Virgin America Parties On

Posted by: Justin Bachman on September 13

Virgin America pipes lounge music into its lavatories. This made me chuckle, on my “virgin” flight Thursday with the airline. As did the lavender mood lighting, the deep-black leather seats and hard white, furniture-style plastic on the seatbacks, a mixture of ‘70s mod and contemporary sleek high-style. (Austin Powers would be proud of such a shagadelic experience.) If nothing else, Virgin America is staying true to the ethos inspired by Virgin Group founder Richard Branson. This is apparent, right down to the welcoming address by the captain, who issued his greeting from the aisle and urged us all to be safe and “have a good time” at least three times. And, contrary to all the gloom-and-doom aloft these days, such is possible. You get nice satellite TV, current movie choices, HBO series, and dozens of music channels from the seatback video screens.

Most interestingly, you order food from the seat, and the flight attendants – sheathed in all-black uniforms, of course – become your waiters. I had a $9 cheese, biscuit, walnut and fruit box, and none of this scheme looked as if it would be tremendously difficult to replicate on some other airline. (Hint, hint.) You click on the touchscreen, swipe your credit card, the order appears on a monitor at the back of the plane and five minutes later you’re snacking. And you don’t need to worry about how many glasses of wine or granola bars you want to munch, as the staff don’t seem to mind. This made me think that the revenues from Virgin’s little orgy of electronic food and cocktail procurement must be quite impressive. Party on, baby.