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Chat with Nicole Wong
Boston Globe business reporter Nicole Wong discussed low-cost airline Virgin America's launch of service in Boston in a chat this week, including what it means for fliers in terms of luxury, cost, and choice.
| Nicole Wong Virgin America chat | (02/12/2009) Powered by: CoveritLive |
12:01 | Nicole C. Wong: Hi everyone. Thanks for joining our chat about Virgin America! |
12:02 | Nicole C. Wong: The Burlingame, Calif.-based domestic carrier launched in August 2007, and today Boston is becoming it's eighth destination. |
12:04 | Nicole C. Wong: The airline has a lot of gee-whiz, tech-savvy in-flight amenities, which has generated a lot of buzz in every destination it's entered. And as a low-cost carrier, it often offers airfares as low as -- or sometimes cheaper than -- discount carrier JetBlue. |
12:05 | Nicole C. Wong: I'm interested in hearing what you think of the airline -- whether you've flown it or are curious about it. On to the questions! |
12:05 | [Comment From Jessica] So Nicole will there be any flights going to Las Vegas? |
12:07 | Nicole C. Wong: No nonstop flights from Boston to Las Vegas yet, but I wouldn't count it out for future expansion. Virgin America is starting with 5 daily departures from Boston -- 2 to San Francisco International Airport and 3 to Los Angeles International Airport. |
12:07 | [Comment From Joe] I was pleasantly surprised to see the rates and Los Angeles destination. |
12:11 | Nicole C. Wong: Yes, they're quite low. When Virgin American announced the route in December, it priced one-way fares starting at $149 in coach, $570 in the main cabin's premium section, and $999 in first class. |
12:12 | Nicole C. Wong: That undercutting competitors (JetBlue, American, United, US Airways) anywhere from $15 to $40 one way. |
12:13 | Nicole C. Wong: And last week or so, JetBlue launched an airfare war on the LA-Boston route. Bringing the fares down to $105 one way. Virgin matched. And the other competitors are all lowering prices now. So Virgin has succeeded in stimulating competition, just like JetBlue did when that carrier started serving Logan International Airport. |
12:13 | [Comment From Joe] Are there charges for drinks or food? |
12:16 | Nicole C. Wong: Yes, and here's one way JetBlue and Virgin America differ. JetBlue gives free snacks (like Terra Chips) and free non-alcoholic drinks. As many as you want. But JetBlue doesn't sell anything heartier to eat (except on a few New York and Caribbean routes where it's testing the buy-on-board concept. But not on any Boston routes). So if you're a hurried traveler who doesn't have time to pack a lunch or buy something at the airport, your stomach is going to growl the entire flight. |
12:17 | Nicole C. Wong: On Virgin America, you get free sodas, juices and bottled water. But you have to buy all other eats and drinks. Still, it's great to have that option. And the menu has a lot of healthy yet tasty options. |
12:19 | Nicole C. Wong: For example, I enjoyed the $7 vegetarian chop salad, which -- unlike other airlines -- served fresh (not wilted) Romaine lettuce topped with basil, garbanzo beans, cucumbers, red and green bell pepper, sugar snap peas, olives, grape tomatoes, parmesan and cheddar cheeses, and a creamy cilantro dressing. |
12:19 | Nicole C. Wong: (They also sell for $7 to $9 each meals like turkey feta wrap, hummus and veggies with pita, roast beef on wheat berry sandwich.) |
12:20 | Nicole C. Wong: And I was satisfied and full after eating the $3 bag of Think Popped salt and pepper popchips. But for people carving something sweeter, they also sell M&Ms and chocolate chip cookies for $3 per bag. |
12:21 | Nicole C. Wong: I was also excited to see the wide array of drinks you could buy, like $3 Rockstar energy drink and $1 lichee red tea. |
12:22 | [Comment From Eric] Did the "order food whenever you want" thing work? They don't actually come around with carts? |
12:23 | Nicole C. Wong: Yes, it does. And as someone who often falls asleep on long flights (unless, of course, I'm reporting on the flight), I really appreciated the freedom of ordering food when I'm hungry (and awake!). |
12:25 | Nicole C. Wong: The way it works is you use the 9-inch LCD touch-screen embedded in the back of every seat (right above your fold-up food tray) to pull up the menu. You scroll through a menu with photos, descriptions and prices of every item, and you click on the ones you want. When you're done shopping, you can review what's in your cart (changing the quantity, which is helpful in case you impatiently hit the "add to cart" button a few times to many). Then you swipe your credit card. The order appears on a screen at the back of the plane where the flight attendants pull out what you've ordered and deliver it right to you in a few minutes. |
12:27 | Nicole C. Wong: Virgin America executives told me the reason they decided to do this was so they wouldn't have a huge food cart blocking the aisle, which irritates passengers trying to get to or from the restroom. But really, I think the great value is in eating lunch when you're hungry, not when the airline decides it's convenient for them to have you eat. |
12:27 | [Comment From Friend] Does the LCD play free satelite TV like Jet Blue? |
12:30 | Nicole C. Wong: It does. Both JetBlue and Virgin America offer some free content and some premium paid content. JetBlue has more TV channels -- 36 of them. Virgin America is set up for about 24 channels right now, but when I flew it last week, there was nothing on channels 20 and higher. |
12:32 | Nicole C. Wong: Oh, those are the free channels. The premium paid content I was referring to are things like an episode of "Entourage" or "The Office," which Virgin America sells for a dollar or two. |
12:32 | [Comment From wai] Is the special cabin lighting good? |
12:34 | Nicole C. Wong: I thought it was cool. But I guess it depends on whether you think it's a good idea to begin with. I've heard a lot of young adults say they like it because it's hip and reminds them of a lounge, and I've heard a few older people say they don't care about or care for it. |
12:35 | Nicole C. Wong: Adam Wells, Virgin America's fourth employee and the designer of the moodlighting, told me it subtly shifts through 12 shades of indigo, purple and pink. So subtly that passengers shouldn't be able to notice it's changing. What's really interesting is idea behind it: |
12:37 | Nicole C. Wong: The moodlighting is supposed to help passenger ease into the destination's time zone, especially on a red-eye flight (which is handy for Boston-bound travelers). |
12:39 | Nicole C. Wong: Adam said on other airlines, the flight crew turns on the lights at the end of the red eye and, in an almost authoritarian way, tells passengers it's time to wake up. On Virgin, the moodlighting gradually brightens and eases you out of your sleep, no squinting to block out the harsh bright lights. |
12:39 | Nicole C. Wong: It's that same underlying freedom of choice as the food system. |
12:40 | [Comment From Anastasia] What about the leg room and XM Radio, features that Jetblue currently has. |
12:44 | Nicole C. Wong: JetBlue has more legroom than Virgin America, but I thought Virgin America's seats still had enough space. JetBlue has two more inches of space (resulting in 34" seat pitch) between standard economy rows than Virgin America does. Both airlines have a few rows with even more legroom that you can pay extra to sit in. |
12:45 | Nicole C. Wong: And Virgin America also has 20 channels of streaming radio. That's free, too. |
12:45 | [Comment From kevin] Any chance of them flying to Florida in the near future? |
12:45 | Nicole C. Wong: CEO David Cush said he's interested in flying to Chicago, Newark, and Miami. |
12:46 | Nicole C. Wong: Those are the top cities on their short list. |
12:46 | [Comment From Anastasia] Nicole, it is unclear from your above answer to the question whether Virgin America charges for non-alcoholic drinks |
12:47 | Nicole C. Wong: Oh, sorry. Some non-alcoholic drinks are free (the standard ones you'd get for free on most of the other airlines) and special non-alcoholic drinks cost a few dollars. Here's the rundown: |
12:48 | Nicole C. Wong: Complimentary drinks: coke, diet coke, ginger ale, sprite, sprite zero, tonic water, seltzer water, apple juice, cranapple juice, tomato juice, bloody mary mix, spring water, coofee, breakfast black tea. |
12:48 | Nicole C. Wong: Purchased drinks: $1 for jasmine green tea, lichee red tea, hibiscus herbal tea. $3 for rockstar energy drink. |
12:49 | [Comment From Matt] Can you tell us about the Wi-Fi Virgin will offer? |
12:51 | Nicole C. Wong: Boston travelers are lucky because Virgin America is rolling out inflight WiFi first on its two Boston routes, since they're the longest flights, and gradually through June on the other routes (like the ones that go up and down the West Coast). Starting today, you can purchase inflight WiFi access for $12.95 per transcontinental flight. |
12:51 | [Comment From Steven Meyer] Which cities in the U.S. will be served by Virgin ? |
12:52 | Nicole C. Wong: Eight as of today: Boston, NY, DC, SF, LA, Seattle, San Diego, Las Vegas. |
12:53 | Nicole C. Wong: It will start serving Orange County, Calif., on April 30 |
12:53 | [Comment From Rich] I'm flying to SFO this weekend with my wife, and our seats ended up separated. Any chance you can pull some strings and get me and her adjoining "select" seats? I'd be very appreciative... More generally, any early word on check-in and staff? Is it a smooth start? |
12:55 | Nicole C. Wong: Haha, sorry. I'm just a lowly reporter. Your flight will probably be pretty packed. Virgin's sales director told me yesterday that the two Boston routes are the heaviest booked out of all of Virgin's transcontinental routes (ie, NY and DC to West Coast) for February through April. That surprised them because usually new routes take several months to build awareness and gain traction. They attribute the sudden burst of bookings to Bostonians being tech-savvy and appreciating their in-flight amenities. |
12:56 | Nicole C. Wong: When I flew out of New York and San Francisco last week, checking in at the airport kiosks were a breeze. No lines. Probably because everyone else checked in at home. The kiosks work well, but they take longer than other airlines' check-in kiosks take. The CEO told me they're working on streamlining the kiosk process from 5 screens to 3 screens. |
12:58 | Nicole C. Wong: Also, when I checked in at the kiosks, the reservation didn't include my frequent flier number, even though that was on the printed confirmation. I kept trying to add it at the kiosk, and the system said it didn't recognize my frequent flier number. An airline ticket counter agent came over (they are very good about greeting passengers using the kiosks and asking if they need anything) and couldn't figure out why it wasn't working, but he added it to my reservation back at the ticket counter. |
12:58 | [Comment From Eric] how about the flight crew, did they seem like pretty happy people? I don't mean fake, overly scripted happy, I mean genuinely happy with their jobs so that they're friendly. I find that you can really tell an attitude difference between airlines where the employees are happy and ones where they're not. |
1:01 | Nicole C. Wong: The ones on my flights were quite pleasant and friendly. I hung out for a while at the back of the plane, near the restrooms, to interview passengers. And I was surprised to see the flight attendants opened the restroom door for every approaching passenger. I've never seen that on any other airline before. Usually the attendants point to where the restroom is or nicely tells you that it's occupied. I'm not sure if they were opening the doors for passengers because I was standing there... Anyone else experience that? |
1:01 | [Comment From CraigB] does every seat have a power plug? If so, is it a proprietary jack (that would require something like an I-Go adapter) or a standard 110V jack? |
1:02 | Nicole C. Wong: There are two electrical outlets for each row of three seats. It's a standard 110V jack. |
1:02 | [Comment From Chris...] What was Richard Branson thinking traveling in drag with heels and tights? Great stunf to gather publicity... |
1:03 | Nicole C. Wong: He was pretending to be a drag queen stepping off a flight from San Francisco. (Although he actually wasn't on that flight. I was interviewing him before the press conference and snapped this photo of him editing his speech backstage before the flight landed: http://twitpic.com/1g00f) |
1:07 | Nicole C. Wong: He also was trying to make a funny statement about being American. Because American Airlines asked the US Department of Transportation this week to investigate whether Virgin America is truly an American air carrier or if Branson's investments violate the federal foreign-ownership rules. More info in this story: http://ginx.com/-x5ZF |
1:08 | [Comment From Darlene Lipp] I am flying from Boston to Los Angeles tonight and am so excitted! What shall i expect? |
1:12 | Nicole C. Wong: Well, in addition to the above-mentioned moodlighting, TV and streaming radio channels at every seat, and on-demand food, you can also play video games on the seatback entertainment systems. There is a controller tucked into your seat armrest. You also can use the controller to send text messages to individual passengers on the flight using the seat-to-seat text-messaging system. To do that, you pull up the plane's seating chart, pick which "seat" you want to talk to, and send a request. If that person accepts, you can type out instant messages. Or you can talk to several passengers at once in the inflight chatrooms. Although I have to warn you, typing on those controllers is really hard. The long rectangular controllers are not as easy to hold and type on as a BlackBerry. And the hard, tiny buttons hurt. I interviewed passengers using the seat-to-seat text messaging, and if I had typed any longer I probably would have developed callouses on my fingertips. |
1:14 | Nicole C. Wong: The other thing you can expect is music playing in the restrooms. The airline rotates different custom soundtracks, usually lounge or trance music. The designers were telling me at one point they considered putting an inflight entertainment system (the kind you have at your seat) in the restrooms, but they couldn't figure out where to put it. |
1:14 | [Comment From Katie] will Virgin Atlantic be providing any services from Boston to the Caribbean? |
1:16 | Nicole C. Wong: They haven't said publicly that they're trying to fly to the Caribbean. |
1:16 | [Comment From Chuck] The only thing that sounded a little iffy was that the seatback screens are touchscreens, rather than having the control in the armrest. Did you find yourself getting "poked in the back" a lot by the person in the seat behind you? |
1:17 | Nicole C. Wong: Each seat has both a touchscreen and a remote control in the armrest. Which one the passenger sitting behind you will choose to use though is another question. The flight crew reminds passengers during the take-off announcement to "touch lightly." Probably because they've received complaints about poking that jolts the seat of the passenger sitting in front of you. |
1:20 | Nicole C. Wong: On both my flights, all the seats in the last row of the plane were snatched up early. On other airlines, those usually are some of the last seats to be filled because they don't recline as far as seats in other rows (and they're right next to the restrooms, so it's often noiser with hoovering passengers). But on Virgin America, it seems the redeeming virtue of the last row is there are no touchscreens on the back of those seats to be annoyed about. |
1:23 | [Comment From Mike] How about seat width, pitch and general comfort? |
1:26 | Nicole C. Wong: A few passengers told me they thought the seat width was slightly narrower than JetBlue's. But when I asked JetBlue about this, they think their seats are the same width. Virgin America's seats have 32" seat pitch. And they're comfortable to sit in. Big black leather cushions, lumbar support, and adjustable headrests that you can move up or down, tile, and curve so your head doesn't flop around if you fall asleep. |
1:27 | [Comment From SK] Is there a checked baggage fee? |
1:27 | Nicole C. Wong: First checked bag is free. |
1:28 | [Comment From Mike Liu] Do miles flown on Virgin America accrue toward benefits on Virgin Galactic? |
1:32 | Nicole C. Wong: Haha, maybe one day.... But how many Virgin America flights would you need to take to earn a free ticket on Richard Branson's spaceship? He actually talked about that yesterday. His spaceship will seat six passengers, and he will be on the first flight with his son and daughter. (His wife is not a thrill-seeker.) I wonder who the other three passengers will be... He expects the inaugural spaceship to leave the hangar toward the end of the year. |
1:34 | Nicole C. Wong: Ok, it's been fun chatting with all of you! Thanks for your great questions. If you fly Virgin America (or any other airline to or from Boston), I'd love to hear what you think, both the good and the bad. Feel free to send your thoughts to me at nwong@globe.com. Have a great afternoon! |
1:35 |  |
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It's great to see another airline fly non-stop from Boston to San Francisco for a cheaper price. I booked my flight over 2 months ago because the price was roughly $80 cheaper when compared to the larger carriers :-) Can't wait to fly in the newly designed Airbus.
Hi Nicole,
How comfortable was it flying in the newly designed Airbus? The airplane looks really sharp. Did the interior lighting (change of colors) make a difference in the way you felt during your flight?
For two days, I have been trying to use the Virgin Airways website but it is surprisingly difficult and a supreme waste of time if you are flexible and with to "shop" for a good flight. If you attempt to book a flight from Boston, the site will not allow you to see what other US cities you can fly into and there is no visual map of any kind to guage where the airline flys direct from Boston. First impression: this airline likes to be "splashy" about customer service overtures but in terms of the basics----this is Not a customer-oriented company
[Not sure if I submitted this correctly the first time]
Do miles flown on Virgin America count toward benefits on Virgin Galactic? Is it something touched on by Richard Branson or other managers with whom you've been in contact?
This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.
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