Airline Continues to Transform Travel Bookings with Visa Checkout Payment Technology, Celebrates With Bonus Launch Offer
Virgin America, the California-based carrier reinventing flying, has become the first U.S. airline to launch Visa Checkout, building on its innovative new website with a simple and speedy new way to process online payments. Visa Checkout is designed to make online shopping as easy as a physical card ‘swipe’; after signing up once, Visa Checkout removes the need to enter card details during the online checkout process wherever consumers see the Visa Checkout button. As the first and only U.S. airline to offer a fully responsive website, Visa Checkout is available when booking Virgin America flights across all devices. It follows the transformational re-design of Virgin America’s website in 2014, which features a fresh look-and-feel and responsive design. To celebrate the launch of Visa Checkout, Virgin America is offering $25 off a future flight to all guests that use Visa Checkout on the airline’s website from today through March 15 2015, while supplies last.
“Just like our unique and tech-forward aircraft cabins, our new website represents a major departure from the typical airline experience,” said Virgin America Chief Marketing Officer Luanne Calvert. “We are excited to elevate our guests’ web experience even further with the launch of Visa Checkout, bringing the simplicity and speed of the ‘swipe’ into the online world so our guests can breeze through checkout in just a few clicks, from any device.”
“Virgin America’s busy passengers want to book their travel easily, wherever they are, on whatever device they choose,” said Sam Shrauger, senior vice president, Visa Digital Solutions. “Visa Checkout’s payment experience does exactly that, making it super simple to purchase from a mobile phone, tablet, or PC, so that travellers can spend more time planning their next trip, and less time checking out and paying.”
Travellers new to Visa Checkout can enrol through the booking path on Virgin America’s website in just a few simple steps. Visa Checkout accepts any debit or credit card, including the Virgin America Visa Signature Credit Card and the Virgin America Premium Visa Signature Card. Once enrolled, shoppers simply provide their username and password to complete the payment process, without ever having to leave Virgin America’s website.
In 2014, Virgin America completed the redesign of its new website. The website was built entirely around the needs and preferences of the airline’s tech-forward guests to be faster, more intuitive and device-neutral so that all users have the same experience, whether they are accessing the site through a laptop or mobile device.
With mood-lit cabins, fleetwide WiFi, custom-designed leather seating, power outlets, personal touch-screen entertainment platforms, confirmed seating and new, quieter aircraft with three classes of service, Virgin America has attracted a loyal following of business travellers for its “office in the sky” amenities. In a recent 2014 survey conducted by Travel + Leisure and Fortune magazine, Virgin America’s tech-forward features helped the airline to be named the “Best Domestic Airline for Business Travel.”
In addition to a Main Cabin that offers custom-designed leather seating with a deeper, more comfortable pitch, the airline’s First Class cabin offers plush white leather seating with 55 inches of pitch, 165 degrees of recline and lumbar massagers. The carrier’s Main Cabin Select service offers 38-inches of pitch, free food and cocktails, an all-access pass to media content, dedicated overhead bins and priority check-in/boarding. The Red in-flight entertainment platform offers guests their own seatback touch-screen TV, with more than 20 films, live TV, Google Maps, videogames, a 3,000 song library and an on-demand menu, which allows flyers to order a cocktail or snack from their seatback any time during a flight. Virgin America’s airport lounge – The Loft – is located at LAX and its Elevate frequent flyer program offers no black-outs or restrictions on rewards seats with three levels of status including Elevate Gold and Elevate Silver.
The airline continues to expand its network across the country with flights to Austin, Boston, Cancun, Chicago, Dallas Love Field, Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Los Cabos, Newark, New York (JFK and LGA), Orlando, Palm Springs (seasonal), Portland, Puerto Vallarta, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington D.C. (IAD and DCA).
Visa was a global winner of the World Branding Awards.
This article has been updated to reflect Alaska Airlines’ acquisition of Virgin America in 2017.
