Main cabin onboard Virgin America

Having just stepped off our maiden voyage on Virgin America (to Vegas, incidentally, but more on that later), all we can say is – wow. Although airline reviews aren’t quite within our realm of expertise, we nevertheless felt obligated to whip out our cameras and document this unbelievable experience.

Really…we couldn’t help ourselves. It’s what we DO.

Aesthetically speaking, the airplane is a knockout. The first U.S. airline to incorporate mood lighting into its aircraft décor, boarding these cabines feels more like entering a VIP room at The Roxy than entering a plane. In the words of the passenger who boarded behind us, it’s “very psychedelic, man.” Row upon row of black leather seats adds to the chic-effect, and everyone is provided with their own 9-inch screen plus an in-seat entertainment handset with gaming controls and full keyboard. Totally rad.

Mood lighting in full effect

In-seat entertainment handset

Gaming controls and full QWERTY keyboard

Onboard movie selection

Furthermore, the concept of suffering from in-flight munchies has effectively been rendered hypothetical. Thirsty? They have a button for that. Hungry? Turns out they have button for that too. Scroll through the touch-screen menu, make your selection, proceed through checkout, wait 3-7 minutes and voila! Your order arrives. Virgin may have just invented the closest thing to a Star Trek replicator that we’ve seen yet.

Step 1: Browse the beverage choices

Step 2: Make your selection

Step 3: Proceed through checkout

Step 4: Enjoy!

Oh, and did we mention that they have Wi-Fi? Our friends at Gadling do a pretty thorough run-through of the Gogo inflight Wi-Fi capabilities, so check it out. Trust us, there ain’t nothing like surfing the web at 35,000 feet. Let’s just say that if it were a hotel, this airline would have 5 shiny, shiny pearls.

Err…weird. How did this product placement get here?