Virgin America QOL

[slavenaway]

Not VA's fault in the same way VA blames the lack of profits on fuel prices or weather in SFO?

 

[filejw]

I must ask something about the questionaire on the job application. How many times can they ask if the customer is always right. What kids of messed up question is this? From a ridiculous management and PR for a company-the customer is never wrong. But as a pilot-well yes, our customers are wrong all the time. think about how many times a passenger came up to you mad and saying they would risk the thunderstorm and we should depart immediately as they are late for a meeting. He is wrong. Period. He is wrong and a customer. So what in the hell are they looking for when answering a question like that?

Hope you don't come across like this in an interview.You are right but your wrong as the customer is always right no matter what the business .My bar or at my airline same issue. FYI 33 years and I never have had pax come up to me and tell me I need to fly. Its all how you present yourself to the public. Good luck , I'v never flown with XJ guy who wasn't great to work with or train.

 

[NEDude]

Not VA's fault in the same way VA blames the lack of profits on fuel prices or weather in SFO?

The same way the Sabre transition debacle was not Virgin's fault, the same way the uniform debacle was not Virgin's fault...

 

[bri5150]

The same way the Sabre transition debacle was not Virgin's fault, the same way the uniform debacle was not Virgin's fault...

I will say this about the uniforms...GK Direct has been the biggest pain in my ass since I got hired here. A lot of the issues I have been hearing about are directly related to them. They sent me 6 fricken shirts instead of 4. How is that possibly Virgin's fault? I order directly from them. Some guys get uniform pieces without eyelets for wings, completely wrong size pieces from what they ordered...you name it. I still haven't gotten my pants. How is Virgin responsible for a 6 month backorder on pants? With that said, the shirt cut was not their fault.

 

[Flyer1015]

401k match....payroll....

How often does ADP screw up? Rarely in my many years of dealing with them. All of a sudden they are screwing up everything related to VX? Seems fishy to me.

Yup, VX is about to fold its doors. Third party vendor error is proof enough!

 

[NEDude]

I will say this about the uniforms...GK Direct has been the biggest pain in my ass since I got hired here. A lot of the issues I have been hearing about are directly related to them. They sent me 6 fricken shirts instead of 4. How is that possibly Virgin's fault? I order directly from them. Some guys get uniform pieces without eyelets for wings, completely wrong size pieces from what they ordered...you name it. I still haven't gotten my pants. How is Virgin responsible for a 6 month backorder on pants? With that said, the shirt cut was not their fault.

The choice to spend three years designing a uniform (lost manpower over those three years), going with a designer with no uniform experience - and the result being material that is already falling apart, looks like you slept in it even though you just ironed it, and highlights sweat stains. Using women's cut shirts for male pilots. Spending a year in a legal battle over which company owns the design of the shirts. Rolling out a uniform that went against the approvals of the various committees and resulted in yet another change of uniforms. Had management went to a regular uniform supplier and bought regular pilot stuff from the beginning this entire debacle, and the resulting lost manpower and money, would never have happened. That root of the uniform problem lies squarely on incompetent management and no place else.

Similar to the Sabre debacle. Sabre offered their full support and IT services through the transition and management refused, hoping to save a little cash by doing most of it in house. The result was nearly six months of headaches from a customer service standpoint and over a year in mismanaged revenue due to not fully understanding Sabre. Word leaking out from 555 is that McCloud is asking for some basic information on revenue performance on certain routes and the folks running the programs still do not know how to extract the data.

Look, I do not think we are on the verge of going out of business. But I think the fact that we were the best funded start-up airline in modern history, had a well recognized brand name, a ton of subsidies from the state of California and yet cannot make money while every other airline is raking in record profits is a strong indication of the quality of our management. The fact that seemingly simple things like payroll and uniforms turn into major projects that in some cases take up a lot of company resources is further proof of the kind of management we have. I like this company and want it to succeed. We have a great product, a great brand and operate in two great business travel markets. But go spend a few days at 555, see how little the folks there actually work and how much time is spent on parties and socializing, and you will begin to understand why things are constantly screwing up.

 

[B6Busdriver]

The choice to spend three years designing a uniform (lost manpower over those three years), going with a designer with no uniform experience - and the result being material that is already falling apart, looks like you slept in it even though you just ironed it, and highlights sweat stains. Using women's cut shirts for male pilots. Spending a year in a legal battle over which company owns the design of the shirts. Rolling out a uniform that went against the approvals of the various committees and resulted in yet another change of uniforms. Had management went to a regular uniform supplier and bought regular pilot stuff from the beginning this entire debacle, and the resulting lost manpower and money, would never have happened. That root of the uniform problem lies squarely on incompetent management and no place else.

JetBlue is three years into their quest for a decent pilot shirt. When push comes to shove B6 management will take every opportunity to save a nickel. Our uniforms are an embarrassment, second only to our FAs.

 

[bri5150]

Many pilots have directly called ADP and the ADP employees have said it was ADP'S fault. Something about a mix up because we had a performance bonus paid around same time and that had to be paper check. For what it's worth...

 

[poor2thecore]

Are you guys getting new uniforms? No more Banana? What does the pilot group want?

 

[bri5150]

I would say this is uniform ver 2.2. The short short sleeves are fixed, new wings because of logo issue, and new epaulets because everyone hated the ver 2.1 ones. Minor changes.

 

[Q400 Gear Bitch]

DC was in the Village yesterday and mentioned that there would be a big announcement Monday. I think we're switching to sabre. :beer:

 

[pilotpm]

DC was in the Village yesterday and mentioned that there would be a big announcement Monday. I think we're switching to sabre. :beer:

I'm guessing its a minor pay raise.

 

[bri5150]

Apparently DC said HUGE announcement. That must be bigger than big. He said 9.5/10 on a hugeness scale and it was a game changer. I guess we'll see.

 

[Q400 Gear Bitch]

Apparently DC said HUGE announcement. That must be bigger than big. He said 9.5/10 on a hugeness scale and it was a game changer. I guess we'll see.

Flygirls part deux!

 

[bri5150]

Flygirls part deux!

We can only hope!

 

[Flyer1015]

I thought the board meeting was Feb 8, so until then, no pay increase news right?

Could it be the 4th quarter results? When does VX usually release those?

 

[Andy]

Apparently DC said HUGE announcement. That must be bigger than big. He said 9.5/10 on a hugeness scale and it was a game changer. I guess we'll see.

I hope this isn't the big news. http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_22504207/virgin-america-begins-san-jose-l-flights

You guys need someone willing to drop another $100M in order to keep the doors open for another year, not simply playing musical chairs with your flights. ... these new SJC flights (along with the EWR and LAS ones) will mean that other routes will have to be cut since you're only taking delivery of one aircraft in 2013.

 

[Flyer1015]

I hope this isn't the big news. http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_22504207/virgin-america-begins-san-jose-l-flights

You guys need someone willing to drop another $100M in order to keep the doors open for another year, not simply playing musical chairs with your flights. ... these new SJC flights (along with the EWR and LAS ones) will mean that other routes will have to be cut since you're only taking delivery of one aircraft in 2013.

FlightInfo Airline Pilot CEO Andy, other routes don't have to be cut. They can increase aircraft utilization to a higher amount per day than current. And they can cut unprofitable frequency out of a route for new ones. And another 100 million? Flightinfo CEO, where did you hear this? Did you already see their 4th quarter report?

 

[Andy]

FlightInfo Airline Pilot CEO Andy, other routes don't have to be cut. They can increase aircraft utilization to a higher amount per day than current. And they can cut unprofitable frequency out of a route for new ones. And another 100 million? Flightinfo CEO, where did you hear this? Did you already see their 4th quarter report?

YOUR CEO stated that VX was going to stop opening additional stations because he claimed that the cost of opening new stations was the reason why VX was losing money (high cost of opening new destinations). So what's he done since that announcement? Announced that EWR and SJC will be new destinations for VX. I never bought the argument that opening new stations was VX's problem; VX's problem is that you guys are trying to sell conspicuous consumption in a Walmart world.

As to your second rebuttal - aircraft utilization - let's break down the numbers for VX's new proposed service.
SJC-LAX @4 RTs/day. That's a minimum of 3: 00 x 4 = 12 hours.
LAX-LAS @3 RTs/day. That's a minimum of 2:30 x 3 = 7:30 hrs.
LAX/SFO-EWR @6 RTs/day. That's a minimum of 11: 00 x 6 = 66 hours.
12 + 7:30 + 66 = 85:30/day additional flying.
VX is currently flying their aircraft more than 12 hours/day. There isn't much room for flying the aircraft additional hours. What you're suggesting is that VX will be able to get more than an additional 1:30/day out of their aircraft. While it's not mathematically impossible, I don't expect that you'll get high load factors on the multiple 2-4 AM departures that would be required to get that high a utilization rate.

Where'd I get the $100M figure? Simple math. The latest four quarters show a $99M cash burn rate. The problem is that VX's numbers have been deteriorating since 2010. I realize that some of you think that VX has turned a corner and the cash burn is suddenly going to stop but I see nothing but continued poor decisions at VX. The LAX Elevate Club is your management's latest plan to flush more cash down the crapper.

Have I seen the 4Q numbers? Yes. I've seen the 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 4Q numbers. And from those and other quarterly numbers, VX has a track record. And the pattern of best to worst quarters is: 3Q, 2Q, 4Q, and 1Q. So even if VX had a 'great' 4Q quarter and only burned $10M in cash, it won't matter much because 1Q has always been VX's bloodbath quarter. Absent additional investment capital, VX will be out of cash before they turn a wheel in SJC.

Could it be the 4th quarter results? When does VX usually release those?

I find it rather humorous that someone who, by all appearances, hasn't even read a VX quarterly report, much less know when VX has traditionally released them, would mock someone who has actually read VX's quarterly reports.

 

[LoveGun]

$99 million per year cash burn rate? Not exactly...

The vast majority of VA's losses are due to us not paying down our debt. The interest owed our creditors stacks up -- hence the large net losses. This is bad, but it is not catastrophic. The number to watch is operating profit. If VA can make an operating profit consistently, then we can IPO and our owners/ investors will trade debt for equity.