Ron Bernthal, a frequent contributor to both eFlyer and Global Traveler, has written a review of Virgin America’s relatively new transcontinental service for the March 26th edition of eFlyer, and I was trying to think of a way to run the cabin picture in my blog other than just saying, here’s a pic of a flight that Ron took.  And then I realized that I sort of feel like the airline’s grandmother.

The reason I say that is, Virgin Atlantic — Virgin America’s “parent” — was “born” in 1984, when it flew its first transatlantic flights between New York and London. And so was my daughter. Fortunately (since I’m not in any hurry to see my daughter settle down, get married and have kids — she’s just 23) I don’t have any grandchildren yet, but my granddog was born the same year as Virgin America, does that count?

Anyway, it reminds me of the 10th birthday of both the airline and my daughter. I rented a flat in London and took both my daughter and my mother with me, so that I could get some business done and still do some sightseeing with them. We flew Virgin Atlantic. My daughter got the kid’s backpack, full of goodies; I also got a T-shirt (though it might have been a PR thing). The backpack and the kid’s baseball hat were both red, my daughter’s favorite color. And the T-shirt had a big 10 on it, which of course, her being 10, she wanted.

 There is nothing like having to take “presents” away from a kid. You try explaining to a 10-year-old why you don’t want her wearing these cute kid-size things (hat and backpack) both emblazoned with the company logo in white on red: “Virgin.” Somehow I just didn’t think my cute little prepubescent daughter needed to be advertising that.

So then there was the T-shirt. Sure, it had a 10 — as part of a phrase that said, “The only Virgin that’s been going strong for 10 years.” Fortunately it was adult-sized, so — since I was already in the doghouse for somehow “losing” the hat and backpack — I let her wear it as a nightshirt, and made sure I gave her chocolate ice cream with chocolate syrup for a bedtime snack; that ensured that it would be stained enough (10-year-olds are still messy eaters, by and large) that she wouldn’t wear it out of the house.

Nowadays it seems like Virgin Atlantic has caught on; the kids’ goodies seem to say Virgin Atlantic and K-id, and not just Virgin. As Ron says in his article, the airline is more experienced and savvy than the name implies.

Anyway, here’s a picture of the interior of the Virgin America cabin, complete with mood lighting.

–Mary Hunt, editor, eFlyer

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 23rd, 2008 at 7:07 am and is filed under Amenities, Family, Mary's Blog, Airlines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.