Tickets for Richard Branson cross-dressing flight now on sale

by Justin Delaney on

Sometimes we make bets that we that regret. While losing money makes for a hum-drum story, tales of the wealthy gambling away dignity at 38,000 feet provides a new level of intrigue. Virgin’s Richard Branson and AirAsia’s Tony Fernandes made such a bet last year over Formula 1 racing. Since both individuals not only captain airlines but also back F1 teams, the wager pitted Branson’s Virgin Racing against the Fernandes owned Lotus Racing. The loser would have to cross-dress and serve as a flight attendant on the winner’s airline for one flight.

While both teams performed horribly as new entrants into the ultra-competitive Formula 1 field and tied each-other with 0 points, Lotus Racing placed higher than Virgin Racing overall. Since Branson lost, he would be the one to slip on heels and a dress for an AirAsia flight from London to Kuala Lumpur. But that is not all, the strangeness flutters away to a loonier place from there.Before the flight boards, passengers will have the opportunity to bid on shaving Richard Branson’s legs. Since AirAsia has a requirement for its flight attendants to have shaved legs, Branson will be required to make the necessary adjustments to get up to code. The proceeds of the leg shaving auction will benefit Branson’s non-profit organization Virgin Unite.

If witnessing a leg shaving auction and being served beverages by a cross-dressing billionaire is not surreal enough, the flight will also provide in air entertainment in the form of magic shows and a live band.

The flight departs London’s Stansted airport on May 1, and tickets are roughly $7,500 each. All proceeds will go towards Virgin Unite. Tickets for the 13 hour flight to Kuala Lumpur can be purchased online through AirAsia’s website.

Photography by Justin Delaney

San Francisco’s new T2 terminal offers a variety of dining options

by McLean Robbins on

Gadling blogger Justin Delaney gave us a great rundown last week about what to expect at Virgin America’s new T2 home base at San Francisco International Airport. But there’s more – sure, it’s a shiny new terminal and you’ll be flying on one of the industry’s most loved airlines, but what are you going to do while waiting for your flight? Eat, naturally.

In keeping with Virgin’s reputation as the “Best Domestic Airline for Food,” (Travel + Leisure, 2009) the terminal will offer the following restaurants and dining destinations:

Napa Farms Market:
Napa Farms Market is a celebration of locally grown and produced artisan foods and wines. It celebrates the Bay Area‘s freshest culinary traditions by bringing such well-known artisan brands as Equator Coffee, Three Twins Ice Cream, Acme Bread, Cowgirl Creamery Cheese, Kara’s Cupcakes, Mighty Leaf Tea, Frog Hollow Farms produce, Napa Valley Vintner’s Association wines and Tyler Florence‘s Rotisserie of Napa together in one emporium. The market, an extension of the Bay Area‘s innovative food community, lets travelers create their own picnics-to-go, find special gifts to bring home a culinary memory of San Francisco or relax over a fine glass of wine.

Lark Creek Grill:
Lark Creek Grill, the 14th restaurant in the Lark Creek Restaurant Group, will offer many Lark Creek classic dishes and a wide-ranging menu to please all guests with choices from garden-fresh sandwiches to sustainable seafood to sizzling steaks. The offerings are designed with the airport passenger in mind – fresh, healthy and portion-appropriate. In addition to table service for approximately 120 guests, Lark Creek Grill offers takeaway options.

Vino Volo :
Vino Volo revolutionized the airport wine experience by developing comfortable post-security retreats for travelers combining a cozy wine lounge, restaurant and boutique wine shop. They offer wines by the glass, in tasting flights and by the bottle. In SFO, their home airport, they will offer a rotating menu of 22-24 wines grouped by tasting flights. The Vino Volo wine bar will be a part of Napa Farms Market.

Cat Cora:
The Cat Cora concept is a sophisticated culinary experience that focuses on using fresh and organic ingredients within its creation of innovative tapas plates and truly groundbreaking cocktails. The lounge has a strong emphasis on using locally sourced ingredients wherever possible. With its gorgeous views of the Bay Area hills, travelers will be mesmerized by the marriage of design, form and function.

The Plant Cafe Organic:
The fourth restaurant in the team’s portfolio, The Plant Cafe Organic will offer T2 passengers an almost entirely organic menu of juices and healthy meals with a focus on the local. Try the signature Plant Burger, made with lentils, mushrooms, bulgur, beets and cashews, garnished with avocado, roasted onions, aioli and cheese. It is “cooked by solar power.”

Pinkberry :
Founded in West Hollywood in 2005, Pinkberry offers the ever popular frozen yogurt stand to T2 customers.Pinkberry was rated the #1 Frozen Yogurt concept by Zagat in 2009 and is considered one of the hottest yogurt concepts in the world.

Peet’s Coffee:
Founded in 1966 in Berkeley, California, this specialty coffee roaster and retailer has a fiercely loyal and devoted following known as Peetniks . Peet’s in Terminal 2 will bake fresh pastries on site. Peet’s is also located in SFO’s Terminal 1 and Terminal 3.

The terminal opens to the public on April 14.

[Flickr via Franco Folini]

Virgin’s future lands at San Francisco’s new T2

by Justin Delaney on

It is not often that you casually glance out of the airplane window and see the future racing up beside you, glistening in the California sun like a joyriding space catamaran. This happened in San Francisco yesterday as Gadling took part in Virgin’s latest celebration of innovation. Virgin held an event to toast the evolution of flight as well as the opening of Terminal two at San Francisco airport. With plane interiors like neon rimmed London clubs and commercial plans to pierce space with their Galactic platform, Virgin is on an innovatory run that is making them look more and more like the airline industry’s version of Apple.

Our boarding passes listed the departing city as San Francisco and our arrival destination as the future. The flight would circle San Francisco and land at the sparkling new Terminal two. The departure gate teemed with excitement. Muffins were distributed, mimosas swished about, and Rocketman played predictably in the background. Buzz Aldrin rolled in sporting a watch on each hand – one no doubt keeping moon time. The Lieutenant Governor of California, who I first mistook to be Bradley Cooper, addressed the crowd with perfect diction, proclaiming California’s undying support for Virgin America. We were about to “Fly from the Jet Age to the Space Age.”


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The Flight
The plane boarded like any other flight. Groups were announced and everyone shuffled on. The flight attendants crept down the busy aisle offering champagne and water while dodging photographers angling to snap a shot of Virgin chief Richard Branson. Sir Richard ambled down the aisle like a man from the future forced to make his fortunes in a distant past. The throngs of media hung on each charming word he uttered while shuttering away to capture every smile. The pilot took us up into a clear California day that showcased epic views out over San Francisco harbor. White crested waves crashed peacefully below, and a little red bridge connected two landmasses.

As the plane banked a turn and leveled out, a glimmer quickly approached from a distance. The speck drew closer and my eyes adjusted to accept the sight of a spaceship pulling up beside our jet. It was White Knight Two with SpaceShip Two nestled between its massive wings. The spacecraft was unapologetically awesome. It lingered just off our left wing like a boasting UFO. It was the main act and a righteous glimpse into the future of space travel. We flew in formation for the rest of the flight. The passengers on our flight smashed up against the windows, hypnotically drawn to the sight of this strange craft effortlessly gliding through the cloudless day. It was a spaceship, and that is about as awesome as it gets.

The Terminal
The flight to the future touched down at San Francisco’s new T2. The terminal originally opened in 1954, and after many years serving as a relic of the past, was fitted with a $380 million modernist renovation. A press conference drove the point home. It is compared to a five star hotel by the mayor of San Francisco. It is striving to be platinum LEED certified. It glows like the future. The project is under budget and ahead of schedule. Politicians, architects, and airline executives all took their turn at the podium sharing their version of the same story – that Terminal two is the future of airport terminals.

The terminal had the anxious air of a play before the curtain is drawn. Workers hammered away at benches. The entire staff of a Pinkberry was being trained on the whims of demanding yogurt customers. Sticky plastic sheets were peeled off of metal surfaces by men in hard hats with great satisfaction. Everything smelled new. The terminal would open in just days, and everywhere workers were racing to meet this finish line.

Terminal two is considered the greenest domestic terminal in the United States. I heard the term LEED certified maybe a dozen times, either proclaimed loudly in the press conference or overheard from a passing conversation. Virgin America’s commitment to environmental responsibility is readily apparent in their influence over the terminal’s design. The Gensler designed space reflects Virgin’s style while adhering to the goals of sustainability.

The new terminal will be shared by Virgin America and American Airlines. AA was the original occupant of T2, with roots all the way back to 1954. American Airlines unveiled a stunning new Admiral’s Club, also LEED certified.

The terminal includes a “zone of recomposure” where weary travelers can gather themselves and continue on their mission. The zone hosts a massive art installation by Janet Echelman (above). Titled “Every Beating Second” after a line by beat poet Allen Ginsberg, the installations hang elegantly from the ceiling and add to the modern style of the terminal.

The terminal is an exciting glimpse into the future of airports. The cold utilitarian design of years passed is being slowly replaced with comfortable spaces filled with modernist accents and green ambitions. Virgin, American Airlines, and San Francisco should all be proud of their new terminal. T2 is an excellent use of space with no shortage of shopping and food options.


The Future
Watching history unfold can be as revolutionary as a kicked in door or as subtle as a whisper. With White Knight Two landing at a commercial airport yesterday, a new step in aviation was taken. Sir Richard Branson casually mentioned that it was likely the first spaceship to ever land at a commercial airport, as though the thought just passed through his head moments before he spoke it. Being casually brash is always a cool angle. It is this cool innovation that drives Virgin towards exciting new ventures. It was revelatory seeing White Knight Two land amongst the Boeings and Airbuses, and it looked a lot like the future gliding into the present.



All photography by Justin Delaney

Deal: Discount code for up to 30% off a Virgin America flight

by Scott Carmichael on

Are you a fan of Virgin America? What about discounts? If you answered yes to both of these, then you’ll want to head on over to this web site to get your hands on a quick 15% discount code for Virgin America. Invite five of your friends to the site, and your discount doubles to 30%.

Rules for the promo code are pretty standard:

One time use promo code is valid for non-refundable Main Cabin tickets only in fare classes S, L, M, U, E, H, B, or V. Travel must occur between March 9, 2011 and June 15, 2011.

To enter, you’ll obviously need to hand over your email address, but you can enter without subscribing to any spam or other marketing materials. Best of all, your discount code also comes with a free entry to the Morgan Hotels SoHo invasion prize package. Good luck!

Virgin America lets loose in Cancún

by Stephen Greenwood on

Virgin America just can’t sit still these days. In the past two months, they’ve launched service to Dallas/Forth Worth (and added frequency from both LAX & SFO), placed an impressive order for 60 new A320’s (to be delivered starting in 2013), said adiós to Toronto for the time being, and launched service to two cities in Mexico; Los Cabos and now, Cancún.

Everything about Cancún seems like a good fit for the airline. It’s sunny. It’s flashy. It’s exotic. It attracts a young crowd and has high seasonal traffic with a significant need for competitive nonstop options from the West Coast.

But Cancún is a destination that has a way of polarizing travelers. For most Americans born after 1975, it’s notoriously synonymous with Spring Break, loud nightclubs, and excessive resorts as far as the eye can see. For some vacationers, these are the only reasons to go. For others, they are the reason to never even consider going. Yes, the beaches may be spectacular and the attractions plentiful, but the rush to develop and commercialize both has left most of the city devoid of a single trace of ‘authentic’ Mexican culture – a fact that managed to earn Cancún the top spot on Gadling’s list of places not to go in 2011.

With that in mind, allow me to be the mediator here and tell you exactly why you should go (or at least fly to) Cancún in 2011…

Simply put, Cancún is an affordable, accessible, and a safe gateway to the larger Yucatán peninsula. Yes, it may be an overdeveloped tourist mecca with little soul or culture in the eyes of true travelers. But the vivid blue waters, white sand beaches, and Mayan ruins of the outlying areas offer an entirely different world that’s only six hours away.

Before taking Virgin America’s inaugural flight from LAX to CUN, the farthest I’d ventured in Mexico was Puerta Vallarta. I didn’t really have high expectations for the Mexican Riviera, since my association of it was a blur of generic beach scenes from a decade-old MTV Spring Break broadcast. Which is ironic in hindsight, considering that our flight was the backdrop for an episode of VH1’s Top 20 Countdown; complete with an in-flight performance by the Goo Goo Dolls.

The 5 hour flight itself was great. The margaritas were festive and the atmosphere was as playful as all Virgin America’s inaugural launches are. The only hitch that passengers will encounter in the ‘complete’ Virgin America experience is the lack of in-flight WiFi after crossing the US-Mexico border – an issue that Gogo and Aircell will hopefully address with coverage expansion in the coming years.

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Upon our arrival, our Virgin-worthy accommodation was the gorgeous and brand-new Live Aqua. If you’re accustomed to hotels with two white Rolls Royce Phantoms parked outside, chic interiors filled with hip ambient music, extensive spa services and an array of tasteful eateries, then this is the place you’ll want to stay. It is plausible that you could forgo leaving the hotel grounds and be perfectly content with relaxing by the beach for your entire trip. And for the price of an all-inclusive stay, that’s exactly what I would do.

But, it turns out there are actually things to do around Cancún besides lounging and clubbing. Escape the herds of tourists and head south to quieter beaches at Playa del Carmen, where you can hop across to Cozumel and explore Mayan ruins. Or venture west and check out the ‘authentic’ colonial town of Tizimín on your way to catch a boat to the tiny but charming Holbox Island (and swim with whale sharks in the summer).

If you’re short on time but looking for adventure, then look up one of Cancún’s best day trips; Selvatica’s zip-line & ATV jungle excursion. In the span of a half day, you can fly through the trees on seven different zip lines, drive your own ATV, and swing from ropes into a beautiful blue cenote (Spanish for giant swimming hole).

I can understand why people dislike Cancún. It’d be very easy to come expecting authentic Mexican charm and leave never wanting to lay eyes on another beer-toting American again. But keep your time in the developed area of Cancún short, and you won’t be dissapointed.

Needless to say, my only regret is that I didn’t have more time to explore the outlying areas of Cancún. For a sub-$500 flight that’s just under 5 hours from LAX, or roughly 6 hours from SFO, it’s an easy trip that I certainly plan on making again. Especially if Virgin America can keep their fares low, which they usually do for recently launched destinations. Better yet, enter to win one of three VIP trips that the airline is giving away right here.

If you have your own crazy stories or suggestions about why or why not to go to Cancun this year, leave them in the comments section below!