Virgin America - The Best Flight Delay Experience

I encountered my first memorable airport delay, and I’m very surprised how it turned out. The planned trip to come home for Chinese New Year was done at the end of October 2011, scoring a sweet (but annually predictable) $90 RT from LAX to SFO. Then the long awaited winter storm finally came.

It all started with a very long work week. 14hr days flew by and I still felt I needed more time. The feeling of a Wednesday feeling like a Thursday was all too familiar. On Friday, I blew through a 3hr jobwalk in an hour and was able to leave by noon, hoping to catch the 1:35pm flight. Found a cozy spot on the 5^th floor of my usual airport parking structure but didn’t make it through security until 1:30pm. By then, I had learned the flight I had hoped for was heavily delayed due to SFO’s strict guidelines on bad weather.

Photo courtesty of http://www.virginamerica.com/

For those that don’t know, I’m a huge Virgin America fan. Their frequent flyer program is fine-tuned for short distance flights like LAX-SFO, and combined with their credit card the 8x points earned means a free flight home is much easier to obtain. I’ve never had problems hopping onto an earlier standby flight, and was even able to sneak into an earlier one since I’m usually 2hrs early to the gate. But today was no such hope as ALL afternoon flights were delayed from LAX to SFO. It was 2pm, my original 5:35pm flight pushed to 7pm, and people starting to slowly trickle in to go back home.

Luckily, the VX people are always helpful and advised me which flights had fewer standbys which would increase my chance of leaving earlier. VX has a great standby system in which you can either be unconfirmed (free) or confirm your seat ($25). There was a “main cabin select” (VX’s premium economy designation) available, but the standard upgrade was $39 (free baggage, still a good deal). However, in order to confirm that seat, I’d have to pay the $25 on top of the $39 upgrade fee. Not a bad dent to an original $90 RT flight, but with every flight delayed I wasn’t sure if there was any benefit in the long run besides free booze. Flight 933, which was scheduled to depart at 4pm had yet to have any standbys so I opted for one that would at least get me out an hour earlier. By now people had started to pour in. The time was 2:00pm.

Sushi here was not worth it at all

The lack of preparation started to affect my stomach, as one cup of rushed coffee and no breakfast or lunch meant the wait was going to be painful. I had opted not to bring my Starbucks gift card, and it was now sitting in the parking lot as the thought of an overpriced egg salad sandwich was dancing like sugarplum ferries. The old college trick of “bread fills all” kicked in and 20min later a moderately priced chowder bread bowl from Gladstone’s Fish Restaurant was being devoured. The restaurant itself was packed with everyone else who was delayed, and the frustration meant booze was flowing aplenty. For me, curled up and catching up on episodes was much more appealing than getting in a drunken sports debate.  I was ready to wait this night out; the laptop made me feel invincible.

As the late afternoon turned into early evening, the truth became evident; our flights were not going to be departing as expected. A cute couple plopped down in front of me and had a gateside picnic, while others paced back and forth, expressing their anger and frustration over  a power-starved smartphone. 6pm became 7pm, and 7pm became 8pm. The wife of the cute couple had already gotten frustrated and insisted that the husband book an American Airlines flight to Oakland airport, rather than SFO. As if on cue, the kid bluntly stated she needed to take a #2.  My Acer Timeline X finally ran out of batteries after 4 hours of nonstop video. All the charging kiosks were filled with thirsty iphones and androids, drained from the constant facebook updates and Pandora streaming. When it was finally announced that flight 933 was going to be boarding at 8:30pm, VX had pushed its last flights of the night all together to take off at 10:15pm. Then came the moment of truth, to see if the sold-out #933 would have enough frustrated people bailing out so I could go home and see Cheese.


Seeing everyone crowded around the customer kiosk, I was a bit irked as I’d already seen a few people try and hope it was still 1980 and they could get a standby ticket despite all previous flights sold out. Most look like they just got to the airport and failed to realize many on standby arrived the same time as me. The attendant started printing the tickets, but I was too nervous to count how many she printed to calculate my odds. Going alphabetically didn’t help either as I was forever a Wong and never a Huang. But on the last ticket available, my name was called and I finally felt like things were looking up. 933 had already boarded and I rushed down the concourse, hoping that overhead space was still available and some idiot didn’t shove a purse or messenger bag above rather than inconvenience their feet from stretching out.

11C was my designated oasis from the crowded Terminal 3. I saw some empty seats, probably belonging to people who had requested standbys but never heard their name and opportunity to leave the mayhem of LAX. At 9pm, a voice came over the intercom: “Apologies, but we missed our flight window to take off. We want to fill all the seats, and due to this inconvenience we are now to depart at 10:15pm.”

Of course, groans echoed through the cabin, and coupled with the fact that FAA regulations do not allow the serving of food prior to takeoff (water was passed out), some people just started getting annoying.  The person sitting next to me shared the same viewpoint: better safe and late than DOA. Furthermore, we were already on the plane, did not have to worry like those still in the gate, and most importantly each economy seat on VX had a power outlet. No longer did I have to fight with the 400+ people in the terminal like a hungry piglet fighting for some nutrients, as the utters of electricity was a standard feature on all VX flights. My procrastination of not transferring all my House of Air time lapse vids and Costa Rica trip off the 750GB laptop also meant I could kill time with nostalgia.

House of Air's catwalk under construction, circa Summer 2010

drainage was pretty poor; huge puddles just built up right in front of the exit of Terminal 2

And so, an hour later with turbulence that actually made me nauseous, I was finally back home. At midnight. What an exciting 12 hour adventure; to me the weather delay wasn’t even a problem. It was just interesting how people handled the situation at LAX, some thought they could receive special treatment, others opted to forfeit their ticket price and buy a second one the next morning. And the family that left the gate to peruse the American Airlines flight to OAK? I had warned them about the Occupy protest, so hopefully their trip was ok.

getting picked up at departure is better for late night arrivals

Like any other delay, your frustration and complaints won’t make the FAA change its rules.  A lady sitting in front of me called the attendant over to voice her displeasure that the pilot didn’t take off during our window of opportunity and instead made everyone wait an hour more.  One must vent their frustrations, be it steam or explosion, but in the end it’s no use stressing over something you can’t change. Virgin America already had enough amenities and provisions to entertain you no matter how long you’re on the tarmac; bigger airlines frankly won’t give a rat’s ass. Be glad you have a seat, be glad the flight isn’t completely canceled, and just overall – be glad.

Oh yeah, I also got this in my inbox this morning. Serious brownie points to Virgin America; you may not have the best customer phone service, but everything else is at least better than the competition.