Virgin America announces nonstop flights to Los Cabos and Cancun from $129

by Melanie Nayer on

Viva, Mexico!

Get your margaritas ready and toast to Virgin America’s new flight announcements. The airline announced today it will serve San Jose del Cabo International Airport (SJD) and Cancun International Airport (CUN) with nonstop flights from California starting this December.

The fights from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Los Cabos start Dec. 16, 2010, and flights from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Cancun will start Jan. 19, 2011. If you’re in San Francisco and want to go to Cancun, your nonstops will start Jan. 20, 2011. And lest you think you’ll have to spend your holiday money on flights, think again: the low-cost carrier is celebrating the new routes a three-day fare sale.

Put down the tequila and grab your credit card – flights start at just $109!

But there’s more…

If you’re in-the-social-media-know, and in desperate need of some time on the beaches of Mexico, you can score a two-for-one ticket offer by checking in on Loopt Star at SFO or LAX. (To be eligible, one must check-in using the Loopt Star iPhone app, which is available at the Apple iTunes store or at loopt.com /looptstar.)

Can’t get to the airport? No problem. You’ll get hungry at some point today so those of you in San Francisco and Los Angeles can head to select Virgin America taco trucks from 11:00am-3:00pm PT today. Proceeds from every taco purchased will benefit the City of San Francisco’s Animal Care and Control Chihuahua rescue efforts.

Here’s the breakdown of costs:

  • From $129 in Main Cabin for SFO-SJD, SFO-CUN and LAX-CUN
  • From $39 on LAX-SFO, SFO-Las Vegas (LAS) and SFO-San Diego (SAN) flights (so you can get to Mexico)
  • From $109 for LAX-Washington Dulles (IAD) and SFO-Fort Lauderdale (FLL)

Tickets are on sale today on Virgin America’s Web site (www.virginamerica.com)

For taco lovers in Los Angeles, Virgin America’s in-flight teammates can be found in uniform at the Border Grill taco truck at 7060 Hollywood Boulevard. Those in San Francisco can find their Virgin America representatives at Los Compadres, at 100 Folsom Street.

Virgin America announces new flights to Dallas-Fort Worth

by Melanie Nayer on

Grab your 10-gallon hats and pull up your cowboy boots, kids – there’s a new way to fly South. Virgin America is heading to Texas.

We just got word that Virgin America will launch daily flights from the West Coast to Dallas-Fort Worth starting in December 2010. A sneak peak from the Virgin team showed daily flights from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to DFW as of Dec. 1 and daily flights from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to DFW as of Dec. 6.

The airline’s DFW schedule includes:

  • LAX-DFW: two nonstop daily flights
  • SFO-DFW: two nonstop daily flights
  • DFW-LAX: two nonstop daily flights
  • DFW-SFO: two nonstop daily flights

Connecting flights are available from LAX and SFO, of course. And in true Virgin style, the airline is kicking off a sale to welcome in their new route.

The “Texas Sized” fare sale tickets start at $129 in Main Cabin. Connecting flights start as low as $44 on routes like Los Angeles (LAX)-San Francisco (SFO) and SFO-Las Vegas (LAS). Giddyup!

Virgin America hooks up with Joie De Vivre Hotels

by Melanie Nayer on

It’s not quite the hotel announcement we were hoping for, but this news is pretty cool, too.

Virgin America will partner Joie de Vivre Hotels to allow Virgin America’s Elevate members to earn points when they join the boutique hotelier’s Joy of Life Club loyalty program.

To celebrate the new partnership, Joie de Vivre is allowing members to “double dip” and earn both Elevate and Joy of Life Club member points now through the end of 2010 when they stay at a participating hotel. For every eligible $1 spent on the hotel room rate during a 2010 stay, Elevate members will earn one Elevate point as well as Joy of Life Club points. In 2011, members will be asked to choose which program they want to accrue points.

But there’s more…

To celebrate the partnership, Virgin America and Joie de Vivre are hosting a digital promotion to award one stylish traveler a roundtrip flight for two to either San Francisco or Los Angeles from anywhere Virgin America flies and a two-night hotel stay at a Joie de Vivre hotel in California. To enter, tweet your idea of the “perfect match” using the #JoieDeVX hashtag to @VirginAmerica and the airline will select their favorite answer to win.

For full contest details click here.

Virgin America launches 7-hour fare sale to say ‘thanks’ to flyers

by Melanie Nayer on

Update: Due to the overwhelming response from travelers, Virgin America has decided to extend this sale by an additional seven hours! Tickets must now be purchased by 11:59pm PT tonight.

Everyone says ‘thank you’ in their own special way, but Virgin America is saying “you really like us!” with a last-minute fare sale.

Clearly overwhelmed with gratitude from being honored as “Best Domestic Airline” in the Travel + Leisure Annual World’s Best Awards readers’ survey, the airline is thanking the readers with ridiculously discounted fares. The “Three-peat” seven hour fare sale for travel starts today at 10:01am PT and ends 4:59pm PT at 11:59p.m. PT.

You must travel between August 25, 2010 and October 6, 2010. Fares start at $33 for short-haul flights (San Francisco to Los Angeles) and $113 for long-haul (New York to San Francisco, for example).

Maybe now is the time to finally book your summer vacation plans?

Photo of the Day (7.6.10)

by Stephen Greenwood on
This week I went aboard Virgin America’s inaugural flight from San Francisco to Toronto; and having visited Toronto only once before when I was young, I didn’t have very high expectations for Canada’s largest city. On this visit, I took the time to explore some of the outlying neighborhoods (Kensington Market) and cultural districts that really give Toronto a sense of flavor and diversity, and saw a different side that I can’t wait to visit again.

Flickr user PDPhotography has an incredible collection of photographs from Toronto that really capture the vibrance & quirks of the city. This shot was captured at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto, which takes place next month from August 20th to September 6th.

Do you have summertime shots of a city you love? Share them with us! Submit to our Flickr Pool and your image could be our next Photo of the Day!