Airline Review: Virgin America

I had never heard of Virgin America until I did an airfare search using Kayak.com for my recent trip from Boston to San Francisco. They had a fare of US$230 roundtrip, including taxes and so naturally I jumped at the chance and booked the fare. My experience of the airline was overall great. At the Boston airport, Virgin America has their own gate and luggage check in, so it took around 10 minutes to check in and go through security. Downside was that there was only 1 food vendor in the gate area after security. For the actual flight, the planes are very nice and decked out. The seat back tv has around 25 free channels, a variety of games (ranging from the classic game Doom to word games) for free, you can chat with different seats on the plane using text messaging, and they also offer movies for sale. The leather seats were pretty standard. They offer free soft drinks, but no snack which was a bit of a bummer on our 6+ hr flight. On my red-eye flight back, I was amazed to discover I could buy sleeping pills using the touchscreen tv and my credit card (they don't use any cash). They also have mood lighting in the cabin, so it was shades of purple and pink and blue which was enjoyable as well. The flight attendants were pleasant and helpful and I have no complaints there. Last but not least, they have electric outlets at the bottom of the seats, so I could use my laptop on my 6 hour flight which I found to be very useful and a welcome surprise. Overall, a great airline, and I will try to use them again in the future!