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V Australia Can't Wait To Get You Down Under With An Aussie Rock Band
The always spunky Richard Branson and his Virgin team are no slouches at putting together clever promotions, and this time his Aussie long-haul airline V Australia has got a smart one going called Jet with JET.
One jet, of course, is the plane that V Australia is going to fly you in from Los Angeles to Sydney. The all-capitals JET is the great Aussie rock band that will be on the plane with you, and then will perform at the Homebake Music Festival once they back to Oz.
Tags: Hot Yachts / Parties / Yachting / Virgin / Virgin Limited Edition / Richard Branson / → All Tags
Richard Branson Was With Us In Spirit Last Night At Le Bernardin
How do you throw a launch party for a luxury catamaran without the boat or its owner present? Well, if you're Virgin Limited Edition and Richard Branson and his new Necker Belle are unavailable to party, you just down canapes at one of New York City's best restaurants: Le Bernardin.
Surrounded by Virgin's signature red rubber duckies and with visions of Virgin Limited Edition's luxury properties—Swiss ski chalet and Moroccan retreat, anyone?—dancing in our heads, we managed to make it through a few Blue Margaritas at the Necker Belle party last night. Officially to welcome the twin-hulled beauty to the Virgin group, the event also showcased these other small and carefully curated properties owned by Branson through his Limited Edition Label.
Tags: Christmas Alternatives / Holiday Travel / Morocco Travel / Richard Branson / Christmas Travel / Virgin Limited Editions / → All Tags
Join Richard Branson Under The Moroccan Mistletoe This Christmas
We're not ashamed to be fans of all things Richard Branson, and with the Christmas season approaching scary fast, we're thinking Richard's ideas on how and where to spend Christmas sound pretty good. If you want to avoid the shopping mall headaches and escape the northern hemisphere cold, Virgin's Kasbah Tamadot Resort in Morocco has some very tempting Christmas deals.
There are five or seven-day packages over the Christmas and New Year period, and they'll certainly be a little bit different from your average gift-swapping, carol-singing festive season. Packages include festive Berber feasts, guided walks in the Atlas Mountains, market excursions and a ride on the resident mules. Booking soon would be a great idea, because these are special, limited-capacity vacations.
Tags: Hot Yachts / Yachting / Richard Branson / Ships / First Class Travel / Virgin / Virgin Charter / → All Tags
Play With Richard Branson's New Toy For $88,000 Per Week
When we aren't out jetting around or hopping a high-speed train, we like to fantasize about that other form of transportation: the almighty ship. So to allay our own curiosity as much as yours, we're spotlighting yachts with either notorious owners or histories...or both. Know of a bootylicious boat? Let us know.
Who doesn't dream of owning a lush private island in the Caribbean? Perhaps Virgin Group head honcho Richard Branson, who has been living the dream since 1979, when he purchased Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands and turned it into a private resort.
If you can't afford to take over the whole island for your vacation, at a cost of $47,000 a day, then how about chartering his new catamaran yacht, the Necker Belle, for a mere $88,000 a week? She'll be fresh from a makover (she used to be the Lady Barbaretta) in February 2010, just in time to catch the end of the rich exodus to the Caribbean in winter.
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Happy Virgin America Day! Another Absinthe Cocktail, Please
Today might be a happy one simply because it's Friday, but do you know what tomorrow is? Even better than Saturday: it's Virgin America Day! That's right—the airline of mood lighting, web 2.0 personalities, and in-flight sexting is turning two years old on 08-08-09, and San Francisco's Mayor Newsom is making it official by declaring tomorrow Virgin America Day.
VA will be celebrating in their own way as well, by introducing new features on flights. First up is Shop Red, kind of like duty-free, but they'll only be selling the little packets of "Help" Remedies, which combat headaches, stomachaches and sleep troubles. You'll soon also be able to watch their "Best Of the Web" content and a whole channel of BoingBoing content. It's web 2.0-tacular!
Tags: Virgin Galactic / Richard Branson / White Knight Two / → All Tags
Virgin Galactic Determined to Send Folks Into Space
While we thought their collection of songs for an playlist in space was just a joke, it looks like Virgin Galactic is still really serious about putting civilian folks into space. Richard Branson reportedly sold about a third of the space travel start-up to a Middle Eastern investment fund to speed up the
British billionaire Sir Richard Branson signed a deal Tuesday to sell about a third of his space travel startup Virgin Galactic to a Mideast investment fund, giving the venture an influx of cash at a time when the global recession has dried up funding sources.
Aabar Investments will pay $280 million for a 32 percent share of the company, according to the agreement that also gives the wealthy Persian Gulf sheikdom of Abu Dhabi a chance to set up its own space flight industry.
Branson of course, conducted the signing much like he does anything else related to his Virgin companies: he don a black Virgin flight suit and took his first ride in the WhiteKnightTwo aircraft, designed to launch a ship into space (pictured, above, last summer). Virgin Galactic is expected to take off from Sweden in 2012 with flight tickets costing $200,000 a piece. Hmmm...we'll see about that.
Related Stories:
· Virgin Galactic Will Depart from Spaceport Sweden in 2012 [Jaunted]
· Virgin Galactic Launch: More Photos of White Knight Two [Jaunted]
· Space travel startup Virgin Galactic gets $280M boost from Abu Dhabi fund buying 32 pct share [AP via Chicago Tribune]
Tags: Music Festivals / Music Travel / Virgin Mobile FreeFest / Recessionomics / Richard Branson / → All Tags
Baltimore's Virgin Mobile Festival Drops Ticket Prices To Free
There’s been a lot of talk about 2009 being the year the music festival died, (see Summercase, Langerado and the San Francisco Blues Festival), and the long-rumored next casualty has been the Virgin Mobile Festival in Baltimore. Despite being a hit in its first three years out, concert organizers have waited forever to announce any details on dates or lineup, leading many around the music blogosphere to assume the fest wouldn’t be able to pull it together this year.
Well our old billionaire buddy Richard Branson must have taken those nasty rumors personally, because Virgin has announced that not only will the show go on, but they don’t need to make any stinkin' money on it anyway. That’s right, this year’s concert is 100-percent free.
Tags: Virgin Atlantic 25th Anniversary / Party Report / Party Dispatch Report / Richard Branson / Charles Ogilvie / Virgin Atlantic / → All Tags
Virgin Atlantic Shakes Its Tail Feather All Night Long For 25th Anniversary
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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Live @ Virgin Atlantic's 25th Birthday Bash in London
Sir Richard Branson and Kate Moss just did a photo shoot on the wing of VA's Lady Penelope here at Heathrow. The two were later joined on the wing by Branson Next, Sam and Holly. Kate Moss? She is British right? Guess that explains her appearance on the wing.
Today is Virgin Atlantic's 25th birthday and the celebration, which is now ongoing in London goes trans-atlantic later this morning. While the 1984 inaugural VS1 flew from Gatwick to Newark, today's birthday flight will go from LHR to EWR.
Branson just announced that Virgin Atlantic has placed an order for $2.1 billion worth of Airbus A330-300 aircraft. Delivery of 5 planes will be in 2011, while the second 5 will arrive in 2012. These planes are 10% more fuel efficient than todays and will all have USB ports and power sockets as well as email capabilities.
New Virgin Atlantic destinations were also just announced: Beijing, Vancouver and Cancun were mentioned by Sir Richard at his LHR presser today. Furthermore, Branson noted that it is "likely inefficient big carriers will disappear, and in a sense they should. In a forest, when some big trees die new saplings can get going." The VA founder went on to lament that upstarts like his Virgin America can not get additional slots at JFK because of legacy carrier squatting at NYC's biggest airport.
Tags: Airline Mergers / Virgin Atlantic / American Airlines / British Airways / Richard Branson / → All Tags
Richard Branson's 'No Way BA-AA' Campaign Gets Personal
In a saga that now spans a decade, Virgin CEO Richard Branson is again ramping up his criticism of the proposed merger of American Airlines and British Airways. This time, however, it's personal.
In a statement made at The National Press Club in Washington DC, Sir Richard warned against the merger's adverse affects on employees and passengers, especially those really feeling the recession:
Tags: Richard Branson / Virgin America / Darfur / Mia Farrow / → All Tags
Branson Takes Time Out from Partying To Raise Awareness for Darfur
Sir Richard Branson, head of all things Virgin, has decided to step in on a three-week hunger strike for Darfur, after activist Mia Farrow had to drop out. Farrow did however complete 12 days of the liquids-only fast before a doctor told her to stop due to health concerns.
Branson will do a hunger fast for three days.
"Over a year-and-a-half ago, I traveled to Darfur and was horrified by the stories that people of all ages shared with us," he said. "Now, with 13 aid organizations expelled from the country, over one million people are at grave risk. We cannot stand and watch as one million people suffer. We all need to stand up and demand that international aid is restored and that the people of Darfur are protected and given the chance to live in peace."
It's nice to see that Branson's life is not always all about launching new airline routes and posing with naked models.
Related Stories:
· Mia Farrow Ends Hunger Strike After 12 Days [US Weekly]
· Fast for Life [Official Site]
· Richard Branson Kisses Jaunted [Jaunted]
Tags: New Routes / Jaunted Interviews / Richard Branson / Virgin America / Shira Lazar / New Airline Routes / → All Tags
Richard Branson Kisses Jaunted
Yesterday, we attend yet another Virgin America new route launch party. Keep going VA! This time Sir Richard Branson and Co. have begun offering five-times-daily flights flights out of The Real Orange County (John Wayne Airport) to San Francisco.
The inaugural event began yesterday after take off in San Francisco with Branson twittering in-flight using the fleet-wide WiFi at 35,000 feet. Upon landing in the OC, Branson was greeted by the cast of Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Orange County” and Red Bull athletes. And for those guests lucky enough to be on the inaugural flight? They received Bare Escentuals makeovers and Sunset Tan spray.
The party continued over to the Pacific Edge Hotel in Laguna Beach but before all that, we managed to chase Sir Richard Branson down for an interview, in his car.
Related Stories:
· Virgin America Coverage [Jaunted]
· Jen Leo Twitters With Sir Richard [LA Times]
· Video Montage of the Event @ SFO [B.A.T.]
