Category Archives: Virgin America

Virgin America Coupon Thru Google Offers: 50% Off Select Tickets for $50

Posted by on March 26, 2012 No comments

Through Google Offers has a Virgin America coupon that costs $50 for 50% off select tickets to or from Los Angeles or San Francisco. Book by April 30th for flights between April 11th and June 13th.

The offer is only good for flights between LAX/SFO and Chicago, Dallas, DC, Philadelphia and Seattle. That equates to about a $50 saving on that $200 round trip ticket to Seattle, or about a $150 saving on flights from Philadelphia to the West Coast.

Limit one per person.

Virgin America 20% Off Coupon for Spring Travel

Posted by on February 25, 2012 3 comments

Virgin America is offering a coupon for 20% off a flight Between April 11 and June 13. Here’s how you get the Virgin America promo code sent to you:

1) Go to this page

2) Fill out the short form

3) Get promo code in your email

4) Book your trip

Offer is good until February 29 or until they’ve sent 35,000 codes.

New York to San Francisco, $194 round trip on Virgin America

Posted by on January 30, 2012 1 comment

Remember this post from last week about getting 20% off a Virgin America flight in February? Here’s a good way to use it:

Flights between JFK and San Francisco on Virgin America are just $194 round trip in February when you use that 20% off coupon. Los Angeles and Vegas are about $40 more. Anytime you can go transcon for under $200, it’s a steal.

Yes, that link for a 20% off coupon is still good. Enjoy!

20% Off Coupon for Virgin America

Posted by on January 26, 2012 1 comment

I know – I’m not the first person to post this, but somehow I missed it: Virgin America is offering a 20% off coupon good for flights between now and February 29th; and between April 15th – June 15th.

- Go to this site
- Enter your email
- Enjoy 20% off your flight

25% Off Coupon for Virgin America Flights Through February 15

Posted by on December 4, 2011 No comments

Looking for a 25% off coupon for Virgin America flights? You’ve come to the right place. Here’s how to take 25% off any Virgin America flight booked between December 15th and December 31st for travel January 3rd through February 15th:

- Follow this link
- Enter your email address and you’ll get 15% off a flight.
- Then enter 5 other email addresses
- See the promo code they give you to get 25% off your next Virgin America flight

Full terms:

Virgin America Discount Code Terms and Conditions
This offer begins at 12:00am CST on December 15, 2011 and ends at 11:59pm CST on December 31, 2011. This offer is valid only for nonstop or connecting travel; offer is not valid for any multi-city itineraries. Fares do not include Passenger Facility Charges of up to $9 each way, the September 11th Security Fee of up to $5 each way and a Federal Segment Tax of $3.70 per domestic segment. A segment is a takeoff and landing. For service to/from Mexico, fares do not include the U.S. Immigration User Fee of $7, the U.S. APHIS fee of $5, the U.S. Customs processing fee of $5.50, a U.S. International Arrival/Departure Tax of $16.30 each way and additional taxes/fees of up to $60, including: Mexico International Departure Tax and Mexico Tourism Tax. One time use promo code is valid for non-refundable Main Cabin tickets only in fare classes S, L, M, U, E, H, B, or V. Travel must occur between January 3, 2012 and February 15, 2012. Blackout dates do not apply. Promo code may be used only towards newly booked travel and may not be applied to prior bookings. Promo code discount will be deducted off of base fare. Promo code may not be redeemed for cash. Promo code may only be used for bookings made on virginamerica.com and is only valid on itineraries of 2 or less. Offer is not transferable and cannot be combined with any other offers. Seats are limited, subject to availability, and may not be available on all flights. If travel is changed or cancelled, promo code discount will become invalid. Changes or cancellations can be made for a $75 fee if changes are made on Virgin America’s website or a $100 fee through all other channels, including the call center and at the airport, plus any increase in fare, if applicable. Tickets purchased through Virgin America’s reservation call center will cost an additional $20 per guest per itinerary; this amount is non refundable if travel is changed or cancelled. Fares will not be honored retroactively or in exchange for any wholly or partially used ticket. Fares, routes, fees and schedules are subject to change without notice. Virgin America will accept one (1) piece of checked baggage up to 50 pounds for $25 for each ticketed guest traveling within the U.S. and for free of charge for each ticketed guest traveling to/from Mexico. The fee per guest for each additional checked bag up to 50 pounds from the second (2) to the tenth (10) is $25. Additional fees apply to baggage exceeding these weight limitations, and other baggage restrictions may apply.

Virgin America Offers Significant Main Cabin Select Discounts via Gilt City – More Than 60% Off Regular Fare

Posted by on August 3, 2011 No comments

If you’re not familiar with Gilt City, it’s part of the Gilt Groupe family of sites that includes discount travel site Jetsetter.

I mention this because today they’re offering a great deal on Main Cabin Select fares on Virgin America (this is their premium economy-type offering). You’ll need an invitation to Gilt City to purchase. You can use my invite link here. Here’s the deal:

You can buy either 3, 5 or 10 roundtrip flights in Main Cabin Select. The prices vary based on short-haul, medium-haul and long-haul. The pricing is as follows:

3 roundtrips: $427/$964/$1205 (short/medium/long-haul)
5 roundtrips: $673/$1521/$1900 (short/medium/long-haul)
10 roundtrips: $1270/$2870/$3585 (short/medium/long-haul)

So, transcon roundtrips range from $401.67 roundtrip to $358.50 roundtrip. Regular prices in that cabin are roughly $1000 or so for transcon flights.

Those fares do not includes PFCs and a handful of other taxes. Travel is good August 15th through June 15th of next year, with some blackout dates around holidays. You’ll earn 5 Elevate points for each $1 spent, if you care about that. Tickets must be booked into W or O class. Flights can be changed for $20.

Post any questions you have in the comments.

Get 20% Off Coupon for Virgin America Good for Travel This Fall

Posted by on July 27, 2011 No comments

Virgin America is offering a 20% off coupon for flights August 15 – October 27 when you visit their Facebook page for the Sunset Strip Music Festival and vote on your favorite photo. The 20% discount means you can get transcon tickets for about $230 round trip. Book your ticket by August 31st.

Virgin America Has Stopped the Financial Bleeding…Mostly

Posted by on August 31, 2009 1 comment

Virgin America released its 2nd quarter financials, and it looks like the bloodbath is over.  There was a point earlier this year where it wasn’t entirely obvious that, if they continued on the same financial path, that they would make it another year.  They were burning cash like mad and charging virtually nothing for their (admittedly strong) product.

Although they’re not out of the woods, they’ve certainly turned it around.  Their operating loss was only $11 million, compared to more than $62 million in the same quarter last year.  Load factor was up to 85% from 77% and their RASM (a rough measure of average fare) was nearly flat at just under 8 cents per mile (not great, but at least there wasn’t a huge drop).  In short:  they filled more seats on their planes without resorting to lowering fares from previous quarters (sure, you could argue that their fares are ridiculously low to begin with and that they constantly have sales, which they do).

Most importantly, though, as Allegiant has shown you can also focus on the cost side of the business to make an airline work.  Virgin America dropped their Cost per Available Seat Mile (CASM) to 6.47 cents from 8.18 year over year.  Impressive.

Unfortunately, the full detail isn’t yet available, so it really isn’t possible to see where the cost savings is coming from.  Also, they’ve got about $28 million in cash left, which isn’t a huge cushion when they’re burning through about $10 million a quarter.  They say they’ll be fine until they’re profitable last year (and they noted they were profitable in June and July of this year), but airlines aren’t yet sure whether business travelers will return this fall.  And with VA just announcing another fare sale, it sounds like they still have no pricing power, leaving it to sales to fill up the planes.  Without a strong Q3, their cash will approach a precarious spot. Plus, Alaska Airlines continues to harass the DOT to open an inquiry into whether VA has sufficient US ownership.

Virgin America has certainly made headway toward survival.  But that cash position is rough, and the market continues to be uncertain.  They’ve shown a renewed financial discipline, which suggests to me that they’ll be able to make it.  But they, along with US Airways (and possibly United), are the two shakiest airlines right now.

WSJ: Virgin America’s US Investors Sell Out. Are They Running an Illegal Airline?

Posted by on March 12, 2009 1 comment

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the two funds that owned 77% of Virgin America have exercised their right to sell their stakes back to the Virgin Group, getting back an 8% return (plus their initial capital) on their investment.  Nice deal.

Why does this matter?  Because US airlines are required to have US interests controlling at least 75% of the company.  Virgin America has not found a new investor for the 77% of the company that was sold to Virgin Group, meaning that it is at least almost entirely controlled by a foreign entity (they argue that because the original investors remain on the board without a financial stake, that they still have 77% US control.  Good luck selling that to the DoT.)

Will hte US shut them down tomorrow?  No.  But given how much difficulty they had getting approval when they launched, this could prove to be a very real problem in 2009.  And with airlines (and the state of the industry) where it is, finding an investor or buyer will provide to be incredibly difficult.

Alaska Airlines Asks Government to Investigate Foreign Ownership of Virgin America; VA Can’t Catch Break

Posted by on February 10, 2009 No comments

Alaska Airlines, which would love to get Virgin America out of its hair, has asked the US government to investigate whether the airline still has 75% US ownership, as required by federal regulations.  The airline has received cash from investors recently (see Cranky’s post here for some detail around VA’s less-than-stellar financial situation), and Alaska seems to think that foreign investment has pushed VA’s foreign ownership levels too far.  Perhaps.

Alaska has been annoyed/unhappy with the new airline since VA told the government that it did not want to have to file financial data with the government (as all US airlines are required to do).  Alaska, which had been filing and, hence, giving VA a lot of competitive data to work with, found that request to be ridiculous.  The government recently told VA to release their financials, which they’ve done.

Virgin America was also conceived as a transcon-focused airline (as evidenced by their cushy product), but for various reasons (competitive situation, fuel) they have built out a West Coast network right in Alaska’s backyard.  To get people on these new flights, VA has offered fare sale after fare sale, dragging down average fares for the airline and for competitors, which is another reason Alaska isn’t too thrilled.

I don’t actually expect the government to shut VA down over the ownership issue, but it just shows the behind-the-scenes barking that VA has faced since the idea of the airline was first announced.