My Brush with Glamour and a Margarita Machine on Virgin America

Festive fanfare decorated the gate at San Francisco International Airport.

A Mexican breakfast awaited passengers at the gate. I have never been so happy to see breakfast burritos.

A mariachi band got the fiesta going.

I’ve never met a margarita machine I didn’t like. So what if it was 8 a.m?!

Breakfast of a champion … if by champion you mean someone who plans on being drunk for the next thirty-six hours.

Virgin America VP Ross Bonanna cuts the ribbon! Viva fun, giant scissors!

Thanks in part to the purple mood lighting, Virgin’s planes are more “swanky lounge” and less “uncomfortable prison of beige.” The airline is certainly ushering in a renaissance of Jet Age–like travel, with a focus on having fun on the flight. (You mean air travel doesn’t have to be a miserable, necessary evil of travelling? Imagine that.) It’s clear that they want you to enjoy the journey as much as the destination (or at least, almost—it’s hard to beat a Puerto Vallarta beach), and they’re making that happen by providing fun touch-screen entertainment and having the crew act more like cruise directors (capable ones, of course) instead of corporate robots that resent your presence. It’s like the show PanAm, except with fewer espionage and sexual-harassment plotlines.

To order food and drinks, you use the touch-screen on the seat back in front of you. Some options, like the designer San Francisco-based coffee Philz, is free (a cup would set you back $3 if you visited one of the stores), while other meals cost between $5 and $8. Not bad, considering the food is locally made by renowned chefs including Cat Cora and Tyler Florence.

We were served spicy hot chocolate. Of course I put tequila in it.

Reviewing my itinerary on the flight. Swimming with dolphins? Sign me up!

The mariachi band serenaded us on the flight. (And because everyone was drinking, this was in no way annoying.)The group is called Trio Sol de Mexico and they are total dolls, in case you want to book them for your next fiesta. Or, you know, bring them on vacation with you. They do perform in-flight entertainment.

Here is a picture of a happy passenger, Jenny. Jenny won a free trip to Puerto Vallarta with her lucky guest by submitting her craziest vacation story to Virgin’s video challenge, Viva La Vacacion. Virgin asked contestants to submit videos about their wildest vacation story. Jenny’s story involved a hearing-aid convention, a room-service mishap, and a jaunt through a hotel lobby naked. Moral of her story: nudity helps you win contests.

More mariachi bands greeted us at customs. Hola, Puerto Vallarta. Mucho gusto.