Virgin America now flies within US

By Aleksi | Permalink |

1 comment | August 13th, 2007 | Trackback

On August 8th, Virgin America airlines launched it’s first flight within the United States, and has instantly begun to win over geeks and business travelers alike. The plane itself, at least on the outside isn’t much different than most other airlines, but you know that old saying, “it’s what’s on the inside that counts.”

Inside every Virgin America flight you will have access to power outlets, a USB outlet for charging a USB device, Wi-Fi and ethernet internet at varying speeds, and seat-back LCD screens that provide pay-per view movies, (about 30 of them, at $8 each) over 3,000 songs with the ability to store a playlist under a username so when you travel again you can instantly recover it, a small QWERTY keyboard that detaches from the arm rest that allows you to browse through features quicker, games (such as DOOM!) and even a progress tracker that is based on Google Maps.

How much does it cost, right? Actually, the price isn’t too bad. Virgin currently flies two flights daily between SFO and JFK and five a day between SFO and LAX, but will soon be adding more connections, including Los Angeles-New York, San Francisco-Washington D.C., San Francisco-Las Vegas, and Los Angeles-Washington D.C.

To read a more detailed, first-hand description of the first flight, check out the blog by Dylan Tweney of WIRED.