Flying US internally

[notzac]

...but my concern is priority boarding with DL I can't find any mention of it on the VA website. I'm guessing it doesn't exist for Velocity Status pax, anyone have any experiences they could share please?

As I understand it - no, no priority anything for VA frequent flyers. Looking at DL's "Sky Priority" page (Delta Sky Priority) which covers the benefits you're looking for, there's no mention of VA frequent flyers being allowed to be happy.

Hi Virgin, this is something you guys really need to work on. :-|

 

[Jama]

Pretty much. No one gets free lounge access on Virgin America. The only lounges they have access to are ones all their passengers have to pay for.

Boy I am glad not to be in a country where status level is meaningless and yearly lounge membership options for the rest are non existent.

Is this how it is accross the board in the US ?

 

[chrisjrn]

Is this how it is accross the board in the US?

No, VX is a relatively young and small airline and so lounges are probably low on their list of priorities...

 

[Verde]

Looks like I am well buggered then with my DL flights in April/May this year...

LOL...

I've only flown twice with Delta, but they were pleasant enough (if far from long haul).

Admittedly my first flight with them was in First (2010 SLC to LAX), but check-in was fast and smooth with the lady very helpful, boarding straight forward and with no issues (I think I went first because it was a cheap fare and difference between Y with luggage fees and F with luggage included/no-fees wasn't too significant). I wouldn't be stressing about it.

In 2011 I had a regular economy flight from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City which was also smooth enough. I think there was a brief queue to check luggage but it all went without any difficulties (can't say I am a fan of LAS airport, though at least the video clips they had running while you waited to clear security were amusing).

I actually thought they might be a nudge better than "average" US airlines since their roll out of in-flight wi-fi seemed ahead of most. With my minimal experience, I'd rate them better than United and probably AA too.

 

[TimB]

I agree with others, do not fly Delta....I repeat do not fly Delta. I have flown Vegas to New York with Delta and New York to San Francisco, San Francisco to San Diego with Virgin America and would never fly Delta again until they make some changes. The Virgin Planes were new and have the cabin trim that we are converting to here. The staff were friendly and helpful compared to the obviously union tied Delta.

The Delta staff you refer to as "obviously union tied" are in fact non-unionised, except for the pilots.

I flew five sectors in Delta first class in December. I've also flown AA (mostly first class, but some coach), Virgin America and JetBlue recently, which is the basis of the comparisons I'm making.

While I agree that the Virgin America planes are newer (generally) and have a flashier cabin, my experience of Delta was fine. I found the cabin crew were very friendly and helpful, and generally better than AA. However, the food on Delta wasn't as good as AA, and they didn't serve meals on shorter sectors (even in first) where AA would have. However, I haven't flown economy on Delta, and imagine that it would be as miserable as economy on any of the US legacy carriers.

Virgin America and JetBlue do have decent economy products, and are good options if they fly where you need to go. (JetBlue of course isn't part of Virgin's Velocity program, but it's a good comparison point.)

Others have commented on the questions of luggage and lounge access with Delta and Virgin America. The only thing I can add there is that you need to be prepared to persuade the Delta lounge agents to let you in with your Gold/Platinum Velocity card. The first time I went to the lounge in ATL, they'd never seen the card before and didn't know what it was or that it conferred access; the woman looked it up in her computer and happily let me in. However, the second time at ATL a week later, a different agent asserted that the card didn't give me access; I said that if she consulted her computer she'd discover that it did, and she grumpily let me in.

 

[mabur4]

Just like to thank everyone for responding to my original post. Really appreciate the feedback and will be booking with Virgin America. Not only have they had good feedback but the prices for business class ive looked at seem good value.