flirting

Virgin America’s new flirty feature

VIRGIN VEGAS 777

I admit it.

The reason I said yes to Virgin America’s invitation to fly on the first (party) flight from Los Angeles to Las Vegas (Flight #777 at the bottom of the screen above) on Monday was because Virgin Group Founder Sir Richard Branson would be on board and I wanted to see if the ‘sparkle’ was all hype.

I don’t think it is.

Virgin America Richard Branson and the showgirls

Richard Branson and the Vegas Showgirls. Photo by Harriet Baskas

 

Any guy would be in a good mood surrounded by Vegas showgirls, of course, and Branson was in there kissing the ladies and hamming it up. But when I was given a moment to ask him a quick question he was focused, serious and polite.

But back to the party.

During this flight Virgin America rolled out its new seat-to-seat delivery feature, which allows a passenger in one part of the plane to order a snack or a drink and have it delivered to someone else.

Richard Branson introduced the flirty feature with this video:

As part of the “get lucky” roll-out, the airline is having an on-line contest (prize: a trip to Las Vegas and a stay at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas) asking passengers to share the in-flight pick-up lines they might use with this feature.

Some people think the seat-to-seat delivery option is a great ice-breaking idea.

Others think it could create situations that are awkward and creepy.

The new feature is available – along with a seat-to-seat chat function – on Virgin America flights nationwide as part of the seat-back entertainment system. But it’s likely that few folks flying between Las Vegas and Los Angeles will get to try it out: the flight time for that route is just about one hour.