Virgin America Lands at O'Hare
By Todd McClamroch in News on May 26, 2011 3:00PM
As the inaugural Virgin America flight from San Francisco to O'Hare took the runway for departure the pilots make one final announcement, "It's 1850 miles to Chicago, we got a full load of fuel, half a pack of cigarettes, it's not dark and we are wearing sunglasses ... Hit it!" Thus begins what Virgin is calling the "Flight for Chicago: Virgin America Puts the Smackdown on Ordinary."
It is readily apparent that Virgin America has the sense of humor to rival Southwest airlines while combining it with an ambiance of a W Hotel lounge at 35,000 feet. These are few of the attributes that Virgin America hopes will help it win over Chicagoans flying to either Los Angeles or San Francisco. It is these same attributes that helped it win "Best Domestic Airline" in both Travel and Leisure's World's Best Awards and Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards.
To give a fair comparison*, Chicagoist flew to San Francisco on United then flew back via Virgin America. For frequent travelers to the West Coast, the historical players like United and American do provide more daily departure options. They also have the advantage of flying to more destinations from Chicago therefore giving greater loyalty program earning opportunities.
However, in all other facets Virgin tops the competition. On United I had a single movie for entertainment en route, that failed to entertain, so I resorted to my iPhone which lost charge somewhere over Colorado leaving me twiddling my thumbs. With Virgin, I enjoyed wireless access and an on demand entertainment system. Had I chosen to be productive, the under seat power outlet would have kept my laptop humming throughout the flight. The Virgin entertainment options include free satellite radio and tv and pay-per-view movies ($8) and tv shows ($3) as well as free interactive games.
On demand services go beyond entertainment. CEO David Cush said, "If you want a beer and some chips simply order it through your seat back screen and they bring it to you." No longer are you waiting for the food cart to come back and then trying to anticipate your needs for the entire flight in that short moment it's at your row.
Virgin has ensured that the experience is also great before you board, with beautifully designed terminal space that is as functional as it is comfortable. Cush explained, "Like our airplanes, our terminals will have power outlets under every seat in the gate area. So no more sitting on the floor trying to find an outlet in an industrial pylon."
As we arrived in Chicago, our flight and the inaugural flight from Los Angeles landed simultaneously on parallel runways and received a water cannon salute to welcome both flights. On the tarmac, Sir Richard Branson did his best Rocky impression as he welcomed the guests to Chicago and kicked-off a celebration of their new service.
For now Chicagoans will need to plan on traveling to Los Angeles or San Francisco to experience Virgin America as Cush indicated there are not currently any plans to expand Chicago-based service.
(*Ed Note: Former Chicagoist contributor and aviation enthusiast Todd McClamroch had the opportunity to fly Virgin America Airlines' inaugural flight from San Francisco to O'Hare yesterday. Virgin offered this to Todd for no editorial consideration, nor did it influence influence his opinion. — CS)