Virgin America is the new jetBlue

When jetBlue first rolled out in 2001, I was one of the early adopters. No first class, all leather seats, DirectTV… WHAT, TV on a plane? Why didn’t anyone think of that before. After watching television on a trip from Ft. Lauderdale to New York, I was hooked. How could I possibly fly any other airline. Why would I want to fly any other airline.

So there it is. JetBlue figured out what jet setters wanted and boy did they deliver. Did I care about the simple snacks served on jetBlue? Those terraBLUE chips. (Okay, I get it, I get it), those cookies, and all the other tasty morsels they offer. The snacks are unlimited and you can eat as many snacks as you wish. They even give you little bottles of water. Doesn’t this make sense on a plane. It sure beats those sad little cups of water those other airlines offer.

Once upon a time in the 70’s, a new airline named Southwest debuted and they changed air travel forever. They were incredibly successful. However, along came JetBlue and they one-upped Southwest and beat them at their own game.

Enter Virgin America into the already crowded airline space. Do we need yet another airline? If it’s Virgin – The answer is YES! – we need it. Richard Branson has built one of the strongest brands in the world. What other brand name do you know of that contains, record stores, cola, mobile phones, etc. When Branson rolls out a new segment under the Virgin brand name, we’re already familiar with it. We know it. We know what to expect. We’re excited because we know that innovation is built in.

Virgin America has a hot look and feel. It looks similar to Virgin Atlantic but is that much hipper. They have a cool frequent flyer program called EleVAtion. Ahh, nice. Of course they don’t actually use the old tired words “frequent flyer program” in a brilliant move to distinguish themselves from what little competition they have.

Virgin America IS the new jetBlue.

Virgin America offers several new features never before seen on a plane. (or at least to my knowledge) Innovative new seats. You’ve never seen airline seats like this before. Stylish, hip, and… different. But what makes these seats so revolutionary is what they have built into them You can now plug your laptop into the standard 120 plug. How about a USB outlet. Yes please. How about Internet connectivity via a CAT-5 cable. YES! Why didn’t anybody think of this before? You mean I can know design on my Apple powerbook, listen to music on my iPod/Iphone and not have to worry about running out of juice… incredible. I’m about to hop off the jetBlue train and gleefully jump on the Virgin party bus.

The only downside is I have to wait until they offer more routes. I’ll can’t wait!

I’m excited once again about air travel. Thank you Richard Branson for bringing it to America!