For younger business travelers like Nicole Bansal, Virgin America's mood lighting, customer service and technology have filled a niche not found on legacy airlines.
Bansal, 29, flies Virgin America nearly monthly for her job as a Silicon Valley marketing manager and has become one of the airline's legion of fiercely loyal fans. But now, with a $4 billion takeover by Alaska Airlines in the works, Bansal worries she will lose the unique touches that helped her click with Virgin America.
"I like Alaska, I don't love Alaska. But I love Virgin," she said. "I think of it as a young, hip airline. Alaska is more of a friendly aunt."
Travelers like Bansal are wondering what to expect from Virgin America under its new parent company: skinny jeans and stilettos, or sweatshirts and sneakers. After all, Alaska started in 1932 with a single three-seat plane owned by an Anchorage furrier, while Virgin America was founded by a flashy British billionaire less than a decade ago with a goal of restoring glamour to flying.
With the purchase making its way through the monthslong regulatory process, Bobbie Egan, an Alaska spokeswoman, said the airline did not yet know which Virgin characteristics would be retained in the new company. But she acknowledged that Alaska realizes Virgin fans are serious about the brand. "We want to take some time over the next few months and home in on what it is their customers love," Egan said. "We want this integration to be very successful."
Although Alaska has been a perennial leader in best-airline rankings, its allure comes more from its reliability than mood lighting or funny safety videos. Like Virgin America, it inspires loyalty among customers, if not the same passion.
Alaska and Virgin have been ranked first and second in operational performance in a top industry list two consecutive years, and Virgin America is a mainstay atop Travel & Leisure's and Condé Nast Traveler's readers' choice rankings of the top domestic airlines.
Regardless of Alaska's good reputation, the prospect of losing Virgin's cool factor appears to have worried Richard Branson, the British business magnate whose Virgin Group started the airline in 2007. In a message posted on the Virgin Group website, Branson admitted sadness over the merger and said he had little control over the purchase. While he owns a substantial stake in the airline, he is not the controlling shareholder.
"The important thing now," he wrote, "is to ensure that once Alaska witnesses firsthand the power of the brand and the love of Virgin America customers for our product and guest experience, they, too, will be converts, and the U.S. traveling public will continue to benefit from all that we have started."
Twitter users have peppered the social network with messages ranging from resignation to outright dread about Alaska's plans for Virgin. Some have reflected the conflict between cool and reliable.
"I always liked @alaskaair but I hope they learn how to fly like @VirginAmerica, which I #love," @salsop posted.
"Boo @alaskaair leave the Virgin alone," @dalenerusso posted.
It is not just décor that has attracted Virgin travelers' loyalty. The airline's planes include electrical outlets in the seats and streaming Netflix on touch-screen seatback monitors. Bansal noted that the touch screens also allow her to send drinks to other passengers.
Those accouterments are important touches, said travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt, and Alaska Airlines would be smart to keep them in mind as it folds Virgin into its fleet.
"Virgin has been very successful at creating this passionate fan base," Harteveldt said. The merger "is like giving up your sexy imported sports car for a reliable but unsexy sedan."
It was not the mood lighting and touch screens that made Virgin's independence unsustainable, he said. The airline failed to capitalize on its San Francisco hub or to build on its early innovations, Harteveldt said.
"Virgin had every opportunity to come in guns ablazing, and they acted in the most timid way possible," he said. "Virgin just stood still and did nothing."
The airline compensated for its financial losses by cutting flights in recent years, even as it added routes to Hawaii and elsewhere. While passengers may love the ambience of a Virgin flight, they love the ability to get where they are going more.
As a frequent business traveler between San Francisco and Los Angeles, one of the airline's main routes, Will Matthews often flies on Virgin America. But while he prefers to avoid "cookie-cutter airlines," Virgin's limited options have sometimes frustrated him.
"I would always prefer to fly Virgin," said Matthews, a public affairs director for a social justice nonprofit organization based in Oakland, California. "It just seems like there are more flights at better times with Southwest.
"If there were just as many flights available, I can't imagine someone like Virgin couldn't give Southwest a run for its money."
Under Alaska's ownership, Virgin could have the expansion its passengers crave. Alaska's code-share partnerships have made it popular with international travelers, and the airline offers a robust schedule of West Coast flights. The combined airlines will offer 1,200 daily flights on 280 aircraft, according to a news release announcing the sale.
The combination of hip and practical could give the new company a competitive advantage, Harteveldt said. The smartest thing Alaska could do, he said, would be to combine the characteristics that have made each airline popular.
"My hope is that Alaska goes in with an open mind and that they learn some things," he said, adding that Alaska is probably a better fit for Virgin than most legacy airlines. "It's not hip, it's not sexy, but Alaska has a lot going for it."