I had been planning for months to take my wife to NYC for her birthday since she had never been.  We had the opportunity to fly Virgin America from LAX to JFK.  All I can say is that if you haven’t flown VA before, you really need to try it out.  I felt more like I was going to a club rather than cross-country on an airplane.  Everything is so well branded from check-in to inflight services.  Take a look at their safety video.  It give you a feeling of the approach to flying.

They also offer a state of the art entertainment system called “Red”.  It allows you to watch Dish Network programming as well as order food and drinks from your seat.  When you’re hungry, you simply select what you’d like to eat, swipe your credit card, and they bring it to your seat.  Here are some pics from the flight:

The seat back entertainment system, “Red”

Take off from LAX

It’s been a great start to the convention and I’ve only been in NY for a couple hours.  It started with 6D on United P.S from LAX to JFK.  Not the best service I’ve had on united, but the legroom was great and their new Archos media players were fantastic.

Once I got my bag, I headed out to get a Taxi when I was bombarded by people offering me private car service to Manhattan.  Maybe it was because I was dressed nice, I don’t know, but they were practically tackling me.  There was one guy who said he would take me for $35, which is very good for getting into Manhattan.  He claimed to have a really nice town-car waiting in the garage…I should have known better.  Once I saw his beat-down mini-van, I said peace-out and took a cab.

The cab ride was great.  They’ve installed these touch-screens in the back of the cabs that stream local news and entertainment.  It also had rss feeds being delivered from EPSN, People, Weather Channel, and Zagats.  The highlight for me was definitely my driver, his name was Forhad and he was making weird noises the whole way.

After about 45 minutes, Forhad finally drops me off at the Westin where he makes his displeasure of the credit card system known to me.  Here is where it gets real good…

I ended up staying at the Westin because it was actually the cheapest hotel I could find.  Granted, 5 days here costs more than our monthly mortgage payment, but it was still a heck of a deal for New York standards.  

When I decided to book the reservation, I went on to Trip Advisor to check out what people were saying about the property and what I learned is that if you are on the higher floors you’re fine.  Apparently, they’ve only remodeled the rooms on the top floors and this is where you want to be.  I noticed on TA, that the general manager had been replying to some of the comments people have left.  Even though I didn’t have her email address, I was able to figure it out with a little deductive reasoning.  I sent the email, and two days later I received an email saying “We would be more than happy to accommodate your request”.

I figured I would just get some random room on one of the higher floors.  Well, when I checked-in, the put me in a corner room on the 41st floor overlooking Times Square and the Empire State Building.  Sweet.

The lesson learned:  The Web + Brain Power = Room Upgrade.  This is going to be a great week.

Why is this date so important?  Well, it was my first time sitting in first class.  My Dad and I were returning from seeing the World Expo in Brisbane Australia after two weeks.  Our flight out of Sydney on United Airlines had an equipment change from a 747-200 to a 747-SP and because of my Dad’s status, we we’re bumped up to first class.

My Dad kept the menu from our trip in first class and put a travel journal together for me.  I was going through it last night and decided to scan it in.  It was much different flying back then as compared to now.  United Airlines spared no expense to make sure their passengers had the best the friendly skies had to offer.  I just wish I was old enough to enjoy the fantastic wine list!  Click on the image below to view the menu from our flight.