I took this trip last month to get to Paris and on to Dijon to support Miss Tahiti for the Miss France contest.
I wanted to get on a 787 and add a new A380 operator to my list so I picked BA and bought a EWR-LHR-CDG-LHR-LAX ticket.
To get from LAX to Newark, I picked Virgin America.
I had arrived the night before from Tahiti on Air France and the flight went smoothly.
I spent the night at the Hacienda hotel, very well known LAX hotel by all tahitians.
The next morning, I woke up an hour later than was supposed to, rushed downstairs to catch the shuttle to the airport. The sun was rising and it was a cold morning.
The 10 minute drive went quickly, the shuttle was packed and I was the first to be dropped off in front of Virgin America's terminal, T3.
I went to a self check-in kiosk and tried to check myself in. I was told by the computer they couldn't complete check-in and had to see an agent.
After a quick check-in with the agent, I was sent on to the Loft Lounge airside with my boarding card in hand. No checked bags.
The Loft lounge is upstairs after security. It is a little hard to find the entrance to be frank…
Here is the spread for morning flights.
My selection, apple juice and danish pastry and a cookie.
View over the apron from the lounge.
After I was done with my small breakfast I went back downstairs to board the plane.
The night before I bought a seat at the emergency exit, more room, free snacks and drinks !
This is the legroom at 10D
The the safety demonstrations start. They are one of the best I have seen ! Very catchy !
Take off was towards the Pacific Ocean, we did a turn and came back over the continent before heading towards the East coast.
While we were climbing I ordered a Peanut butter and jam sandwich and a Coke Zero.
The crew started the service and when they reached my seat, the snack I had ordered was given to me, no questions asked !
Virgin America has PTV's at all seats and they have live satellite TV. I spent time on the airshow and watched a few TV shows on Comedy Central.
After a while, I took advantage of the inflight wifi, signed in, purchased what I needed and kept in touch with my friends and family. I ordered another drink and some Caramel popcorns !
Continuing our flight towards Newark, now over the great lakes.
Checked our position on flightradar24.com thanks to the wifi.
We are getting closer to our destination now
I had forgotten to take pictures of the inflight snacks and beverage menu and remembered towards the end. So this is what it looks like, some of the items are not listed anymore as they had runout of them towards the end of the flight.
I spent the last few minutes watching Friends
We landed ahead of time and this was an excellent transcon flight !
View of my row just before I left the aircraft.
Now off to British Airways to check-in and
View of the aircraft to took me to Newark from the airtrain !
United regional jets. Newark was a fortress inherited during the UA-CO merger.
A peanut butter and jam sandwich is to me the quintessential homemade junk food. The Coke is only a plus :)
I hate the smell of popcorn and cannot imagine being stuck in a plane seat with passengers eating that around me.
That being said, using the IFE to order food and drinks appears very efficient. I wonder if they have foreign languages in the menus ?
Seems you that did not mind the long flight being in a single aisle aircraft, unlike some (not I!). Thanks for the FR !
Hello !
The PBJ Sandwich was the only thing I could fancy this early in the morning. The guy next to me nearly had of each thing on the menu ! I should have asked him if I could take a picture of all his stash !
There are some smells like that that we can't stand. For me it is mint, I had to do a lot of work on myself over the years as when I was younger, probably until I was 20 or 25, I would simply throw up if I smelled mint from people chewing gum or brushing their teeth… painful !
I didn't really check if the menus were in another language so I can't answer your question unfortunately.
Thanks for sharing! Virgin America really has a great product--the best in the US IMO. I'm glad that they are finally turning out a profit, as it had seemed that they were having a difficult time competing for such a long time. I absolutely LOVE the safety video #VXSafetyDance ...very original and catchy. Reminds me a lot of all the cool NZ videos. Looking foward to seeing the BA 787 report!
Virgin America, along with jetBlue, have excellent products are a real pain in the bottom for the legacy carriers. I really enjoyed this very long flight on VX as I had only taken short journeys with them such as SFO-LAX or LAS-SFO.
BA 787 EWR-LHR flight report is next !
Thanks for sharing this FR
How much does such a VX fligt cost ?
There is a lot of items with 0.00$ price : does it mean that they are free ?
Hello !
If I remember correctly, I paid the ticket 150 USD and another 150USD for the upgrade.
Concerning the 0.00$ snacks or drink, it is because some of them, like the sodas, are free. Others like the snacks or some alcoholic beverages are to be paid for by people seating in regular seats. On their screen the price is displayed.
Thanks for this FR. How much was the extra-cost of the emergency row ?
Hello ! If I remember well, it was 150 USD. It included the emergency exit seat, free snacks and beverages, priority boarding.
Great report. The ordering system is novel.
Did you get lounge access via Frequent Flyer status or fare paid?
Hello !
Ordering system has been like that since the beginning at VX. I got lounge access as I paid for it when I checked in the night before, that's also when I managed to buy the upgrade to the emergency exit. I think the lounge access was 40 USD or 50USD… I can't remember...
According to VX website, you can buy a lounge access at LAX, JFK, IAD and SFO and the price range from 40 to 75$. For the Loft, it's 40$. Furthermore, the Loft is the only Virgin America lounge as the 3 others are owned by Virgin Atlantic.