Although Virgin America ceased to exist on January 11, people have still technically been on flights operated as Virgin America. We knew that Virgin flights would become Alaska flights as of April 25, but now Alaska has confirmed the last official flights.
For flights booked after April 24, you'll get redirected from Virgin's website to Alaska's to complete your purchase.The last two flights will be on April 24, both leaving from San Francisco (SFO) at 9:30pm. Flight 1948 will fly to Los Angeles, and Flight 1182 will head to Newark (EWR). Upon touch-down in Newark, Virgin America will be no more. At that point, all flights will be operated under Alaska and the "passenger service system" will unite both brands, Travel and Leisure reports.
There aren't many seats left on the final flight, so you'll want to act quickly if you want to be onboard the Airbus A320 to Newark.
Alaska says there are no special activities or events planned for either flight, although members of FlyerTalk are planning on being a part of the final journey. Seats are going for $179 but if you want to book with miles you'll have to shell out at least 25,000 Alaska miles, and award space isn't showing up in American's system at all. (Alaska's website shows 25,000 miles for a first class seat, but once you select it, it will say that it's for a spot in coach.) The Alaska Airlines Visa Signature credit card is currently offering a 30,000 mile sign-up bonus after spending $1,000 in the first 90 days of account opening. Although it won't be until 2019 that all of the Virgin America branding is gone, April 25 will mark the date the airline will have absorbed a majority of Virgin's marketing operations. Alaska detailed what would happen in a statement to Business Insider:“On April 25 we’ll integrate our passenger service systems, which means we will have one inventory of flights, one customer website (alaskaair.com), one mobile app, and only Alaska kiosks. Gates, ticketing, and check-in areas will all be Alaska-branded at the airport. It will take more time for us to update branding on the Airbus fleet, including the livery and the interiors, but in the meantime, we’ve started selling Virgin America’s Main Cabin Select seats as Premium Class for Airbus flights after April 24.”
