Joe Elliott of Def Leppard (the lead singer, not the one-armed drummer, unfortunately) is currently shilling for Virgin Atlantic, presumably in some radio ads. Elliott's commercial is available online in MP3 format, as is a reel of outtakes. Because you've always wanted to go behind the whoring, and we only take travel tips from '80s stars.
Elliott will be doing a whole lot of traveling this summer, but not on Virgin Atlantic. Def Leppard will launch a gigantic, triple-whammy North American tour on June 27 in Cincinnati with Styx and, one some dates, Foreigner.
Suffice it to say that Ogilvie would never let this happen on Virgin America. He would at least get the drummer!
Meet curious traveler Ibrahim Sharaf. There he is, above, chilling out on the North Pole. But that's nothing compared to where he'll be sometime in 2009: in space with Richard Branson. Sharaf will join Branson aboard Virgin Galactic's inaugural sub-orbital space flight, at a cost of $200,000. That's probably somewhere in the realm of pocket change for the Emirati businessman whose namesake company, Sharaf Group, has one of its many tentacles dipped in the tourism industry. Barring any wild stunts fueled by endless oodles of money (because that would never happen in the UAE), Sharaf should be the first Emirati in space.
Virgin Atlantic is hoping to become the cleanest airline in the world, and with the acquisition of at Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft, which burn 27 percent less fuel per passenger than A340-300s, they appear to be making progress.
The new jets have plenty of other bells and whistles, including higher air cabin humidity, larger windows, and mood lighting.
While we are sure Sir Richard Branson, and the gang are really trying to help save the world, it sure doesn't hurt that these new planes can accommodate twenty-one more passengers than the old planes. Furthermore, Dreamliners are also capable of travelling further distances without stopping. Meaning, travellers could fly the equivalent of the distance from London to Hawaii or Perth with no stopovers.
Black Eyed Peas frontwoman Fergie can't lay off the sauce long enough to keep her lumps together to get on a plane! Reports are saying that Fergie was due to head to London with her fellow Peas on a Virgin Atlantic flight from LAX, when she showed up too trashed to get on the plane.
Onlookers said she was pissed when the crew wouldn't let her board because of her visible intoxication and that, "She was drunkenly ranting at staff but could barely string a sentence together. It was very embarrassing."
Fergie also, very annoyingly, delayed the flight for an hour while they had to remove her luggage from the plane. Her fairweather bandmates stayed on and traveled to London sans Ferg the Lush. A Virgin spokesperson wouldn't confirm or deny it was her, but did confirm the crew's denial to board a "female passenger" who was intoxicated and unfit to fly. Time to sober up Ferg, or you're never going to make your world tour.
Jade Jagger, Mick's 35-year-old daughter, apparently made the skies a whole lot friendlier on a recent Virgin flight, where the girl and her traveling buds got completely tanked.
The flight started off with Sir Richard Branson escorting Jade and pals onto the plane personally--probably straight from the bar at the VIP airport lounge. Jade "proceeded to get drunk and loud enough to fall down in the aisles," and one of her friends helped themselves to the wine right off another passenger's dinner tray, after dishing out a cheery "your wine sucks anyways" to the crew! That wasn't the end of it. When landing time came around and flight attendants were cleaning up trays and glasses, Jade gave one a swift kick in the shin from under her duvet.
Jade's rep said her client was "drinking as a way to calm down" before she got on the flight (she has a fear of flying), and that she "regrets causing any disruption." Riiiiight. We have a feeling she remembers very little of the actual trip for some reason.
Virgin Atlantic just announced that it will start service between Heathrow and Chicago-O'Hare this April. Virgin will fly an Airbus 340-300 on the route, departing from Chicago at 6 p.m. and arriving in Heathrow at 8 a.m. In the reverse direction, flights will depart at 11:15 a.m. and arrive at 2:10 p.m. It's actually a re-start of service; Virgin nixed its Chicago-London route after September 11, according to the Chicago Tribune..
From June on, the 340-300 assigned to the route will include Virgin's new and improved Premium Economy, as well as the usual Upper Class and Economy cabins. The new Premium Economy product provides wider seats (but no extra legroom), a bit more recline, and enhanced AVOD. It's a favorable option between Chicago and Heathrow, given that the competition consists of American, United, Air India and BA. British Airways has a premium economy-type product of its own, but Virgin's made a point of noting that its new Premium Economy seats are wider than BA's World Traveller Plus seats.
Is Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin Everything, omnipresent or what? Yesterday we reported on his troubles getting Virgin America, a low-cost airline in the U.S., off the ground. Today comes news that he's working on a TV show where contestants can win a trip into space.
Yup, he's in talks to make an "Astronaut Idol" type show, where six contestants will vie for a spot on Virgin Galactic. That's his interstellar airline, which he hopes to have running by the end of this decade. We wonder if Simon Cowell can learn something about space flight by then?
Looks like road warriors will have yet another problem to face getting their laptops on board: battery fears. No, not the fear of running out of juice--although that's always an issue--but a few airlines (Quantas and Virgin, among them) are banning certain laptops. They're worried they might catch fire.
The two main targets are Dell and Apple, which recently recalled some laptops amid fire concerns. Somehow we doubt that the airlines know WHICH Dells and Apples are fire-prone--they won't be checking serial numbers. More worrisome is the fact that the jostling the laptops suffer when they are checked makes them morelikely to catch fire than when they are in the cabin.
Ultimately, we're sure this policy will change, just as soon as airlines figure out a way to charge for customers to plug in their laptops on board.
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by djk
