It seems like just a few weeks ago that I was down in California with my sister. Strangely enough, tomorrow I’ll be making my way south once again, this time for WordCamp San Francisco.
While I’m pretty excited to go down and meet a lot of new bloggers and WordPress enthusiasts, I can’t say I’m looking forward to driving to Seattle tomorrow for my flight. For whatever reason, flying from Canada is super expensive these days, and I’m saving about $300 just by flying out of Seattle. I’m going to burn a few new CDs before the trip, so hopefully I’ll have a bit of music to keep me company.
At the recommendation of my friend Jason, I’m going to be flying with Virgin America out of Seattle. They are apparently one of the coolest and hippest airlines, as evidenced by some of the features listed on their website:
- Virgin America is the first U.S. airline with mood lighting.
- There are 3000 MP3s onboard every flight.
- You can plug in to 110v power at your seat.
- You can order fresh food when you want it, from the screen at your seat.
- Red, our in-flight entertainment system, has over 25 pay-per-view Hollywood movies on demand.
- Virgin America is a cashless airline. Place your order, swipe your card, and you’re done.
Since they have plugins on every seat, I’m going to bring my laptop and hopefully do a few hours of catch-up work on the plane. Granted, there’s no internet connection, but I have quite a few things I can accomplish without one. Turns out they might have Wi-Fi on the planes, so we’ll see for sure tomorrow.
Jason is actually flying back from Ottawa to San Francisco tomorrow, and conveniently arriving into SFO at approximately the same time I’ll be getting there. So hopefully we’ll be able to go grab a few drinks somewhere.
Saturday is the WordCamp event, followed by a social. I’m charging my camera gear when I get home, and hopefully I’ll grab a bunch of photos for everyone at both events. I’ll check in tomorrow once I arrive at SeaTac in Seattle.
I’d fly on that plane JUST for the features.
Let me know if it is worth it. I had the option to fly out of Seattle and thought of Virgin when I was going to SF. It is much cheaper. But as I don’t have a car and I would have to take the bus both ways from campus and to/from Vancouver to Seattle, it didn’t seem worth it and very difficult returning.
There is also the unknown of the border, especially when using a bus.
Duane,
Typically, flying across the US-Canada border costs more than flying into a border airport and driving across. One might chalk that up to the convenience of flying across borders into international airports and the ability of airports to charge higher landing fees. Your kilometrage may vary.