virgin america vs. jet blue

so we've flown both, and i gotta say virgin america seriously upped the ante on in-flight entertainment with their "red" system. you can watch tv, listen to albums, watch videos, play games, and chat with other passengers in other seats through the interface (although this is a bit strange). supposedly in the future they will include the functionality to "read" -- books perhaps? this wasn't working the last time we flew them, but they said it would be coming soon. "red" also has the ability to allow you to order food/drinks from your seat -- the flight attendants would bring them to your seats.

jet blue we thought was going to be great the first time we flew them a few years ago. they seemed to pioneer the whole "watch satellite tv on a plane" thing. though this was a novelty back then, and was pretty cool at first, we quickly grew to find out that the tv often would black out at the most inopportune times, due to "normal aircraft movement." this didn't happen half as often on the virgin america flights. maybe their dishes were in better places ;)

with virgin's "red" now, jet blue's basic satellite tv seems just...well...basic.

jet blue does get some bonus points for their excellent snacks (mmm blue chips and munchies). but i swear, their customer service is butt poor. we found that the baggage service for jet blue in jfk always made us wait to get our luggage. after the first time we flew with them, we waited over an hour and a half for our luggage -- this was at 1am in the morning as well. a jet blue representative came afterwards and gave us "fake" vouchers for our pains-- i say fake because they never honored them! virgin america misplaced one of our bags, but the representative gave us hourly updates by phone, and had a driver promptly drive the bag to our home once it was found.

maybe that's just the jfk airport, but it happened all 3 times we flew with jet blue. that baggage claim area by the way, is a very very depressing place to wait. it got so bad that we gave jet blue a new name. jet poo!

virgin also has a very cool instructional safety video-- very stylish and funny, a brilliant way to get people to pay attention to the same old important details!

also, being on a virgin plane feels a little like you're clubbin' -- not sure if that's a plus, but it's something? it definitely caters to the younger crowd. if you're considered 'old folk,' maybe jet blue would suit you better. not that jet blue is 'old,' but c'mon, they use the safest corporate color...blue. virgin goes with the flashy purples/pinks. make your own conclusions.

for our conclusion, although we've never had a flight more than 2 hours with virgin america, i'd have to give the edge to them. it was really quite a landslide. no contest.

anyways, keep in mind that however much we may bitch and moan about this and that, they are both better than all those other crappy airlines out there. but if you had a choice...