Tag: Charles Ogilvie

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Virgin Atlantic Shakes Its Tail Feather All Night Long For 25th Anniversary

June 23, 2009 at 1:24 PM | by | Comment (1)

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to party with a billionaire, or at least a bevy of foxy flight attendants? If so, last night's Virgin Atlantic 25th Anniversary Bash was it: the travel party of the year with a flight simulator, celebrity appearances, booty shaking on the dancefloor, and red martinis garnished with rose petals.

Held on a rooftop in Tribeca, Richard Branson's "only party this year" kicked off with his descending from the second floor on the arms of four VA flight attendants, who all then danced to Deniece Williams singing her 1984 hit "Let's Hear It For the Boy." Those who weren't immediately dancing, as people boogied nonstop from 9pm until midnight, either headed up to the roofdeck to talk travel or amused themselves with all the classic games—giant Connect Four, anyone?

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Virgin America Lands in Boston, Jaunted Gets a History Lesson

February 12, 2009 at 3:19 PM | by | Comments (0)

If you have been following our tweets, you know that last night we attended Virgin America's "Revolution is in the Air" @ the Liberty Hotel in Boston. The event marked the beginning of Virgin America service from BOS to LAX and SFO (we found fares yesterday for as low as $198 round trip).

Last nights party featured some New England Patriot cheerleaders, Richard Branson, and other "local celebrities" as they were billed, which much to our surprise turned out not to be a Wahlberg of any kind (Maria Menounos was the aforementioned celebrity). However, the big news for long time Jaunted readers is that Virgin America's original director of in-flight entertainment, Charles Ogilvie, cirrently Panasonic's Executive Director in Shanghai was in town and able to chill with us at this event.

Charles brought his Mom Ann Godfrey (pictured here) to the soirée. Turns out Charles has quite a history in the aviation world. Ann's Dad founded Godfrey Field, which is now BGR (Bangor International). Back in the day, Edward Rawson Godfrey welcomed Amelia Earhart to his airport. Very cool.

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Gone But Not Forgotten: Charles Ogilvie Still Inspires

July 30, 2008 at 11:35 AM | by | Comment (1)

Apparently we're not the only ones with an outsize adoration of former Virgin America Director of In-Flight Entertainment and VIP hotel reviewer Charles Ogilvie: The man himself sent us this snap of JFK Virgin supervisor Tara Cassese and her homemade "I ♥ Charles" button.

Charles has moved on to Panasonic, but if you see this woman, make sure to mention how much you heart Charles--maybe she'll move you into an exit row for free! After all, it's tough to have a crush.

Related Stories:
· Post-Virgin Travel: Charles Ogilvie Gives Us One More for the Road [Jaunted]
· Charles Ogilvie coverage [Jaunted]

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Virgin Galactic Launch: Charles Ogilvie Wants a Piece of Space

July 28, 2008 at 10:00 AM | by | Comments (0)

We're out in the Mojave Desert today for the roll out of Virgin Galactic's White Knight Two, the carrier vehicle for SpaceShipTwo.

What better way to kick off our space ship coverage today than to post a photo of Charles Ogilvie mugging with a model of one. The man may be holding controllers for Virgin America's RED system, but you never know what partnerships could happen, says Charles, who now works at Panasonic:

Much of the entertainment [on Virgin Galactic] will probably be looking outside and the sensations: Don't forget the fact that you're weightless and that's pretty cool! We certainly envision areas where Panasonic innovation can help capture and take a little of such a profound experience back to Earth with you.

Hmmm... Built-in panoramic cameras? Memory stick readers and seat-back email capability? Video chat with friends from 62 miles up? Guess we'll find out soon enough.

Related Stories:
· Virgin Galactic coverage [Jaunted]
· Charles Ogilvie coverage [Jaunted]

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Post-Virgin Life: Charles Ogilvie Gives Us One More for the Road

July 24, 2008 at 3:15 PM | by | Comments (0)

Charles Ogilvie may be on the way to China to think up fancy new in-flight entertainment and other gizmos for Panasonic, but we get to admire him with one last celeb in this shot. Though we can't exactly figure out what Seth Green is doing with that Red controller, we definitely recognize Charles' "One Million Dollars" move.

Also interesting is the table set up to the left of the photo: It's a booth all about Skyjet and Flexjet. You recognize the names right? They're the two private aviation companies that Virgin CEO Fred Reid will take over August 25.

Related Stories:
· Charles Ogilvie: Leaving Virgin America, Heading for China [Jaunted]
· Charles Ogilvie coverage [Jaunted]

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Charles Ogilvie: Leaving Virgin America, Heading for China

July 7, 2008 at 10:00 AM | by | Comment (1)

We're in full-on crisis mode here at Jaunted HQ because our favorite in-flight entertainment expert, Charles Ogilvie, is leaving Virgin America. We know! (Don't worry: He won't miss Paris Hilton's first flight on a WiFi-enabled VA aircraft.)

Here's the official announcement from CEO David Cush:

It is with mixed emotions that I announce that Charles Ogilvie is leaving his position as Director of In-flight Entertainment and Partnerships at Virgin America. Charles will be pursuing a unique opportunity: to lead Panasonic's in-flight entertainment and new airborne technology platforms in China. Charles will be based in Shanghai and will report directly to their CEO.

Sounds like he'll have even more chances to hang out with Yao Ming!

Related Stories:
· What's up with Charles Ogilvie and Paris Hilton? [Jaunted]
· Virgin America Announces Onboard WiFi by 2008 [Jaunted]
· Our Virgin America Tour: Charles Ogilvie, Internet Superstar [Jaunted]

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Charles Ogilvie Continues His Celeb Spotting

June 30, 2008 at 10:30 AM | by | Comments (0)

Jaunted heartthrob Charles Ogilvie continued his celeb spotting on a recent flight to Beijing. And since simply chatting with the NBA's tallest player and China's national hero wouldn't be enough, Charles spoke with Yao Ming entirely in Mandarin. He was nice enough to translate for us:

When Yao Ming returns to the US he will be flying on some test flights to witness Red, Virgin America's famed in-flight entertainment system first-hand and "check out the legroom." He's looking forward to the day when all airlines, including Virgin America, make real-time sports scores available at every seat on every flight.

We're looking forward to that day, too. How 'bout scores via that in-flight WiFi we keep hearing about?

Related Stories:
· What's up with Charles Ogilvie and Paris Hilton? [Jaunted]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]

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What's up with Charles Ogilvie and Paris Hilton?

June 26, 2008 at 4:30 PM | by | Comments (3)

Speaking of Paris Hilton, what's up with her and Charles Ogilvie? The pair was spotted at Sundance and now they've been photographed together sporting AirAsia hats.

It's no secret that the Virgin Group owns a piece of the Asian low cost carrier, but could Paris be involved too? Or maybe she's more interested in AirAsia's cousin, Virgin America? After all, that airline has invited her on its inaugural WiFi flight scheduled for later this year.

We're trying to sort it all out, but in the meantime, we need to get one of those hats. So hot!

Related Stories:
· AirAsia Flight Review: Live from Vientiane [Jaunted]
· Paris Hilton coverage [Jaunted]

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Coming Soon-ish: Virgin's Own In-Flight WiFi

June 24, 2008 at 5:30 PM | by | Comments (0)

This morning, news broke that American Airlines is rolling out its new in-flight WiFi tomorrow. As we posted our story, we heard from Jaunted pal Charles Ogilvie. While applauding American's efforts, he wanted to assure us that Virgin America isn't falling behind on the airborne wireless front:

We're taking our time to get it right. We're not just throwing this on our planes like in the lobby of some hotel.

Charles tells us that Virgin should have at least some in-flight WiFi by this fall; the whole fleet will have it by early 2009.

As is the case on AA--but not on JetBlue--you'll be able to surf the whole web from your laptop, and, notably, the VA product will also let you SMS from the seat-back entertainment console. Charles says that once the system is in place--and Paris Hilton helps christen it on the premiere WiFi flight--the carrier will continue to develop its internet offerings. So how long till we're playing video games against our buddies on different Virgin flights?

Related Stories:
· Interview with Charles Ogilvie [PSFK]
· In-Flight WiFi coverage [Jaunted]

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In-Flight WiFi: No Phones for You!

March 10, 2008 at 11:13 AM | by | Comments (0)

Besides open skies, in-flight WiFi stands to be one of the biggest travel storylines of the year as heaps of carriers add the service to their fleets in 2008. That means its time for another look at the etiquette of airborne VoIP calls--and what airlines are doing to stop them.

In the US, where Virgin America, Southwest and JetBlue plan to launch web access, phone calls won't be allowed. VA's Charles Ogilvie explains:

An airborne environment is a confined environment. You don't want 22B yapping away or playing a boom box.

But Europeans, as we know, love their cell phones:

Air France, which plans to start allowing cellular calls through (service provider) OnAir within months, said it would see how people use such services before crafting rules.

What could be even more interesting than the debate over blocked or unblocked phone calls is what sort of filtering software airlines choose to use in the air. Sadly, it'll probably end up being as draconian as DIA's web nanny.

Related Stories:
· Are Airlines and Travelers Ready to Surf the Skies? [AP, via Orlando Sentinel]
· In-Flight WiFi: Going International [Jaunted]
· In-Flight WiFi coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: i'm george]

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AirAsia Flight Review: Live from Vientiane

February 26, 2008 at 10:30 AM | by | Comments (0)

A few days ago Jaunted heartthrob Charles Ogilvie called us up to tell us he was in Asia for a flight on AirAsia. Normally, we'd take that in stride, but Chuck was hopping the inaugural flight between Kuala Lumpur and Vientiane in the company of the airline's CEO, Tony Fernandes (pictured at center), and Association of Southeast Asian Nations Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan (left).

Charles was definitely a fan of the airline, which has a bunch of different carriers unified under one brand banner. (Reminds us of another group of airlines we follow, actually.) He had the chance to ride AirAsia, Indonesia AirAsia and Thai AirAsia--and his full review is just a click away.

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Virgin America Officially The Geekiest Airline Flying

January 28, 2008 at 11:09 AM | by | Comments (2)

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]

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