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Review: Virgin America Interiors, thank you Adam Wells

By Michael DiTullo - December 19, 2010

in Featured Items

As a Creative Director for a global innovation firm, I fly often. Having to get around the globe on short notice I sample a lot of airlines. All of us should be turning to the passenger next to us saying "can you believe this is really working" on every flight we take, but much of the majesty and magic has been sucked out of the flight experience. From the online booking process, the shoeless, beltless, TSA shuffle through security, to the ragged airplane interiors we are just trying to get through it, perhaps imagining we are in our "happy place".

Not on Virgin, where Sir Richard Branson, billionaire, innovator, adventurer (man crush) and Adam Wells, Virgin America's Design director, have created an immersive design based experience that brings back a touch of that wonder of flight. The planes are more than three years old now and it is amazing to see how far ahead they are of the competition. From the mood-lighting, to the CMF of the seat backs, to the sarcastic safety announcements, everything is just better. Because of routes (and my high mileage with United and Delta) I don't get to fly Virgin much. When I do, I'm reminded of the power of design to evoke a sense of dignity and fun to what is really an amazing fact of being hurtled through the air in a machine with a few strangers.

Appropriately, there is no one big WOW element in the design, but instead it is a collection of well orchestrated small things that make me actually want to be on the plane; like being able to order food anytime you want via the seat back UI, a remote control that feels like it was made in this century, a color palette that relates more to me than my grandmother and flight attendants that seem to be trained to be funny. So thank you Adam Wells. Thank you for not pandering, thank you for looking for the highest common denominator instead of the lowest, thank you for respecting your passengers and honoring the wonder of flight. Other airlines, take note, this is how you do it. Hope you are flying Virgin for the holidays!

o

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tim Rowledge

13 years ago

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It's been a long time since I lived on a Virgin route, sadly. Do they still serve ice creams during the movie? Probably not I guess, if you get to choose your own movie time

Favourite Virgin moment (at least the safe for work one!) - coming in to Heathrow the Purser's announcement concluded with
"remember to stow your tray tables and return your hostess to the full upright and dressed position"
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Taomeister

13 years ago

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Yep, I had the exact same observations when I flew over the Thanksgiving holiday - the seat controls remind me of a nice European car, the seat-back entertainment options were snappy and the music stayed on even when you moved to other parts of the menu, and the on-board WiFi on the planes is free over the holiday too (courtesy Google). It made the airport terminal experience that much worse in comparison though.
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daisy

13 years ago

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that looks crazy!
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Efe

13 years ago

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My secret wish for years has been that Virgin should open more routes and let's watch the other airlines (yeah every single one of them basically suck) wonder what the heck happened?

The airline industry is the only service industry that can basically get away with mundane service, and crappy customer experience and still rake in money every year.

Thanks Sir Richard Benson.
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