’s money well spent. While getting a few extra inches of room always helps, the real benefit of paying for a better economy seat is that you usually get to board early—with elite level flyers—which means you get first dibs on scarce overhead bin space.
Cost: Varies based on carrier and flight duration– $10-$100 per segment
Example: I frequently take advantage of last minute upgrades to Virgin America’s Main Cabin Select seats, which offer a few extra inches of legroom at exit rows and bulkheads, free in-flight food and booze, and early boarding privileges. While reserving a Main Cabin Select seat in advance can be expensive, cheaper last-minute upgrades (24 hours prior to flight) can make a good flight a great one. Delta recently added roomier “Economy Comfort” seating on transcon flights between SFO and New York City.
6> Hire a car service to/from the airport. There are lots of reasons why you should use a car service for a ride to or from the airport during the holidays. First, don’t burden friends or family with the chore of driving to the airport during rush hour traffic to pick you up or drop you off. Second, when arriving, you walk straight to your waiting car instead of waiting in those long, cold taxi queues at airports that form during peak holiday season.
Cost: 10%-20% more than cab fare
Example: Last month I was greeted by a taxicab queue at SFO at least 100 people deep after returning from a 15-hour flight from Dubai. Wish I had booked a car service! In New York, I always use the economical Dial 7 car service (212-777-7777) which costs $5 or $10 more than a cab, but offers a comfortable sedan ride to/from Manhattan versus the tight squeeze, bumpy ride, and possible wait for a NYC Taxi.
Where are YOU headed for the holidays? Please leave your comments below.
Clever Virgin America campaign: Twin-tested
You may have missed this Virgin American video campaign if you’ve not been to Dallas recently… but it’s clever enough to share here in SF— especially if you are into twins.
The videos are part of a Virgin campaign in Dallas–Fort Worth that invites local travelers to determine the “best of two airlines.” In the videos, three sets of twins are sent on trips…one twin on Virgin America, the other on “the competition.” After the flight, the twins compare their experiences– with, I might add, predictable results considering this is a Virgin campaign. Nonetheless, it’s fun to watch!
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(Chris McGinnis publishes The BAT and The TICKET blogs for frequent travelers.)
Using American Express points on Virgin America
Good news for folks with big stashes of American Express Membership Rewards who like to fly Virgin America: You can now convert Membership Rewards points into Virgin Elevate points to redeem online for any unsold seat on any Virgin flight, without blackouts or restrictions. Bad news is the conversion rate: 200 Membership Rewards points convert to just 100 Elevate points.
Virgin’s Elevate program is based on a “points per dollar” system, so the number of points needed to redeem for award travel vary based on price and seat availability. Virgin provided the following example in its news release: ”…a flyer booking a roundtrip ticket from New York to L.A. with Virgin America at a cost of about $320, could redeem that flight for 15,399 Elevate points, equivalent to 30,798 Membership Rewards points, which is comparable to other airline programs that would require up to 50,000 miles.”
To be fair, I should point out that most other airline programs offer domestic award roundtrips for as few as 25,000 miles– but it’s getting increasingly difficult to find awards at that level.
Nonetheless, the new partnership is getting panned by bloggers who cover the points and miles game:
The Points Guy posted:
“…unfortunately the ratio is 100 Elevate = 200 Amex, so a disappointing 2:1 ratio. This is not a great deal because Elevate is a fixed value loyalty program, which mean you can redeem points for any flight and they are worth between 1.6 and 2.1 cents each towards airfare. So if you transfer Amex to Virgin America, you are valuing your Amex points at .8 and 1.05 cents a piece, which is very low. I conservatively value mine at 2 cents a piece and you can purchase points directly from Amex for 2.5 cents.”
Wandering Aramean said:
“The only slightly reasonable explanation for why one would transfer AmEx points into Elevate at these rates is if you’ve got almost enough for a reasonably high-value award already and you just need to top off the account. Otherwise it is quite a bad deal.”
However, Virgin America’s Patricia Condon begs to differ:
“We actually think this is a very rich reward program – given that Elevate points provide a much higher value than miles on a typical legacy airline program. You aren’t comparing apples to apples – as Elevate rewards apply in every cabin and fare class – with no blackout dates or restrictions. The value of our points are consistently worth twice as much (and sometimes more) than many legacy frequent flyer programs, given the reality of legacy airline redemption restrictions.” She also provided the following chart to help explain:
So what do you think, folks? Would you convert your Amex points into Virgin Elevate points…or not?
Virgin America adds SFO-Palm Springs flights
Buzzing Palm Springs (Photo: JoeinSouthernCA / Flickr)
This just in…
San Francisco – September 20, 2011 – Virgin America is bringing its stylish, low-fare service to Palm Springs International Airport (PSP) as of December 15, 2011: with tickets on sale now for its new nonstop seasonal flights from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to PSP. Known for its reputation as “Hollywood’s Playground,” an enviable desert climate, world-class resorts and golfing, shopping, special events and modern and mid-century architecture, PSP will be the sixteenth destination in the award-winning airline’s growing network. As the only California-based airline, Virgin America will bring its unique brand of low-fare competition to the PSP market with a seasonal daily flight schedule operating from December 15, 2011-April 30, 2012. Virgin America will offer daily nonstop intra-California flights from SFO to PSP and daily same-plane through-flights from New York to PSP. To mark its expansion to the ultimate winter getaway, today the carrier also launches a “Get Some Playtime” fare sale with SFO-PSP roundtrip fares as low as $219 round trip.
Virgin America adds SFO-Puerto Vallarta
Puerto Vallarta (Photo: HBarrison / Flickr)Virgin America officially announced new service between SFO and Puerto Vallarta (PVR), Mexico starting December 2. Virgin joins United and Alaska Airlines as the third provider of nonstop flights to the popular beach town.
Three carriers on one route? That means lots of competition and lower fares. Ole to that! But still, I would not put fares in the “cheap” category yet.
Virgin’s lowest introductory fare of $258 round trip expands to $368.02 when you add in taxes and fees. And if you are thinking about buzzing down for the super-popular Christmas week in December, fares now stand at $800+ round trip on all three carriers offering nonstops from SFO.
Starting December 2, Virgin will fly down from SFO at 9:30 am and return from PVR at 4:10 pm. (No flights on Mondays or Thursdays.) Flight duration is about 3.5 hours.
“Ultra low cost” carrier arrives in Bay Area
Spirit Airlines route mapSpirit Airlines, which bills itself as “the ultra low cost carrier,” quietly entered the Bay Area this week, with four daily nonstops between Oakland and Las Vegas.
From Vegas, fliers can fly nonstop to its main hub at Ft Lauderdale– and from there connecting to points in Latin America and Caribbean.
Spirit also offers nonstops from Vegas to Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago-O’Hare, Dallas-Ft Worth and San Diego.
While I would normally get excited about new flights from the Bay, I’m filled with trepidation instead. Why? Spirit has a very strong “you-get-what-you-pay-for” reputation. (Disclosure: I have not flown Spirit yet. This is what I’ve heard anecdotally, online review sites and from media reports.)
A quick scan of Spirit’s OAK-LAS fares shows some good deals, but with some caveats. (Note Spirit fares do not show up on travel search engines…you must shop at spirit.com)
During September and October, Spirit is promoting $9 each way, $18 round trips between Oakland and Las Vegas. Sounds great, but you have to pay a $60 fee to join its “club” to get that fare.
Don’t want to join? Then the base fare jumps to $22 round trip.
But that’s not what you pay. In addition, you will pay Spirit’s unique “passenger usage fee” of $16 per round trip, plus the usual federal taxes, so the round trip ends up at $59.40. (This fee covers the cost of Spirit maintaining its web site, so the only way to avoid this fee is to go to Oakland and buy your tickets at the airport.)
But wait, it does not stop there.
If you carry on a bag, you’ll pay an additional $30 each way, making the total price $119.40. (Want to check your bag at the airport? That will be $40 each way!)
Want to reserve a window seat near the front of the plane, or one next to the person you are traveling with? That’s an extra $14 each way, $28 round trip, so now the ticket price is $147.40
By comparison, the lowest fare on Virgin America for SFO-Las Vegas in mid-September (including all taxes and fees) is $133.40.
Have you ever, or would you fly Spirit? Please leave your comments below.
American Airlines eliminates SFO-Honolulu
Despite its fancy new digs at SFO’s Terminal 2, American Airlines continues to reduce the number of cities it serves from San Francisco.
On September 7, the Texas-based carrier will eliminate its nonstop flights between San Francisco and Honolulu. This follows a decision to cut out nonstops between SFO and Boston last November.
After Sept 7, American will have 31 daily round trips into and out of SFO: 11 to Dallas/Ft Worth; six to Chicago O’Hare; five (four on off-peak days) to New York-JFK; three to Miami; and six to LAX.
American spokesman Tim Smith said that the move is not directly related to any particular issue in San Francisco. “It remains a key city for us or we obviously would not have become involved in the new terminal and built a new, state-of-the-art Admirals Club that just opened. 31 flights a day makes it an important destination/departure city in terms of being a non-hub.”
The move is a result of American’s 2009 decision to concentrate domestic flying at what it calls its hub or “cornerstone cities:” Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami and New York. Nearly all its domestic now flying touches those cities in some way.
“As to the SFO-HNL flight itself, since it is a point-to-point flight between two non-hub cities, there is generally not enough traffic on both ends to fully support the flight,” said Smith. “That means we have had to find ways to feed traffic bound for Honolulu into SFO. Under the cornerstone plan it is much more efficient and cost effective to feed traffic to HNL from our cornerstone hubs where we have lots of daily feed [from other cities]. So, as of Sept. 7, we will fly from HNL 3x daily from LAX; 2x daily from DFW; and 1 from ORD (but not every day – it will be 4 times per week). This gives us either 5 or 6 round trips per day to and from HNL from the U.S. mainland.” he said.
What’s happening with American’s flights at SFO is happening throughout the airline industry as airlines grapple with higher fuel costs. “We’re past the point of airlines flying routes out of a sense of vanity or pride. If a route doesn’t make money, it shouldn’t be flown,” said San Francisco-based Forrester Research analyst Henry Harteveldt.
Despite the loss of American, Bay area residents won’t have much difficulty finding flights from here to Hawaii. Alaska Airlines has added a slew of new Boeing 737 non-stops from Oakland, San Jose and Sacramento to several Hawaiian cities over the last year.
And there are still plenty of seats to Honolulu from SFO. “While disappointed by American’s decision, the airport recognizes that our partner airlines need to make tough economic decisions on where to deploy their aircraft. After September 7 the non-stop SFO-Honolulu market will be served by United, Hawaiian, and Delta; collectively offering over 9,000 seats a week,” said airport spokesman Charles Schuler. (Fares for October SFO-HNL flights are currently in the $400-$500 range, but dip closer to $350 during periodic sales.)
American’s partnership with Hawaiian on its nonstops between SFO and HNL helps ease the pain a little for AAdvantage members. Currently, they can still redeem AAdvantage miles for Hawaiian flights between SFO and HNL. However, they can only earn AAdvantage miles on Hawaiian’s inter-island flights.
Does the loss of American flights provide an opening for Virgin America to enter the market? “It doesn’t really impact our immediate plans,” said Virgin’s Abby Lunardini. “That said, Hawaii remains on our prospective destination list [but] our ability to fly there in the short-term is dependent on our aircraft, as we need the extended range capability of our new on-order A320s to fly those routes.”
Will you miss having American fly between SFO and Honolulu? Please leave your comments below.
Fall Travel Sales Begin– Act Fast
(Photo: Flickr / Telstar
If steep fares are keeping you grounded this summer, there’s relief in sight.
Southwest Airlines kicked off a big sale for fall travel with fares significantly lower than what we are paying this summer. If you have firm plans to travel this fall, The BAT recommends that you take advantage of this sale.
Systemwide fares are based on mileage and priced at $40, $80 or $120 each way.
Sample fares for travel between August 23 through November 16 from SFO or OAK. (Fridays and Sundays and Labor Day–Sept 1-5– are blacked out.)
> LA, San Diego, So Cal: $40 each way; $80 round trip
>Denver or Phoenix: $80 each way; $160 round trip
>Chicago-Midway: $120 each way; $240 round trip
What’s most interesting about this sale is that it includes Southwest’s new subsidiary, AirTran.
>Nonstop SFO to Atlanta or Milwaukee, and then beyond: $120 each way; $240 round trip (That’s dirt cheap for east coast flights!)
If these fares sound good to you (and they should!) you must act fast: The sale is only good between now and 11:59 pm Thursday.
Although they have not formally announced a sale matching Southwest yet, when searching for fares on Virgin America or United, you will find those that match Southwest’s (in markets where they compete nonstop.)
Please forward this link to your friends and tell them to sign up for The BAT! www.thebat-sf.com
Designing Virgin America
Over the years I’ve come across some people with some VERY cool travel industry jobs. Starting with this column, I will periodically interview some of these lucky characters.
I was inspired to create this new series of posts when I met Jesse McMillin at Virgin America. His visually creative mind has influenced nearly everything you see when traveling on our hometown airline, from the look of SFO’s fab new Terminal 2, to its unique in-flight beverage cups. That’s one cool job!
Read on to learn more about him.
What’s your official title at Virgin America? How long have you been there? How do you describe what you do?
Jesse McMillin, Design Director, Virgin America
Officially, I am the Design Director at Virgin America, but people describe me a lot of different ways — from Creative Director, to just plain “Our designer” to “that crazy creative guy,” or “the guy who makes stuff look good.” I’ve been with Virgin going on three and a half years now — ever since the airline started flying.
I oversee everything creatively that happens here, from advertising and marketing all the way to in-flight experience, events, signage, partnerships, everything. Through all of these various touch points I do my best to bring inspiration to the process so that we are always contemporary and cutting edge as a design-focused brand.
How did you end up with such a cool travel job?
Throughout my career I have cultivated enough interesting work to land myself here. I had just moved back to San Francisco from a stint in Amsterdam working for Nike’s European offices when I got a call from an old colleague asking if I was interested in coming to Virgin America for an interview. I showed my latest work to about 20 people and there you have it.
What do you think is your greatest accomplishment so far?
One example is our collaboration on the design and build of our new home at SFO’s Terminal 2 — which was just an insanely cool and massive project.
Another smaller example would be the custom in-flight cups, napkins and headsets that I designed. (See photo above) I’m particularly proud of them because they are things that other airlines take for granted and don’t put much time or thought into. I’ve gotten a really great response on them so far too, which is always a great compliment.
Where did the idea to re-design inflight cups come from? Why do that?
I thought that just slapping a logo on the standard airline cup felt like a bit of a cop out. So I called the manufacturer and asked if I could completely redesign the cup’s shape to be something unique and different. They were a little startled, but said they could make a new mold to emboss our logos on the cup at the same cost.
I spent some time making sketches of the concept that took the tailfin shape of the logo and built a gem-like, faceted design. I wanted to make something seen as cheap and disposable feel the opposite. I wanted it too look interesting when viewing it from the side as well as when looking into the cup. (See photo above)
Never missing an opportunity to add a little Virgin cheek into the smallest details, we embossed a fun hidden message into the bottom of each cup that reads “Was it as refreshing for you as it was for me?”
When you travel through airports and on airplanes, what are the “little things” that you notice that those without such a keen design eye might miss?
One thing I always catch, especially with big airlines that have been around for a while, are older versions of their logos sneaking in on a napkin or molded into the seatback on an older plane. It makes you realize how hard it is keep a brand identity pure over the years.
I love amenity kits from airlines, especially when they put funny stuff like socks in there (Virgin Atlantic has such nice ones in Upper Class).
What do you like most about your job? Least?
Virgin America is a small, upstart brand compared to most of our competitors. This means that we have been able to really shake up the industry by doing things in an very creative and bold fashion, moving quickly and having fun. We are willing to try tons of new things that the bigger guys couldn’t or wouldn’t do. The environment is amazing for a creative person because it offers up so many new and exciting possibilities with a lot of room to do the best work that’s being done out there.
But on the flip side, I struggle with the fact we are so small and always in a form of start-up mode compared to some more established brands I’ve worked for. It can be a very hectic and freeform environment, where a lot of the time you are working with very tight resources and grueling deadlines.
Which airlines are more design-forward than others?
Well, I have to give Kudos to Virgin Atlantic; I think they are really a pioneer in fun and style in the airline industry. They have this cool detail of Swarovski crystals in their Upper Class cabin that I think is really beautiful and their lounge at Heathrow is amazing.
Braniff Airlines had pretty great design — the Emilio Pucci uniforms were spectacular. There’s a little business airline up in Canada called Porter Airlines that has a nice design approach that’s clean and contemporary, very fresh.
What advice would you give someone who would like to eventually have a job like yours?
I think the best advice I can give is to drink a lot of coffee, buy a lot of pencils, and stay weird.
Do YOU know someone with a cool travel job you think should be profiled here? Let me know!
Low level flyover of San Francisco (1-min slideshow)
Here’s a one minute slideshow looking out the window of Virgin America’s low-level VIP flyover of downtown San Francisco, Golden Gate Bridge, Ocean Beach, Point Reyes, Cronkite Beach, Sausalito and arrival at the new Terminal 2.
Check out the shot of Richard Branson’s inflight media interview as he peers out the window at his new rocket ship. Word on board was that the Virgin chairman teared up a bit at the sight.
Here’s a video of a mid-flight meet-up with the Virgin Galactic spaceship in SF for the T2 opening festivities.
Enjoy!
Average age of US airline fleets
The roof of this Aloha Airlines B-737 peeled off during a flight between Hilo and Honolulu in 1988. Only one person, a flight attendant, died.
In light of Southwest’s recent fuselage failures, it’s interesting to take a look at which U.S. airlines have the oldest fleets.
Here’s a rundown, from oldest to youngest.
- Allegiant Air: 21.5 years
- Delta Air Lines: 16 years
- American Airlines: 15.1 years
- United Airlines: 15 years
- US Airways: 12.8 years
- Hawaiian Airlines: 12.1 years
- Southwest Airlines: 11.7 years
- Continental Airlines: 10 years
- Alaska Airlines: 7.7 years
- Frontier Airlines: 6.3 years
- JetBlue Airways: 5.8 years
- Spirit Airlines: 4.2 years
- Virgin America: 3.4 years
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Source: Ascend Worldwide Ltd.
Virgin Galactic over the Bay (Photo+Video)
(Photo: Chris McGinnis)
As part of the festivities surrounding the grand re-opening of SFO’s Terminal 2 this week, Virgin America invited media and VIP’s on a special flight out over the Pacific where we met up with the new Virgin Galactic spacecraft.
This shot was taken from a Virgin A320 looking down on Cronkite Beach, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. (See below for a fun one-minute video; more photos here.)
After flying over the Gate and then over the Bay, both aircraft landed in tandem at SFO. Spectacular! We then taxied to Terminal 2 where a big reception and tour awaited.
Onboard notables: Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Virgin Chairman Sir Richard Branson.
Virgin America (finally) invades SFO-Chicago ORD market
(Photo: Drewski2112 / Flickr)
After a protracted battle, Virgin America today announced it will fly to United and American fortress hub Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), with daily nonstop flights from San Francisco International Airport SFO (and Los Angeles LAX) starting May 25, 2011.
With legacy airlines representing 98 percent of domestic departures at ORD, Virgin America hopes to inject some healthy competition into the market. I bet we’ll soon see fare sales, mileage bonuses, more Gogo inflight and other bennies offered up by United and American on their SFO-ORD flights as a result of this announcement.
“Until today, travelers flying from O’Hare to SFO or LAX had little choice and few low fare options. With unrivaled service and new planes that look like nothing else in the skies, we hope our flights will be a breath of fresh air for Chicago travelers,” said Virgin America President and Chief Executive Officer David Cush. “When more airlines compete, consumers tend to win — with lower fares and better service. Mayor Daley and the airport have shown tremendous vision by investing in ORD’s future and by helping to open up access to new competition.”
Virgin America originally announced its intent to serve O’Hare in 2008, but its plans were delayed due to gate availability.
Virgin America’s Main Cabin SFO-ORD fares start from $99 (restrictions, taxes and fees applying) and are on sale today on the airline’s Web site (www.virginamerica.com).
SMART: To kick off its new Windy City service, the airline is teaming up with the Chicago-based Groupon for today’s “Featured Deal” that will give Groupon subscribers in Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco the chance to purchase a $7 Groupon good for $77 in air fare for a roundtrip purchase on Virgin America’s new ORD routes. This is the first Featured Deal that Groupon has launched solely for air travel. For more, visit: http://www.groupon.com/deals/virgin-america-chicago
Flights will depart SFO for ORD at 6:55 am, 10:25 am and 4:35 pm. Returns from ORD will depart at 7:00 am, 2:05 pm and 5:35 pm.
(This item first appeared in The BAT blog for Bay Area Travelers. For new, fare alerts and deals, sign up! It’s free.)
