Virgin America

No, this isn't a pitch for a new reality tv show, I'm talking about the new airline.

So Sir Richard Branson has entered the american airline market and this is good news for us. Because not only is he attempting to win us over by good priced seating, the seating is good too. Can you say leather? And that's not all, let me give you a quick amenity breakdown:

1. Every seat is equipped with an in-flight entertainment device - IFE - (A 9" touchscreen running Linux that provides live satellite tv, 25 movies, mp3s, games and plane-wide chatting).
2. Yeah chatting. You can go from a general chat with the whole plane down to chatting with just one particular person. You could also chat with anyone watching the same thing you are - wait, I don't know if I can call that a feature...
   
3. If you make a playlist from the 3000 onboard songs it will save it and preload them the next time you fly.
   
4. Every seat includes 110v power, ethernet jack and USB port so you can plug in your computer, mp3 player, cell phone, etc. to charge/use (no you still can't use your phone).
   
5. There are even two wifi base stations onboard, with internet access promised sometime next year.
   
6. A completely cashless system, if you order food and drinks from the IFE, just swipe your card and the crew will bring it to you anytime during the flight. I don't know how much of a feature this is other then not having to remember to have cash with you and probably quicker service.
   
7. Their Airbus 320's are the first U.S. planes to have mood lighting which changes depending on the time of day.
   

So with any luck, they might not just start a pricing war with other airlines, but a customer service one as well. Even if the tickets were $20-40 more but I got to have the above over Southwest's uncomfortable stuffy experience...hmmmm...whatever would I do? I would think that other airlines will have to do more to win customers back then simply cutting prices anymore then they already have.

The only downside? They're not going to Seattle yet, only Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, San Francisco and DC. But they have rumors of Seattle and Miami next. So we'll see and maybe flying will become a little more fun and a little less annoying.

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