Virgin America’s inaugural flight was Aug. 8, 2007, and you can now purchase tickets for flights and sign up for the airline’s frequent flyer program, eleVAte, as a founding member.
Virgin is taking an interesting route to win your loyalty. You will earn five points for every dollar you spend for travel on Virgin America. The program is based on the amount you spend on travel — not the distance you fly. And if you sign up now, your first flight will earn eleVAte points.
The award schedule has not been released and our source at Virgin America was not able to give us a definite date for a full launch of the program other than “soon.” However, the Web site states that members will be able to earn a free flight after as few as four roundtrips (4,900 points = $980). And members will be able to redeem their points for any unsold seat on any flight; there will be no blackout dates or capacity restrictions.
The first flights will be from San Francisco to New York and Los Angeles followed by San Francisco to Las Vegas or Washington (Dulles) and Los Angeles to New York (JFK) or Washington (Dulles). Other city pairs will soon follow. Visit http://www.virginamerica.com to enroll in eleVAte and book your flights. To get a sneak preview inside a VA plane, visit YouTube at http://insideflyerus.wpengine.com/link/?555
The video was shot before VA had the final approval to fly, so don’t let that throw you off, but the information on the state-of-the-art entertainment is worth a look.
