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About 40 minutes before our flight we left the Loft lounge and proceeded to gate 35. It’s down the back stairs and a very short walk. Gate 35 is in a narrow corner of terminal 3. Waiting travelers are disbursed everywhere as there’s not much in the way of seating. After standing and waiting for about 15 minutes the gate agent called for first class to board.
Introduction: Virgin America Elevate Gold Status Match
Review: Hyatt Regency San Francisco International Airport
Review: American Airlines Admirals Club SFO – Terminal 2
Review: Virgin America Short Haul Domestic Coach – San Francisco to Los Angeles
Review: Virgin America Loft at LAX
Review: Virgin America Short Haul Domestic First Class – Los Angeles to San Francisco
Virgin America 941
Los Angeles (LAX) – San Francisco (SFO)
Sunday July 10th, 2016
Departure Time: 6:35pm
Arrival Time: 7:45pm
Flight Time: 1hr10min
Aircraft: Airbus A321
Seat 2F, Short Haul Domestic First Class
Our flight today
Gate 35
Jetway in
Jetway in
Door 1 (any only)
Walking into the Airbus 320 you are greeted by the soft purple glow of Virgin America’s LED mood lights. We were not greeted by anyone, as I think we surprised the flight staff with our entry. It’s a short right turn into the forward cabin and Susan and I found our seats. For some reason my camera struggled with the purple lighting and a few of the pictures are not that sharp. I also included a pic from the Virgin America website of the first-class seats. No blankets or pillows are offered on this short SFO-LAX shuttle run.
Walking into the cabin
Seat 2F
Leg room
Remote consoles
Drink Table
Wash room
Seat back – Love the 55″ of pitch
Psychedelic purple
From Virgin America website
Door close and pushback occurred at 6:40pm and there was another 15 minutes to position for takeoff. LAX is slow to the runway, but the views are always interesting. The route this flight took was directly over the pacific and then north towards Santa Barbra. It’s a great path and the coast is beautiful to look at.
Pull back from terminal 3
LAX
Prepping for takeoff
Up and out over the pacific
North of Santa Barbra
The inflight map app worked well
This is a short flight and not a lot happens in the 30 minutes after you reach altitude. Gogo WiFi is available and the Virgin American flight attendants check to see if you need anything to drink or eat. I ordered a glass of water and Susan took a small nap. The real show was out the window as the sparsely populated central coast of California passed on by.
A real show took place on this short flight as we landed at SFO. Out over the bay and on approach to SFO another Virgin America flight was coming into land. Much to my surprise the approach and landing was in tandem with our flight. In many years of travel, I’ve never seen this.
Landing was smooth and shortly after touch down we docked at the gate.
What’s that out there
Another Virgin America passenger jet
Wow, these guys are landing in parallel
Getting close
Within seconds of one another
Safely on the ground
We beat them in
In Summary:
This was my first trip in Virgin America first class. While a short one it was very enjoyable.
This flight paid dividends in several areas. With the flight credit, and the spend on the Virgin America credit card, I was able at attain Elevate Gold for 2016 and the rest of 2017. That was later matched to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plane MVP Gold for 2017. I was also able to take advantage of JetBlue points match offer, and picked up 75,000 JetBlue points for taking a single trip. I plan to re-earn Elevate Glad status for 2018, and enjoy the Virgin America carrier until it’s absorbed by Alaska Airlines.
