Review: Alaska Airlines Main Cabin 737-900 Los Angeles to Seattle
Review: Virgin America Economy A320-200 Seattle to Los Angeles
YOUTUBE: Alaska Airlines: Los Angeles to Seattle
YOUTUBE: Virgin America: Seattle to Los Angeles
It’s sad that Virgin America technically does not exist anymore since it was bought by Alaska. I very much enjoy their first class product, but not economy so much and this flight might help explain why. But anyways, it was an ok flight, though I would have liked to have seen certain aspects of the flight be better.
So we arrived at SeaTac pretty late actually. From the time we arrived at the airport, we had under an hour to departure. I was not too worried considering the fact that we were TSA-prechecked so security would not be that bad. Indeed it was not. We got our boarding passes and were through in 10 minutes! Wow!
Time for some spotting:
Just before boarding, the sunset was a nice sight to see as well, which I could not miss taking a photo of, and an Alaska 737 in the back
Soon enough we began to board, and coincidentally the famous football player Richard Sherman was on our flight in First Class.
Virgin America
SEA-LAX Airbus A320-200
The cabin had a pretty cool mood color as we got on board giving it a sort of disco party feeling. The seats on this A320 were 2-2 in first class, and 3-3 in economy. Either way, the spacing was nice, and I liked the feel the cabin had. It’s enough light to see around you, but enough to the point that you can easily rest if you so wished to.
The seats were similar to those of Alaska. They were not excellent, but perfectly comfortable for a 2.5-hour flight down to Los Angeles. The seats had cushioning, but that slightly became hard on you after a couple of hours.
Departure was on time sometime shortly after 8, and we were ready to go. It’s very long, but I love Virgin America’s safety video. In the youtube video for this flight, I was constantly alternating between recording the engine start and the safety video. But soon we were started and were on our way to runway 34R for departure.
Takeoff started off smooth but became a little choppy after 1,000 feet for a bit, no idea why maybe some wake turbulence, but there was not even a plane that took off immediately before us. The flight was pure darkness for the rest of the way down the states to California:
I tried to take a burst so I could get one lucky shot with the anti-collision light illuminating the wing, and sure enough, I did!
Here is another look at VX’s cabin from the very back of the plane. Like I said earlier, the mood lighting was nice, but purple isn’t my favorite color.
Ok, so I did not take a picture of the food because it was too dark, but here is how it went: we brought food from the airport because this flight ran a little though our dinner time, so we wanted to eat. But from the flight, they gave a complimentary drink. There was no complimentary peanuts, pretzels, or any snack, just the drink. I knew I was not going to get a full international long haul meal, but I expected some snack. This was one thing I did not like, but there was not much I could do about that.
Eventually, we were reaching Palmdale which is a desert city north of Los Angeles:
Below, we were in San Fernando valley in which we are entering an area that is a part of Los Angeles:
Now we were on downwind entering the pattern to touchdown into LAX
Here is a picture of Westwood roughly, the city where UCLA is in Los Angeles.
Downtown LA:
Anyways, soon after hitting our base leg, and turning onto final, we had a gentle touchdown on runway 24R and taxi to the gate. Below are some pictures of other Virgin America planes after parking at terminal 3.
Overall, this was an ok flight, and it wasn’t entirely Virgin’s fault. The mood of the flight was great, but I wish they at least served some snack which other airlines that I like less than Virgin America actually do. And I also wish I were sitting on the right side of the plane so I could’ve enjoyed the lovely sky the whole way down, but that isn’t in any way Virgin’s fault. Would I fly Virgin again? Yes I would, but who knows, they aren’t going to be around much longer because Alaska Airlines bought them and are going to start retrofitting soon. They already have planned the date for the merger of the frequent flyer programs: Virgin America Elevate and Alaska Mileage Plan to be January 1st, 2018. So I would gladly fly them again, but it depends on if I will get to before the full takeover of Alaska.