Helloooo New England!!!
If you've watched the movie
"You've Got Mail!", there is a scene where Tom Hanks's character (Joe Fox) boards a boat with two kids, (his aunt and his brother) and shouts out across the Hudson "Hellooo New Jerseyyy!!". The "Hellooo New England" is supposed to be said in a similar pitch, although unlike Tom Hanks I am actually in New England itself. For the uninitiated,
New England is the north-eastern corner region of the United States above New York state. It was originally settled by the English persecuted in England, which might explain their choice of names.
I've moved to this region from the sunny Bay Area, because my wife is going to school to New York. So she is staying in Stamford CT and I am going to work out of my company's Bedford MA office which is around 30 mins from Boston. I had a fabulous time in the Bay Area, and I've enjoyed the great weather and good food there quite a bit. But this seems like a good time to discover a new region. I love travelling and discovering new places. So this should be a fun experience. In the past I have lived in Madison WI, and Louisville KY. So I have already covered a few regions of the United States so far. Sadly I'll have to change the name of this blog.
One of the interesting parts of this move was a flight on Virgin America. With all the recent drama on American airlines, flying is never quite a pleasurable experience. I was pleasantly surprised with my flight on Virgin. The ticket was fairly inexpensive... a one-way ticket from San Francisco to New York cost us only $170. The biggest advance is Virgin's on-board entertainment system called Red.
Every seat includes a tiny controller and also a small keyboard, and two credit card swipe machines to purchase movies or food.
You could do a variety of different things with the keyboard from chatting with neighbours, to playing games like Doom or Mahjongg.
Another novelty is being able to watch live TV.
Google Maps helps you track the position of the plane, although with a slight time-delay, and you could even zoom-in to find your precise location.
The other difference between a Virgin flight and others is the lighting of the cabin while the plane is on the tarmac. It is accompanied by some music, although towards the end of the flight is is just annoying. The leg-room in economy is also substantially greater than the regular carriers. You get black leather seats.
You can also create playlists out of their music selection. Just a warning though... Don't forget to carry your own headphones. Virgin doesn't provide you with one. Neither do they carry an in-flight magazine.
You can order food any time you choose, and a flight attendant will promptly deliver your food. Keep in mind, the only thing that was included even on the SFO-JFK flight was the drink. So you are looking to spend an extra $10 per person at least. And that brings me to the biggest negative with Virgin. The food selection left much to be desired. We had three choices for a meal... a beef wrap, a salad, or hummus with pita slices. While all the choices were very healthy, I would have loved some choices with white meat.
On the whole I was very impressed with Virgin America and I would definitely choose it ahead of other airlines next time even if I have to pay a little more. They definitely did a lot of out-of-the-box thinking and came up with many ways to please the customer.
