Alaska Airlines will retire the Virgin America brand by 2019. The news is hardly surprising considering the royalties involved in using Sir Richard Branson’s trademark brand, but Alaska will do much more than repaint aircraft.
Changes Coming to Alaska Airlines
In a press release issued yesterday evening, Alaska highlights the following “enhancements” coming in the months ahead–
Modern vibe – new onboard/airport music, mood lighting, and uniforms are coming
Satellite connectivity – high speed internet sufficient to stream YouTube and Netflix is coming first to the Alaska 737 fleet then to the Virgin Airbus fleet. Completion by 2019.
More premium seats – Alaska will install install new first class seats on ex-Virgin America planes, increasing the size of the cabin by 50%, from eight seats to 12 seats. Seat pitch on Virgin planes will be 41″ (currently seat pitch is 55″) and no longer be deep-reclining.
Here’s a look at what Virgin has now in first class–
And here is what the new ex-Virgin America first class cabins will look like–
The end of Virgin America’s Elevate loyalty program – Alaska’s Mileage Plan will be the sole loyalty program starting sometime next year. The program itself will not change much (though I still predict devaluations are coming).
Complimentary upgrades – Currently, Virgin America elites do not receive complimentary upgrades. With only eight seats in first class, this is no surprise. That will change in late 2018 once the Virgin America retrofit is complete.
Free movies / chat – Free streaming movies/TV programs on your own devices will continue to be free on Alaska’s Boeing aircraft and will be expanded to the Airbus fleet. Additionally, the use of Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and iMessage will be free in the air.
West Coast-inspired food and beverage – Fresh food will remain and pre-ordering will expand to the Airbus fleet and to economy class. No word on whether Virgin’s dining-on-demand program will stick around.
Lounge expansion – Lounges in Los Angels, Portland, and Seattle will increase in size. New lounges are also coming to San Francisco and New York JFK.
Sir Richard Branson Chimes In
Richard Branson penned an open letter about the news, writing in part–
It has a very different business model and sadly, it could not find a way to maintain its own brand and that of Virgin America.
When a company goes public, decisions are made that benefit the shareholders. In the best of times, they also benefit consumers. It remains to be seen what will happen now – for travellers – with fewer airlines in the US than ever. Being different and on a mission to truly reinvent an experience for the customer is increasingly rare in this business.
The man who profited fabulously from the merger despite personal opposition to it argues correctly that Virgin America was a unique experiment. Branson goes on to lament that U.S. ownership laws prevented him from holding a majority stake in the company that he would have used to block the merger. Indeed, it remains an open question whether the merger will benefit or hurt consumers.
My Two Cents
These changes are exactly as expected. The two brands were so different that it was implausible both would survive. While the removal of Virgin’s industry-leading shorthaul domestic seats is a disappointment, it is hardly surprising.
Virgin America currently serves highly competitive transcon routes to New York JFK and Boston. Alaska must make a decision: abandon the route (unlikely) or introduce a special first class seat on the route. Absent a new seat, Alaska will be left with such a competitive disadvantage on its transcon routes that the only thing that may sustain it is blind loyalty or undercutting the competition dramatically in price. I predict the announcement of a new seat sometime next year.
CONCLUSION
Look on the bright side: Alaska remains committed to awarding miles based on distance flown. That will not change. Alaska also has a great collection of partner airlines. That will not change. While the “coolness” of Virgin will die, the new airline will offer west coast flyers a very compelling product.
On the premium transcon routes, coach are routinely $140-190 while the flat beds begin at $599 and up. That’s wide enough of a gap for AS to fill in the middle with a standard domestic F product, priced around the low $300s.
The cost of a dedicated fleet with flat beds is enormous. AS can still make a profit by flying standard domestic F seats at the right price.
They won’t have a subfleet.
Watch some of that SFO/LAX-NYC flying to shift to SJC, SNA, PDX, SMF, SAN where there is no flat bed competition.
People in San Francisco are up in arms about this (if my social media feed is a representative sample). It’s a testament to how VX’s “coolness” alters customers’ perception, since in my experience Alaska is better for everyone not flying VX 1st class.
Coolness is real, and customer perception IS the experience. Another generic airline is not needed, even the one that does mediocre best. I’m not interested in that. I pay extra to have an experience that is enlivening, not deadening.
As someone who occasionally flies VX out of DAL, I see this as mildly positive overall. Yes, losing those fantastic F seats sucks, but at the end of the day, I prefer having a wider selection of extra legroom coach seats (those are increasing from 6 to 18).
Also, I’m with Henry. I suspect you won’t see a new enhanced transcon product, but a new price point somewhere between existing Y and J fares. Maybe some kind of permanent bonus miles opportunity on those routes as well as an extra incentive.
VX DOES have upgrades…to Main Cabin Select — free drinks/food in bulkhead and exit rows available to elites…except (new owner) Alaska elites. We get bupkiss. Supposedly coming this Fall. Right.
I’d just prefer bringing JetBlue Mint to DC so I don’t have to reward Alaska with any of my business for this crap.
I’ll go for that
Virgin / Jetblue canceled my flight three times from Boston to San Francisco – keeping me here over 24 hours. They also did it on the day of a 20,000 salesforce conference so no other options available. I’m silver – 140,000 miles and I will never ride this piece of sh$&&t airline again.
The one thing that matters most is that Alaska is stupidly removing VX’s awesome RED entertainment system and replacing it with cheap streaming. That is NOT the way to go, folks.
The only thing good about AS is their frequent flyer program. Other than that, they’re no different than a budget carrier, with all of those horrible slimline seats and such.
I am devastated by this buy out. So far all of the Alaska employees are very nice, but the Virgin elite system was great! At silver, flying was tolerable again. Alaska seems to have cut out most of the nonstop flights and some of the routes I fly. When they halt the elite system, I may bail. For those of us who loved Virgin, this is real disaster!
AS pretty much ruined the best domestic first class in the US….we are back to sardine cans so AS can make profits. AS first class is a joke, even their ‘newer seats’ don’t measure up. Very sad day as afrequent flyer who absolutely loved Virgin America…