An update to round out my trip from a few weeks ago ... after taking the train from San Francisco to Seattle with a few days in Portland (which I can definitely recommend doing if you have the time!), it came time for me to fly back home. My routing (across separate tickets no less) was:
SEA-SFO VX F
SFO-LAX VX MCS
LAX-MEL VA whY+
You'll need to forgive the lack of photos -- I've got a few blurry ones from my phone, but I didn't feel like dragging out my big camera on the way back home, so there's really not much to look at.
Flying with VX was interesting.
QF009 has posted
a thread about them recently, and I agree on all points -- it's a v different experience to what I'm used to with AA, and mostly in a good way. Once you're in the air, they're probably the best short-haul carrier in the US by a long margin! Sadly, their ground service is lacking a little; here's a quick run down:
- No recognition of partner airline status, therefore..
- Priority check-in and security only available to Main Cabin Select and First pax
- No lounges!
- That said, the VS Clubhouse at SFO (which VX pax can pay for) is at least 8 kinds of awesome
I also successfully managed to get away with not checking any luggage during this trip (and I certainly should have been forced to; still not quite sure how I managed that), which made things nice and easy once I got back home.
So, without further ado..
VX 753 SEA-SFO
I decided to get out to the airport on the cheap and as close to departure time as possible, seeing as there is no lounge facility for VX pax at SEA. Departed my hotel (W Seattle, nice hotel, great resto but not very "W-ish"), took the stupidly cheap light rail ($2.50 one way!) from the Metro stop two blocks away out to the airport. Quite efficient! Made my way to check in and collected a boarding card; was disappointed to find that VX can't/won't issue all boarding passes for that day's travel, nor can they access VA systems at all -- something that they need to fix, as it compares v poorly to QF/AA. Anyway. Through security relatively quickly, stopped in for caffeine and straight over to the boarding gate, which was poorly organised.. boarding wasn't being policed appropriately at all, "gate lice" everywhere. Not great. Finally made it to my seat and managed to get all my cough in the overhead lockers (yay!), followed promptly by a wonderful FA offering to get me something from the bar. Gin sounds like a good idea to me!
The F seat is quite comfortable, though I'm not sure why they thought that white leather would be a good idea. Not exactly a low-maintenance colour! The seats weren't exactly dirty, but they are definitely showing signs of wear. Also odd with the seat is the fact that there's no underseat stowage anywhere in F; the FA explained that while
in theory there's space under the seat, the design of the seat means that anything under it would get crushed just as soon as the seat was reclined..!
[size=-2]VX F seat[/size]
[size=-2]VX F legroom[/size]
A light meal service was offered during the flight, but of course -- no vegetarian options. The FA offered a packet of mixed pretzels and frequent gin refills by way of apologies, which were gladly accepted.
[size=-2]Note the vegetarian gin, vegetarian cheese plate and vegetarian pretzels![/size]
All told, it was a pretty pleasant experience. Made it in to SFO International mostly on time, out through security to get the next boarding pass and immediately struck a problem: the staff at the check-in desk couldn't find my lounge access purchase on their systems. First they told me I hadn't paid, then I wasn't entitled to access .. one supervisor, proof of purchase and re-reading of the rules on the VX website later, they finally conceded that I was indeed entitled to use the lounge and furnished me with a lounge pass.
What happened was I had purchased lounge access in conjunction with my
inbound ticket, not my
outbound ticket. They couldn't see how that was possible or feasible, but I showed them my receipt and pointed out on the website that "Guests must be flying a Virgin America flight within 90 minutes of the hours of operation of the clubhouse to use the facilities." Nothing whatsoever mentioning outbound flights only (and even if there was, I would have qualified with my next flight). Another example of why it pays to carry e-tickets and to know rules relating to priority anything and lounge access!
