Check out Virgin America’s new logo.
And keep in mind that tomorrow is April 1.
https://youtu.be/vGCUp_FduKc
Virgin America
How does a free trip to Hawaii sound?
It may still be hot and summery where you are, but come winter, a trip to Hawaii will probably sound mighty nice.
Especially if it’s all-expenses-paid.
Sound good?
To celebrate the launch of Virgin America service from San Fransisco into Honolulu on November 2 and into Maui on December 3, 2015 the airline has teamed up with Airbnb for a contest with prizes that include attending the inaugural celebration with Sir Richard Branson.
https://youtu.be/enl_qlg_rEI
Details about entering are here – but the grand prize includes a seat for you and a guest on the inaugural flight from San Francisco to Honolulu (with a return flight, of course) a three-night stay at a beachfront Airbnb estate with Sir Richard as the Airbnb host on the first night, invitation to all launch celebration activities, car rental, Go Pro camera and 12 hours of lessons from a professional kiteboarder.
Deadline for entering is September 30, 2015, with the drawing taking place on October 6. If you don’t win the grand prize, don’t give up: second and third place prizes are pretty darn nice as well.
Good luck!
Get smart: free classes on Virgin America flights
Courtesy National Library of Australia, via Flickr Commons
You might learn something new next time you take a Virgin American flight.
Starting February 1, free audio and video lectures from the popular series The Great Courses will be available on the airline’s Red in-flight entertainment system.
The series library runs to more than 530 titles and covers everything from history and music to science, literature, language, health, nutrition and personal development.
Virgin America will be offering these course samples:
• Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Inexplicable Universe; from the course, The Inexplicable Universe: Unsolved Mysteries (video)
• Cook Like a Pro Chef: Lessons From The Culinary Institute of America; from the course, The Everyday Gourmet: Rediscovering the Lost Art of Cooking (video)
• Sneferu – The Pyramid Builder; from the course, Great Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt
• Um, Well, Like, You Know; from the course, The Secret Life of Words: English Words and Their Origins
• Did Slavery Really Cause the Civil War?; from the course, The Skeptic’s Guide to American History
• The Enlightenment and an Introduction to the Classical Era; from the course, How to Listen to and Understand Great Music
• What is Big History?; from the course, Big History: The Big Bang, Life on Earth, and the Rise of Humanity
• Junk-Food Monkeys: What Happens When Baboons Eat like Us?; from the course, Being Human: Life Lessons from the Frontiers of Science
• Becoming a Spy; from the course, Espionage and Covert Operations: A Global History
• Making High-Stakes Decisions; from the course, The Art of Critical Decision Making
• Not All Carbs Are Created Equal; from the course, Nutrition Made Clear
• Creative Nonfiction: Writing Great Beginnings; from the course, Writing Creative Nonfiction
• How People Respond to Incentives; from the course, Thinking Like an Economist: A Guide to Rational Decision-Making.
Dallas Love Field gets a re-boot
Here are some snaps from Dallas Love Field, where celebrations were underway and finishing touches to the terminal were on display in celebration of the lifting of the Wright Amendment on Monday, October 13. The ruling, created in 1979 to foster growth at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, had imposed flight restrictions on long-haul flights from Love Field.
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Big day for Dallas Love Field
It’s a big day for Dallas Love Field.
The Wright Amendment – which since 1980 has imposed restrictions on air service and operations at Love Field – lifts today, October 13, 2014.
To mark the day, Southwest Airlines Chairman, President and CEO Gary Kelly will be taking boarding passes and sending off the airline’s first non-restricted flight of the day: Flight #1013 to Denver.
Southwest, which currently operates 16 of Love Field’s 20 gates, begins nonstop flights today from Love Field to Denver, Chicago, Baltimore/Washington, Washington, D.C. (Reagan National), Orlando, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles (LAX). On November 2, eight additional nonstop flights will start to New York (LaGuardia), Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa Bay, Phoenix, Orange County, and San Diego, Nashville, and Atlanta.
Virgin America, which is launching service at Love Field today from two gates, is kicking off the day with a very short “Downtown Express” flight that will travel from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to Dallas Love field with Sir Richard Branson on board and an inflight performance by Grammy award-winning country star Kacey Musgraves.
I’m going along for the ride and will share details from the day here.
Greetings from Dallas Love Field
Dallas Love Field is getting ready for its big day.
For years, the Wright Amendment placed tight restrictions on the flight services allowed to operate from Love Field. Most of those rules will be lifted on October 13 and that means lots of new direct flights and added service from carriers such as Southwest Airlines and Virgin America – and lots more passengers having the opportunity to travel through the new and improved terminal, which is filled with some really great art.
Here are some snaps from my pre-party tour of Love Field.
VIrgin America will operate two of the 20 gates at Love Field beginning on October 13
There’s still some drama over whether or not Delta Air Lines will get a space to operate at Love Field, but right now Southwest Airlines controls 16 of airport’s 20 gates, United has two gates and, starting October 13, Virgin America will have two gates.
The Love Field Art Program is already in place, with more than a dozen new and renewed works.
World Map – 1959 -by Luighi “Tony” Flabiano. courtesy Love Field & Office of Cultural Affairs
A detail from Sky – by Brower Hatcher & Marly Rogers. One of the art pieces at Love Field.
The play area at Love Field will have floating clouds and more play structures by October 13.
A Nursing Room is open – and waiting for some finishing touches as well.
More April 1 treats from WestJet & Virgin America
Lots of airline “news” today, April 1:
From Virgin America and Nest comes news of “personalized climate control” for passengers.
And from WestJet, the announcement that they’ll be changing their flight schedule over from a.m. & p.m. times to metric. Just to make things easier.
Spas at O’Hare & free ice-cream for Virgin America passengers
Good news for anyone who finds themselves stuck at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.
There are now full-service spas in the domestic terminals.
Terminal Getaway Spa, which already has a branch at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), has opened two branches at O’Hare: one in Terminal 1 near Gate B14 and another in Terminal 3 near Gate H1.
A third branch is scheduled to open this spring in the H/K Corridor, near the American Airlines Admirals Club.
Services on the menu include manicures, pedicures, massages and more.
And, if you’re flying on Virgin America out of San Francisco between March 4- June 30, you can get free ice-cream – on the ground.
As part of a roll-out for the new menu for first-class passengers on the airline’s long-haul business flights between San Francisco and Los Angeles to Newark, New York, Boston and Washington National Airport, the airline is offering travelers in any cabin a free scoop of Humphry Slocombe’s ice cream.
The San Francisco-based ice-cream maker has whipped up three ice cream flavors for Virgin American – Butter By Moodlight, Red-Hot Banana and Coconut Blond Ambition – and Virgin America is inviting the public to vote via Twitter on which should be the airline’s signature flavor served on board.
Free tastings took place at San Francisco International Airport on Feb. 20, but from March 4 – June 30, anyone showing a Virgin America boarding pass at either of the Humphry Slocombe’s two San Francisco locations (The Ferry Building & Mission) can get a free scoop.
In addition to the new first-class menu, Virgin America is also updating its First Class service settings with hot towel and linen table service available on all flights.
In-flight social gifting – the next big thing?
In a move to make flying a bit more friendly—and to raise revenues—airlines are bringing social media-style giving to the skies.
This week Southwest Airlines introduced a Facebook option that enables people to pool funds to buy a Southwest gift card for a friend or family member.
“It allows a group to come together to give a gift as a thank you or as congratulations for a wedding, a birthday or a major life milestone,” said Southwest spokesman Dan Landson.
In April, Virgin America introduced an in-flight, seat-to-seat drink and snack delivery program that Virgin Group founder Richard Branson described as a way passengers might increase their chances of “deplaning with a plus one.”
And earlier this month social media-savvy KLM introduced an option that expands on the Dutch airline popular program of surprising its passengers with personalized gifts.
The new KLM Wannagives lets people prepurchase gifts—from chocolate and perfume to jewelry or a Delft Blue singing, floating egg-timer—that are delivered by crew members to a passenger during a flight.
“The strength of Wannagives lies not in the fact that we give something extra to our customers, but that we enable people to give each other something special,” KLM’s social business manager Lonneke Verbiezen wrote in a blog post introducing the program.
It’s also a way for the airline and other companies to increase retail sales.
“There’s always a commercial component to these efforts, as there should be. This is business,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst with Hudson Crossing.
“Airlines are becoming much more entrepreneurial and innovative when it comes to securing additional revenues from passengers, be it via preordering duty free or investing in digital platforms for on-board retail,” said Raymond Kollau of Airlinetrends.com. “KLM’s Wannagives is a good example of airlines’ newly found retailing mind-set.”
Items made available as Wannagives are drawn from KLM’s current online shop, with a few products added. Since the program’s Dec. 9 rollout, Champagne with a crystal glass and Godiva chocolates are the most ordered items, said KLM spokesman Koen van Zijl.
“We think the service is a win-win for both our passengers and for the company,” van Zijl said. “We were asked often if it is possible to surprise a passenger on board, and Wannagives now makes this happen. And sure, we aim to increase in-flight sales.”
Looking forward to 2014, industry experts expect the social gifting trend to continue.
“In the digital world we live in, everyone craves more personal connection,” said Brian Erke, CEO and co-founder of social gifting site Gratafy. “This new adventure in simple yet personal gifting offers a sense of camaraderie and the ability to be there for someone, even when you can’t actually be there.”(M
(My story about in-flight social gifting first appeared on CNBC Road Warrior)