The mile-high club

FLIGHT VX364 (35,000 feet above the U.S.) -- I flew nonstop from L.A. to Boston via Virgin America airlines. It took about six hours.

The price was right: $99 for a one-way flight (plus $15 to check a bag).

The headrest TV in back of the row before me made the flight "fly" by. Several features of this free service:

1. Watch channels like CNN (live), TBS and MSNBC. Virgin offers other channels at a premium. I couldn't get MTV; that might have been a pay station.

2. Play video games with the detachable right armrest controller. One piece of advice, Virgin America: for the games that require only the onscreen interface, please make the screen more sensitive. I may have given the woman in front of me whiplash for the few hammering screen attempts in an intense game of Anagrammarama (Virgin's version of TextTwist).

3. Keep on top of flight status with Google maps. For those anxious fliers, Google updates remaining time, distance and the GPS locates the Airbus A320 over these states.

4. Watch pay-per-view movies for like $8. Virgin had a decent selection.


Passengers can also order food through the headrest TV interface. The menu pictures looked quite tasty, but flying killed my appetite. I sat tight till touchdown.

We landed on time and Virgin didn't lose my bag. My first breath of Boston air filled my lungs and calmed my soul. I'm home.


share on: facebook