Richard Branson loses bet; will serve as flight attendant on Air Asia

by Melanie Nayer on

For some, losing a bet to your buddies means having to shave your head or paint your face in the opposing team’s colors for a day. For Richard Branson, losing a bet means having to dress in drag at 38,000-feet.

The Virgin boss and airline superstar lost a bet to his pal Tony Fernandes, who owns Air Asia, over which one of their Formula One teams would perform better this season. The bet: Loser has to put on a pair of high heels and serve as a “stewardess” on an international flight of the winner’s airline.

While neither of the men’s teams scored anything in their debut Formula One season, Lotus’s Air Asia did slightly better than Branson’s Virgin brand and thus, Branson will step out in high heels and serve guests on an Air Asia flight from Kuala Lumpur to London.

The date of the flight hasn’t been set, but the airline has agreed to auction of seats for the flight and give the money to Branson’s chosen charity.

[via Stuff.co.nz]

Virgin Atlantic releases innovative mobile Jetlag Fighter app

by Scott Carmichael on

Virgin Atlantic just released their newest mobile application – Jetlag Fighter. Last year, we took a look at the Virgin Atlantic “Fear of Flying” app, and the airline continues the trend of well designed applications with this newest application.

In Jetlag Fighter, you are offered an impressive array of tools to help battle jetlag, and anyone who has suffered through the symptoms knows that you need all the help you can get.

The first portion of the application is educational – and offers spoken articles on Jetlag and sleep in general. The information in this section comes from Professor Chris Idzikowski, director of the Sleep Assessment and Advisory Service – an expert in sleep and jetlag.

In the profile section, you provide some basic personal information about your sleep pattern, age, health and sex. This information is then used in the trip section to provide a personalized jetlag battle plan.

Once you enter your flight information, the app calculates the best way to get rid of your jetlag, including when to go to sleep, when to wake up and when to exercise.

The app takes some work to master – and you’ll need to go through the one-time step of creating an account, but if you already have an account created in the Virgin Atlantic Fear of Flying app, you’ll be able to use it in this app.

The Virgin Atlantic Jetlag Fighter costs $1.99 and is available in the App store through this link.

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The best airline safety announcement videos

by Gadling Staff on

Air travelers have all been there — the plane is about to take off, but first we have to awkwardly look away or bury our noses in magazines to avoid paying attention to the safety announcements. They’re the same every time, so we always know that the closest exit may be behind us. But a few savvy airlines have come up with better ways to grab passengers’ attention. From stripping down to rapping, here are some of the best airline safety announcements you’ll see on board.

Thomson Airways
British airline Thomson Airways knows that cuteness always gets attention. When a plane full of adorable kids tells you how to buckle your seatbelt, you’re sure to listen:

Air New Zealand
If cute doesn’t work, sex always sells. Take this Air New Zealand video, which encourages passengers to “take a second look” at safety — and the body-painted flight crew:

To further prove they have a sense of humor, Air New Zealand released a blooper reel of the clips that didn’t make the safety video. After all, reciting lines wearing body paint can’t be too easy:

Delta Airlines
Delta is a little more subtle with its sexy announcements — but every person in the video is ridiculously attractive, with perfect teeth and not a hair out of place. YouTube commenters have even dubbed the main announcer “Deltalina” for her resemblance to Angelina Jolie:

Virgin America
International airlines aren’t the only ones who get to have fun. Take Virgin America’s safety video, which pokes fun at the various characters found on a typical flight:

Southwest Airlines
Southwest is known for its funny flight crews. This flight attendant brings the entertainment with a safety rap:

This Southwest attendant makes announcements American Idol-style, singing a parody of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies:”

Virgin Atlantic
When in doubt, use flashy graphics. Virgin Atlantic puts passengers at ease with its calming music and intriguing animation:

Inside Virgin Atlantic’s Upper Class clubhouse

by Grant Martin on

Any traveler who has come within a stone’s throw of a major American airport has heard of the Virgin airlines. Among other brands, they’ve got Virgin America operating service between a handfull of fortunate, domestic cites, V Australia bouncing between Los Angeles and Australia and the granddaddy, Virgin Atlantic, serving the United Kingdom and beyond.

Throughout the years, the airline has cultivated a quality product, a hip, posh experience that bucks the trend of traditional airline travel, driving down prices, impressing passengers and ruffling a few feathers along the way.

Among the avenues that they use to excel this product is the Clubhouse, Virgin Atlantic’s signature lounge built for the pampering of upper (business) class passengers and Flying Club gold members before and after their flights. And these are no ordinary, anemic lounges, either. Each clubhouses embodies the Virgin brand with top quality services, appointments, food and drink.

The opening of their newest lounge at London Gatwick last month piqued our interest, so Gadling decided to take a first-hand peek inside of a similar clubouse for a closer look at the offerings. Passing through London Heathrow this past holiday, we had the chance to stop in for a visit to their flagship lounge.

%Gallery-80310%In case you’ve never been, international airline lounges are generally pretty formulaic. A series of front desks provide passenger screening and assistance – you can go here to check your flight, make changes and ask questions about your tickets. Inside of the lounges you’ll find a variety of food, beverage and pampering amenities, as well as the occasional shower and entertainment feature. It’s all fairly standard for an international lounge.

Where Virgin Atlantic excels is in the quality of these amenities. Heathrow’s Clubhouse is a sprawling, multi leveled complex, cleanly appointed in white and wooden tones throughout. The massive open space has been segmented into different themed regions, each area offering a different take on relaxation. There’s the poolside section, for example, where a dozen seats and tables sprawl around a waterfall and pond, or a runway-facing lounge where airline enthusiasts can watch jets and crew scamper around the tarmac. They’ve even got a rooftop deck for warm weather plane spotting.

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In preparation for the upcoming flights, passengers can have a shower or book Cowshed treatments for a quick manicure, pedicure or shave. And naturally, a full deli backed up by a wide range of top shelf liquor, beer, juice and smoothies is available for grazing.

The entire setting is engineered to create the perfect, serene, pre-flight experience, the complete antithesis of the madness of Heathrow. And though Gatwick’s lounge will be slightly smaller, the same concepts and appointments will carry through, down to the same Cowshed treatments available in-house.

To visit the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse, passengers must be booked in Upper Class or be a Flying Club Gold member with no single-use or day passes available. You can find branded clubhouses in London Heathrow, London Gatwick, New York’s JFK, Newark, Washington Dulles, San Francisco, Boston, Johannesburg, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Amenities will differ slightly by location.

Gadling app review – Virgin Atlantic Flying Without Fear (iPhone/iPod Touch)

by Scott Carmichael on

Several days ago, Katie mentioned a new application from Virgin Atlantic called “Flying Without Fear”. I’m always on the lookout for new and innovative travel apps, so I took this one for a spin.

The first thing you notice in the application is how well it is designed – the colors are all in the familiar Virgin tints (red and purple) and navigation is a breeze. The best place to start is with the introduction video.

Richard Branson himself welcomes you to the application, and lets you know he’d love to meet you “up there” some day. Part two of the course is an explanation of the in-flight experience. This 11 minute video clip walks you though the various stages of flight.
Inflight experience video

The video is presented by a Virgin Atlantic pilot, so he knows a thing or two about the plane. During the video, you’ll be taken from the preflight portion of the flight to the final stages. He explains all about the noises you’ll hear on the ground and why you see pilots walking around the plane on the ground. The clip is very entertaining, but also quite detailed – down to the noises you’ll hear when flaps are positioned on the ground. And finally in the preflight portion, the pilot even explains what those dings are you’ll hear right before takeoff.

The takeoff portion is equally detailed – describing the exact procedure, and what all the bangs and when you can expect the engines to power down a little. The video also shows the flaps retracting, and what to expect once at cruising altitude.

In the “cruising” portion, the pilot explains the one part of flying that most people hate the most – turbulence. He explains that aircraft are designed to deal with turbulence, and that it is normal for wings to flex.

The descent and landing part once again describes the various engine noises you can expect , and what slats and flaps are doing. Especially if you are sitting near a wing, learning what these things do is quite helpful. Landing gear deployment is described, and the final approach is explained in great detail, down to the speed at which you’ll be hitting the ground.

And finally, the video explains a go-around, or an aborted landing. I’ve been through quite a few of these, and I can see where they’d be pretty scary for people with a fear of flight.

Common questions answered

Part three of the course answers all the common questions many people have when flying. It is split into various portions (engines, landing, pilots, sounds, takeoff, weather and wings). Audio clips answer almost 25 different topics, from in-flight medical emergencies to why a water landing is safe.

Each answer is very comprehensive, and once again, a Virgin Atlantic pilot answers the questions.

Exercises

Once you have followed the course, you can begin on the exercises. Think of these as a kind of hypnosis. A very soothing voice leads you through the entire stage of flight.

From booking the trip to arriving at your destination. The voice is amazing, and I can really see people being relaxed listening to him. Ten different stages are offered, and you can start listening to them before you even consider taking a flight, just to get a good idea what to expect.

Fear Attack

The same soothing voice as in the exercises also helps you get through a fear attack. Part one is a breathing exercise, designed to calm you down and get your mind off the flight. This portion also provides some basic tips, like talking to your seatmate or getting up to walk around.

Managing your fears

In the final portion of the application, you can “rate” your air travel fears. After you select which portions of a flight you are the most scared of, you add the date of your flight. Then, on the day you fly, the application will send push reminders with alerts and schedule reminders.

Final thoughts

There is no denying it – this is one amazingly well designed application. I’m really impressed at how personal they made it – instead of just a couple of screens showing how to deal with your fear of flying, the app almost holds your hand and guides you through each step. The pilot video is fantastic, even for someone who does not fear flying.

The pilot narrated audio guides are also great. So many topics are covered, and the various portions create a very good resource for learning about flying. And finally, the exercises are just plain brilliant – I love the voice used to narrate these, it is so soothing and reassuring.

All the content is stored on your device, so you do not need to be connected to the Internet to take advantage of it. This means you can sit back, plug in your headphones and listen to the course whenever you want.

Of course, everyone has a different way they deal with their fear of flying, and I’m by no means able to claim this application will cure all your fears, but at $4.99, it really is worth trying. You’ll find the Virgin Atlantic Flying Without Fear application in the App store (iTunes link).

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