In the arms race that is airlines' push to win the hearts of the Twitter-using message, JetBlue just took a giant leap forward. Digg founder Kevin Rose reported on his Twitter feed that on his flight into the home of SXSW yesterday, attendants suggested on the ground that the passengers tweet their arrival.

We do always like to toss up a jaunty "Wheels up!" or "Wheels down" on our trips. According to JetBlue's Twitter page, the flight attendant who mentioned Twitter even has her own page -- and oh, the tales she can probably tell.

What do you think is the airline that is using Twitter the best so far? Giddy star-studded Virgin America? Chummy Southwest? Someone else? Let us know.

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· Twitter coverage [Jaunted]]]> egw 2009-03-13T13:08:33-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/1/28/1198/74543

Apparently, teaming up with Boing Boing wasn't enough. Virgin America has just sealed a deal with Internet video site Revision3, which produces shows like Diggnation, The GigaOm Show, The Totally Rad Show and Tekzilla. With the announcement, we'd say VA is now officially the country's geekiest airline.

The stuff is sure to be a hit with the San Fran crowd aboard lots of Virgin America flights; the programming will be available starting in March.

For those of you coming from the more traditional entertainment capitals of New York and LA, don't despair. When in-flight entertainment guru Charles Ogilvie wasn't chatting up Paris Hilton at Sundance, he made a deal to get exclusive Sundance Channel programming onto VA flights. Also recently announced: a new line up of Spanish-language content, including Toronto Film Fest award-winner "Bella."

Related Stories:
· Boing Boing TV Coming to Virgin America [Jaunted]
· Virgin America Debuts Super Trendy Radio Channel [Jaunted]
· Virgin America coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Diggnation]]]> pbb 2008-01-28T11:09:36-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/7/20/105817/219

Update: From the man himself, Gareth Edmondson Jones says it was some sort of crazy SYN flood attack that hit them yesterday. We aren't going to pretend to know what that means, but what we do know is the Virgin America site is now up and running like a Kenyan marathoner. More next week.

Virgin America is claiming hackers slowed down their first day of ticket sales yesterday. Customers had to rely on phone reservations because of site wonkiness. Huh? Our first thought was maybe the media, known to interchange the word "hack" and "web traffic" in the past may have done so here. However, a quick search on Digg shows us no Virgin America ticket sales story registered on the popular news sharing site yesterday, which has been known to bring down an under prepared server in the past. And while VA's first day was definitely covered by most major media outlets yesterday it isn't like the company wasn't prepared for the consistent traffic onslaught.

Virgin spokesman Gareth Edmondson Jones said the airline is fixing the problem and trying to identify the culprits. Furthermore, the San Jose Mercury News is saying the problem only hit users in California. Nope. We were here in the Northeast banging on the site all day yesterday, and it was super sluggish to non responsive.

"Hacker" theories are this way. ]]> markj 2007-07-20T11:09:03-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/4/24/10286/6671

Virgin America has been eerily quiet since last months announcement of tentative DOT approval. Why?

Looks like a case of loose lips ground planes, so no news appears to be good news. According to our sources, last Friday was the final day for anyone and everyone to send objections to Virgin America's response to the DOT's requested changes, which included the request that current VA CEO Fred Reid take a back seat. To date, no objections to VA's response have been reported.

More than likely this means the DOT accepted VA's changes, which are rumored to include Reid moving from his CEO post to consulting role, which means, Jefferson Airplane and the rest of the VA fleet should go wheels up sometime in late June.

One interesting note, the VA web page that formerly promoted the Diggnation flight contest, a contest where winners would ride the Virgin from SFO to New York and participate in a beer fueled mid-flight podcast, is no longer active or redirecting anywhere. While the explanation could be as mundane as web monkey error, we wonder, did Virgin America ground Digg's cool contest? Or did the far reaching DOT "demand" Kevin Rose end his association with VA. Of course, we are joking, but seriously, what happened to the contest?

Here is what our inside source told us recently regarding VA's launch:

Still expecting a May final order from DOT.  For a summer launch.

Our prediction? VA, has a flare for the dramatic, and will launch to the public on July 7, 2007.

Related Stories:
·   Virgin America Coverage [Jaunted]
·   Our Virgin America Tour [Jaunted]
·   Virgin America Diggnation Contest [LetVAFly!]]]> markj 2007-04-24T10:31:27-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/3/21/114631/075

It looks like Digg's Kevin Rose, Jaunted, and the flying public will all get a chance to ride the Virgin soonish.

According to ATW, yesterday the US Department of Transportation "tentatively" approved Virgin America's plan to reconfigure ownership, which means, VA should be up and flying this summer.

What is with the "tentative" approval? Virgin America CEO Fred Reid must be replaced, and some other mundane conditions must be met.

Will VA comply? Well, whether Reid stays or goes, it looks like it is all systems go for a mid-summer launch. Does this mean a live Diggnation show, with booze and contest winners, will take place on a private flight from SFO to JFK as earlier indicated? Probably. Does this mean Jaunted will get to test out the Virgin America flying experience in the near future, we sure hope so. But most importantly this means Internet rock star Charles Ogilvie's job appears safe, so Davie, you can immediately remove the pins from your DOT representative voodoo dolls.

Update: We just received word from Virgin America's PR guru Gareth Edmondson-Jones, who confirms our earlier reports:

Basically we have 21 days to finalize last conditions.

Then everyone has 7 days to comment.

Then we'll get Final Order.

So call this a major milestone and a giant step towards flying.

Related Stories:
·   Virgin America Coverage [Jaunted]
·   Our Virgin America Tour [Jaunted]
·   Virgin America Diggnation Contest [LetVAFly!]]]> markj 2007-03-21T11:49:30-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/