Virgin LAX Lounge

[Fantic125]

The VA website said T3 checkin didn't open until 3:30pm but when I wandered in at 3:00pm they had just set up and were happy to check me in. They gave me the purple lounge invite to get in, and going through security was fairly painless.

The food offering seems the same as previously described.

I like the ambience of the place. It's much less formal and more relaxed than most of the lounges I've been to, particularly if you can snaffle one of the red lounges / daybed thingies.

 

[lovestotravel]

Don't get me wrong, I'd LOVE for it to have a shower, but...
Is it an international lounge, or a VX domestic lounge that VA has access to for the evening international flights?

I am slightly confused as well but I am pretty sure that this lounge was the old Alaska Airlines lounge which has been renovated

 

[jneufeld]

They gave me the purple lounge invite to get in, and going through security was fairly painless.

Has the lounge always required one of these invites? How do you get one if you are coming off a connecting flight and don't need to recheck?

 

[Fruitcake]

Has the lounge always required one of these invites? How do you get one if you are coming off a connecting flight and don't need to recheck?

A VX staff member is quoted in an AusBT story as saying that Velocity status members need only to present their Velocity card for access.
PHOTO TOUR: inside Virgin America's swanky new Loft lounge at LAX - Flights | hotels | frequent flyer | business class - Australian Business Traveller

"Virgin Australia's Velocity Gold and Platinum members will have access to the LAX loft free of charge - they can present their card at the Virgin America Loft for access," Virgin America's PR manager Patricia Condon confirmed to Australian Business Traveller today.

The physical invite is probably just for show. I was given one in August.

 

[pat25d]

International lounge FAIL

At least SQ agrees with VA.

 

[Fantic125]

Don't get me wrong, I'd LOVE for it to have a shower, but...
Is it an international lounge, or a VX domestic lounge that VA has access to for the evening international flights?

It is an international lounge for VA departures from T3. You need to clear immigration to access the lounge.

 

[777]

I am extremely concerned that the VX web page says "no children under 12" -- you would hope that a VA Plat, Gold or J class passenger flying with their children would be admitted or this is a very spectacular fail as far as i'm concerned.

 

[777]

It is an international lounge for VA departures from T3. You need to clear immigration to access the lounge.

No, it's a hybrid domestic and international lounge. There is no immigration to clear in T3 -- the US doesn't work like that.

 

[Fruitcake]

It is an international lounge for VA departures from T3. You need to clear immigration to access the lounge.

There is no outbound immigration control in the USA. All passengers who have a flight departing from T3 (both domestic and international) will have physical access to the Loft (whether they'll be allowed inside is, of course, another matter!).

 

[Fantic125]

Has the lounge always required one of these invites? How do you get one if you are coming off a connecting flight and don't need to recheck?

I get the impression that there's still a slight disconnect between VA domestic and VA Int. Not being able to check in seamlessly between the two, even being transferred between them on the phone for queries, seat selection, etc. The lounge invite is IMHO the way they manage the easiest method of communicating access between the two.

Travelling from ADL-SYD-LAX my luggage was tagged through but I needed to go to the transfer lounge in SYD to get my SYD-LAX boarding pass.

 

[Fantic125]

There is no outbound immigration control in the USA. All passengers who have a flight departing from T3 (both domestic and international) will have physical access to the Loft (whether they'll be allowed inside is, of course, another matter!).

Sorry, my mistake, you are correct. I confused the boarding pass and photo ID check, followed by security check, as immigration control. ;-)

 

[Fruitcake]

I get the impression that there's still a slight disconnect between VA domestic and VA Int.

VA will probably be quite chuffed to hear you perceive the disconnect is only "slight" - it's actually an almost complete separation. The two operations run on completely separate IT platforms. You may have noticed some of the wild inconsistencies in their website - if you search for a long haul booking the look and feel of the website changes completely because your request is shunted off to Sabre. It's also why you can't really do any online booking management for a long haul flight. Domestic VA infrastructure can't talk to long haul infrastructure at all. Hence the difficulty in getting long haul boarding passes.

But only for another month!

 

[Fantic125]

Disaster in the lounge!

The first kegs finished or the lines blown and no one knows how to fix it.

Thankfully there's bottles to fall back on.

For their first shift I think they're doing pretty well.

 

[Fruitcake]

Disaster in the lounge!

The first kegs finished or the lines blown and no one knows how to fix it.

With a lounge that's going to be full of Australians every night, I'm sure they'll be pretty well practiced at fixing it!

 

[Justinf]

I missed the booze by literally a day and couldn't face going downstairs to Gladstones. I am so pissed off right now!

 

[Fantic125]

The beers back on line, the lounge is full, and the staff are doing a pretty good job.

I'm impressed. Just need to work on the showers now.

 

[MandM]

No, it's a hybrid domestic and international lounge. There is no immigration to clear in T3 -- the US doesn't work like that.

My questions was more in relation to having showers - if it is a VX domestic lounge (that VA uses in the evening), then are showers a realistic expectation? If, on the other hand, it is truely a hybrid domestic/international lounge, co-run by VA and VX, then showers certainly are a realistic expectation IMO. At the moment it seems to me to be the former seeing that it is being referred to as the Virgin America Loft, so we might be SOL in the want for showers.

 

[Fruitcake]

My questions was more in relation to having showers - if it is a VX domestic lounge (that VA uses in the evening), then are showers a realistic expectation? If, on the other hand, it is truely a hybrid domestic/international lounge, co-run by VA and VX, then showers certainly are a realistic expectation IMO.

I think that regardless of who has their name on the door, if VA is going to use it as their long haul lounge then they will need to sort out some showers. But based on my unskilled assessment of the lounge space back in August I don't think it's practical without a massive rebuild of the bathrooms and even then it would be impractically small (realistically you'd want at least four shower rooms available). Maybe there's other room nearby in T3 to have a dedicated shower/spa facility (like BA does at Heathrow, where the showers are downstairs from the lounge), but that's just speculation.

 

[EuroKick]

I thought the SQ Gold Lounge didn't even have toilets? IMHO, that's far worse!

 

[Fruitcake]

I thought the SQ Gold Lounge didn't even have toilets? IMHO, that's far worse!

Yes, but SQ has a good enough reputation that they can treat their customers with disdain and still engender loyalty. VA isn't quite there yet!!!