Virgin America's New Reservation System Still A Complete Disaster
It's been a month since we reported on the study that found Virgin America's new reservation system was keeping customers on hold for an average of 24 minutes — four times as long as the next-worse airline. And according to a new report, things have not improved as travelers head into the crowded holiday travel period.
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Study: Virgin America Keeps Customers On Hold Longer Than Any Other Airline
Holiday travel plans change all the time, meaning lots of people will be spending lots of time on the phone trying to speak to a human being. And according to a new report, passengers on Virgin America should have something to occupy themselves with while waiting on hold, as the average wait time for the carrier is longer than 20 minutes.
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Virgin America Is Pleased With Their New Reservation System
Despite experiencing
some of the inevitable hiccups from transferring a legacy system to a new one, Virgin America tells me that they're overall "pleased" with how the reservation system transition they started on Saturday is going.
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Virgin America's Brand New Sabre Reservation System Hits Turbulence
Virgin America has hit some extreme turbulence ever since they switched to a new Sabre Airline Solutions reservation system on Saturday. Travelers are lighting up the inter-boards with complaints that they can't make or change their reservations, and call centers are swamped, with customers having to wait over four hours on hold.
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Airlines Waiving Re-Booking Fees With Hurricane Irene On The Way
A really nasty woman named Irene is about to swoop in from the tropics and potentially screw up air travel for everyone. So in advance of the hurricane, many airlines are playing nice with their re-booking fees and policies for flights to and from destinations affected by the storm.
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Got $50 Million For A Vacation? Space Tourism Is For You
It's 2011 and we still don't have flying cars yet. But by next year, a lot of ordinary folks will be able to catch a flight to space and see the stars, say experts.
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A Dead Cow & The 5 Other Most Bizarre Things Passengers Have Tried To Check Onto A Virgin Atlantic Flight
The folks over that the Virgin Atlantic blog recently sent out a request to the staffers working the check-in desks at the airline's various global destinations. They wanted to know about the strangest items that passengers actually tried to have stowed in the cargo hold, and they compiled a list of bizarre baggage that rivals
this one.
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Flight Attendant Fired For Stowing Baby In Overhead Bin
A flight attendant for Virgin Blue, Richard Branson's Australian airline, has been fired over allegations that he placed a passenger's infant child in the overhead bin during a flight from Fiji to Sydney.
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Virgin Passengers Not Named Madonna Wait 3 Hours To Get Off Plane
When bad weather forced a London-bound Virgin flight to reroute from Heathrow Airport to Stansted, passengers had to wait three hours on the tarmac before they could disembark. A select group did, however, get to leave the plane after about an hour. No, they weren't disabled, sick or parents with small, noisy children. The group making an early exit consisted of once-popular singer Madonna and her entourage of about 15 people.
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Why Do Airlines Hate Kevin Smith So Much?
It's been almost a year since director Kevin Smith
had a very public spat with Southwest after being told he was too girthy to fly. That means it's time for the Jersey Girl filmmaker to get ticked off at another carrier, and the lucky recipient of his vitriol is Virgin America.
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Southwest, JetBlue Fly High In Zagat Airline Survey
For the 20th year in a row, the people at Zagat have done a survey of passengers on the major domestic and international airlines. And by the looks of it, travelers are much more pleased with the likes of Southwest, JetBlue and Virgin than they are the old-timers like United, Delta and American.
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Virgin Galactic Confirms $200,000 Price For 5 Minutes Of Weightlessness
In what could either end up as either a key moment in the history of space travel or a snapshot of one really, really rich man's intergalactic folly, bearded billionaire Richard Branson was on hand in New Mexico for a ceremony to celebrate work being done on the first Virgin Galactic spaceport.
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Virgin Mobile Jolted Into Action By Executive E-Mail Carpet Bomb
Nancy tells Consumerist that she and her husband recently bought shiny new phones from Virgin Mobile, and were quite happy with their service. Well, until Nancy's phone stopped working entirely. She tried the normal technical support channels, but encountered a run-around that lasted for almost two weeks. Two weeks during which Nancy lacked a functioning phone. She gave up on the normal channels, read our guide to sending an executive e-mail carpet bomb, and sent us a copy of her original missive.
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Virgin Atlantic Keeps Passengers On Hot Plane For 4 Hours
Passengers were kept aboard a hot plane without food, water or air conditioning Tuesday night after their flight from London to Newark was diverted to an airport in Connecticut. The airplane landed near Hartford at 8:20pm, but the passengers were not bused to Newark until 1am. According to the AP, at least three passengers fainted and were treated by paramedics.
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Virgin America Out To Bribe Twitter Whores With Free Flights
If your Twitter feed starts blowing up with effusive praise for Virgin America, it may be because the airline has influenced those sets of 140 characters with free flights.
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Twitter Begins Rolling Out Advertiser-Sponsored Tweets Today
One of the last bastions of ad-free Internet space is about to disappear. Twitter has confirmed that starting today, they are rolling out an official ad program they call "Promoted Tweets."
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VIDEO: Inside The 16-Hour Flight From Hell
This weekend's torrential downpours in the New York City area wreaked havoc on air travel, as flights were canceled, airports closed and planes rerouted. One such flight was Virgin America Flight 404, where passengers were kept cooped up in the plane, nibbling on rationed Pringles and sipping water, while it sat on the tarmac for nearly 7 hours.
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Virgin Mobile Isn't Quite Clear On The Meaning Of "Playlist"
Jennifer writes that she bought a new phone, a Samsung Mantra, based on the features listed for the phone on Virgin Mobile's web site. The problem is that the phone doesn't actually seem to have the advertised features that led her to buy the phone in the first place.
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Virgin Atlantic Refunds $220 Hidden Fee A Year Later
Priya complained to us back in November that Virgin Atlantic
stuck her with a massive hidden fee for a flight to India in late 2008.
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Virgin America Anniversary Flight From Hell
—>Adam is writing in to say that in the year that Virgin America has been operating, he feels that they've forgotten how to run their airline. The first time he flew with them, his flight was delayed and his laptop adapter melted. He got a free flight. The second time he flew, about a year later, his flight was delayed, the airline ran out of food, his luggage was ripped open and his valuables disappeared, and the baggage claim rep laughed at his misfortune. More »
The Ultimate "Rule 240" List
—>Some airlines still call it "Rule 240" and others a "contract of carriage" but no matter what the name, it still means the same thing: power to the traveler. But which airlines still use it and how much does it protect a traveler? More »
Using Proxies To Get Good Deals When Virgin America Reneges
—>Reader Tom was all set to buy a ticket on Virgin America when all of a sudden the fare he thought was locked in shot up 33%. The machine told him his reservation had expired. Tom tried redoing the purchase several times, clearing his cookies, changing browsers, only to continue to be denied by Richard Branson's faceless automoton army. So then he cleared his cookies and then rerouting his signal through another computer so to Virgin America it looks like a different user is trying to buy the ticket (in technical terms, he rerouted his traffic through a SOCKS proxy server on the West Coast). Shazam, he was able to get the ticket at the old price. Whether the deal had expired because he dawdled too long, or whether he was only able to get it because it looked like he was coming from the West Coast and the fare was related to the time of day, Tom felt jerked around. If this happens to you, here's a how-to on using proxy servers. More »
Virgin America's high-quality, discount-rate air travel is still keeping industry prices depressed on its main NYC-LAX route. Mo competition, mo better. [WSJ] More »
Southwest Mini-Skirt Passenger Is Welcome On Virgin America
—> According to ABC News, Kyla Ebbert, the pantie-flashing patriot who was harassed by Southwest airlines has found a new best friend, Richard Branson. More »
Virgin America Is Trying Too Hard
—>According to OK! magazine, Virgin America will be hosting "the first-ever supermodel in-flight pajama party this November," with the Victoria's Secret models. No, you're not invited. Yes, someone else is. Yes, that person probably has a camera. More »
Virgin America Helping Pop Transcontinental Air Fare Prices
—>As we read in their e-newsletter this morning, a top airline analyst told Farecompare.com, "because of the debut of Virgin America, watch for many airlines to lower the air fares on their transcontinental flights for the foreseeable future." Wow, look at that, increased competition means lower prices for consumer. Who would have ever have thunk it? And yes, that's a view inside one of their planes. More »
A Review Of A Non-PR Infected Virgin America Flight
—> Jaunted decided to test the hype and fly Virgin America without the crack PR team. Result? 2 hour delay, no permanent terminal at JFK, but otherwise a pleasant flight. More »
Sign Up For Virgin America's Frequent Flier Program, Lose Your Discount Airfare
—>Mike writes to us on Virgin America's maiden day of service to complain that his discount fare vanished after he signed up for Virgin's frequent flier program. Mike and his girlfriend tried to buy $44 tickets from San Francisco to Los Angeles, but after signing up for the frequent flier program, the fare jumped to $79. Though Virgin has invested in a state-of-the-art in-flight entertainment system, from the looks of Mike's letter, they haven't invested nearly enough in customer service. Mike writes: More »
Virgin America Begins Flying The Crowded Skies
—> Virgin America has taken off, according to USAToday. The carrier had to fight hard to convince US authorities it was not an extension of Richard Branson's "worldwide aviation empire" and, instead, something new. But will it be? More »
Virgin America Receives Final DOT Approval
—>The Department of Transportation has issued final approval for Virgin America to become the newest transcontinental budget airline. The DOT originally denied Virgin permission to fly through U.S airspace after the airline failed to meet domestic ownership requirements. After making several changes, including replacing one of their British executives with a meat-eating American, Virgin has convinced the DOT that they are not a bunch of tea-drinking crumpet-eaters. To us, they still sound awfully British:
"We are jumping for joy that we can put our tracksuits on and get out in the stadium and compete in the grand meet of the airline business," Virgin America CEO Fred Reid said.
'Tis a jolly day indeed, Governor! Virgin America will start selling tickets in the next few weeks, and expects the first flight to takeoff this summer.
— CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER More »
Virgin America Cleared For Takeoff
—>The Department of Transportation has dropped its objections to Richard Branson's latest venture, Virgin America. The domestic version of Virgin Atlantic was blocked in December over concerns the airline was a tad too British. Federal law requires U.S. ownership and control of domestic airlines. Branson won approval by yielding the CEO slot to an American, former Delta executive Fred Reid, and diluting Virgin Atlantic's presence on the board.
Virgin America, based in Burlingame, Calif., near San Francisco's airport, said yesterday that it was pleased by the ruling and hoped to start flights between San Francisco and Kennedy International Airport in New York by midsummer. Within nine months of beginning flights, it said it planned to serve Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas and Washington.
Finally, competition between New York and San Francisco.
— CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER More »
"Stupid" Law Prevents Foreign Investors From "Owning" US Airlines
—>Slate magazine's Daniel Gross makes the case that the law prohibiting foreigners from owning more than 25 percent of an American airline, is not only "stupid" but rooted in "misplaced hostility to foreigners, national-security paranoia, and plain-old protectionism." He claims the law is obsolete * (the Federal Aviation Act was created in 1938 1958 (the Civil Aeronautics Act was created in 1938) and damaging to consumers. More »
