Chit-chat with Virgin America CEO David Cush about schedule changes
Virgin America announced that it will be altering flight schedules a little bit. In response to the obvious high fuel prices that are affecting most airlines, VA will trim its midweek off-peak flights and add flights on high-demand routes this fall. In other VA news, I read on the Cranky Flier that Virgin America had added a $10 fuel surcharge to short hops and $25 to cross-country fares. I didn’t think that was such a big deal considering there are so many extra fees being collected lately. What would make me cranky is if they dampened their VA party spirit and started charging for luggage — but thankfully they haven’t gone there yet.
Deal or no deal? I tested the route between Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO) in August midweek (Aug. 12-19) and it was $64 each way before tax on Virgin America. Flying on the same dates with United brought the price up to $119 one-way before tax, but it was also only $64 each way on Southwest before tax. (Note: Here’s the Southwest secret for keeping fares down.)
Now that you’ve got a little back story, let’s read the chat with Virgin America President and Chief Executive David Cush about the recent and forthcoming changes.
Jen Leo: First things first, are you coming to the Vegas party on Wednesday night?
David Cush: Sadly, I will not make the SuperFly flight, but I hear it is going to be quite the scene. And frankly, I don’t think the marketing folks want the CEO onboard. Primarily for liability reasons. That was a joke.
JL: Which Virgin America route do you fly the most and is that one of the ones that will see a cutback or an increase?
DC: There were no specific routes really impacted in this move. This is a trim to off-peak flying –- some midday flights on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. We are not removing lines of flying or routes. Our growth plans are unchanged and we still plan to expand: We just added a JFK-LAS route and hope to be in Chicago in a big way by year-end, pending FAA approval.
JL: Is VA eating some of the fuel costs on flights between L.A. and New York in order to keep the consumer costs down?
DC: Every airline out there is eating fuel costs right now. At current oil prices, it costs about $300 in fuel alone to fly one passenger round trip from SFO-JFK. Fortunately, we are in a much better position than the other guys, in that we have the newest fleet in the U.S., which is on average 30% more fuel efficient than the average fleet flying domestically. That same $300 cost is about $600 for the other guys flying older planes right now.
JL: When will you get the word on whether or not you can add Chicago?
DC: We don’t know, but we hope it is soon. The FAA has to give us official word. The lift on flight caps at ORD was encouraging. We hope to bring some healthy competition to an airport that has virtually no low-fare service to the West Coast at present with multiple flights a day from both LAX and SFO.
JL: Thanks for your time David!
Have you flown Virgin America yet? What destination are you hoping they’ll open up in the future?
— Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel Deal Blogger
[Photo: virginamerica.com]
10 Comments on “Chit-chat with Virgin America CEO David Cush about schedule changes”
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June 18th, 2008 at 10:59 am
I recently flew VA for the first time from JFK to SFO. I have over 1 Million miles combined on US Airways and Delta. I LOVED my Virgin experience. I will most definitely fly them again. I give them an A++ and highly recommend other flies to check them out.
June 18th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Would love to see Virgin fly to Dallas.
June 19th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
If VX flew from LAX to either Lexington or Louisville KY my life would be perfect. Chicago, too.
June 19th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
I have flown Virgin once and am scheduled to fly them again in September. My return flight on the Sept. trip was one of the ones cut by these schedule changes. Got a call from a human being (!) informing me of the change and was able to work out a refund for that leg of the flight and rebook on another airline, as the alternative flights offered by Virgin didn’t work with my schedule. I’m bummed that I won’t get to fly Virgin for my return, but appreciate the way they handled the situation in this tough market. I had to pay about $20 more for the flight on the other airline, but Virgin offered me a $25 credit in addition to the refund, which is about as good as it gets from airlines these days. Good customer service goes a long way and I will keep going out of my way to fly Virgin when I can.
June 26th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
I’ve flown Virgin America twice now, and am about to fly the LAX-IAD route next week. They’ve really impressed me with both their value and the customer service they offer. To echo a few of the other commenters, I also go out of my way to fly them whenever I can. If they opened up an IAD-JFK route, it’d be perfect.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:45 am
I few Virgin for the first time a few weeks ago and didn’t like it. The “mood lighting” on Virgin aircraft is so dark I couldn’t find my seat number without help from the flight attendant. If you fly on Virgin, bring a flashlight. I also found ordering drinks and snacks through the inflight enterntainment system hard to figure out. I’d rather the flight attendants came around with a cart like other airlines. While it wasn’t a bad experience, I wouldn’t fly Virgin a second time.
September 21st, 2008 at 12:48 pm
PDX would be great! (I think VA is already planning on it.) Also, Tri-Cities, WA area & even on to Moses Lake, WA. (Believe it or not, Moses Lake is the largest (longest, I think) airport in the U.S. & the alternate space shuttle landing site.) There are currently no commercial airlines flying into Moses Lake. (There used to be, but they stopped when the fuel crunch started.) And with companies moving into the area (Microsoft, About.com, Google, etc.) due to the low cost of electricity and the fiber optics, there could be a bigger market for business travel than one realizes. (Especially between Moses Lake & Seattle.)
That’s my two cents for now.
I love Virgin America. They will be very successful. They offer something no one else does….a quality experience at the lowest cost possible. Very, very cool! Thank you, Sir Branson, for bringing this airline to the U.S.
November 29th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
I recently flew Virgin America twice from NY to Las Vegas. On the first flight the in-flight television service did not work and they said it had something to do with the satellite service.
On the second flight I realized that the four channels that they said were working were actually just a tape of shows from that network. I realized this because there were no commercials.
I asked both the flight attendant closest to me and the crew chief. They both explained that the satellite wasn’t working right and it would probably come on sometime during the flight. I told them that the channels we were receiving were just a tape and not actually satellite TV as they advertise. They offered to comp me movies if I wouldn’t “make a big deal” of it.
I find this type of fraudulent advertising and duping the customer as appaling.
I plan on sending this to David Cush the CEO and have consulted a lawyer about a potential class-action suit. I took names from 35 fliers from both flights, who felt as duped as I as was.
Overall the service was very good, but some people (especially those flying cross-country) find the satellite TV (like Jet Blue delivers) as a big selling point.
If VA doesn’t have it, they should let the customer know.
February 18th, 2009 at 8:18 am
Hi
My name is Shaq Taha, I live in VA and visited CA for a few days. I usually visit CA four to five time s a year. I usually fly Jet Blue, but my wife wanted to try Virgin America because she heard so many good things about it. I hate to say that it was a very bad experience. On the way to SFO we needed more leg room because we flew with our 10 weeks old son. Unfortunately we didn’t know that the seat we had doesn’t recline which gave us less space to deal with baby. On the way back, we had no TV, and the only reason I fly Jet Blue and agreed to fly Virgin America because of a TV. The reason of the E-mail is that I need a favor, my wife lost her iPhone on the way coming back. She used it on the plane and put on airplane mode, but every time she goes to the restroom to change the baby’s diapers, she puts it in the back of the seat with the safety instructions. We know we left it there because I put my iPhone there and I remembered to take mine, she forgot because we had to stay behind to change the baby again so had to rush out because the crew was already cleaning and vacuuming the airplane. I’m not asking for money, I want that phone because we had lots of information on that phone, we had one very important thing which is the baby’s pictures when he first was born until today. I know for a fact one of the crew members found it, while I hate to accuse anyone. Please help me find that same phone and I’m willing to reward who ever found it.
Flight information: VX84, Seats 20A and B, Conf # GBB2BM.
Thank you
Shaq Taha
Shack99@hotmail.com
201-341-6699
March 6th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
In response to Peter A:
Your claim that the television channels are nothing more than recorded programs is false. I flew VA last night from JFK to LAX and was flipping between FX and VH1 because of commercial breaks.
By the way, VA has probably the best customer service in the industry.