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Virgin America
3.6 of 5 46 reviews
www.virginamerica.com Burlingame, CA 1000 to 5000 Employees
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Virgin America Reviews

Updated May 7, 2013
All Employees Current Employees Only

3.6 46 reviews

                             

69% Approve of the CEO

Virgin America CEO C. David Cush

C. David Cush

(32 ratings)

73% of employees recommend this company to a friend
46 employee reviews
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  • Work/Life Balance
         
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Burlingame, CA

Former Employee – worked at Virgin America full-time for more than 3 years

ProsI had two unique job roles at VX and had an opportunity to get my hands dirty on a lot of projects and open myself up to a plethora of new opportunities. I had the opportunity to access experiences no one else would. It is a company that is growing and has so much potential, and the people are what also makes it a great place to work.

ConsThe reason I left was growth. I could not go above where I was positioned at the time and I really needed more money and growth.

Advice to Senior ManagementOffer more promotions and increased salaries.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

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San Francisco, CA

Current Employee – been working at Virgin America full-time for more than 3 years

ProsChanging the guest experience to become America's favorite airline. Fun atmosphere, team oriented, and great brand recognition. Very young fleet of aircraft with all the high tech amenities that business travelers need.

ConsWe're still on the low side of the pay scale compared with our peers in the industry. Still need some work on consistency of applying work rules.

Advice to Senior ManagementBe more transparent and consistent when applying work rules.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

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  • Work/Life Balance
         
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Current Employee – been working at Virgin America full-time for more than a year

Pros-the people
-the swag
-the benefits
-the brand
-the parties
For the Inflight Department:
-travel the world, literally
-the flexibility

ConsIMO:
-limited room for growth if you don't already have loads of experience
-scarce opportunities to flourish, both professionally and financially

Advice to Senior ManagementSo far, just thank you.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

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San Francisco, CA

Current Employee – been working at Virgin America full-time for more than a year

ProsCompany culture is truly amazing, I've never experienced anything like it before. Fantastic uniforms that are young and fresh. An amazing product that is incomparable- whenever I tell people that I work for Virgin they always respond with, "I love that airline!" Coworkers that are genuinely happy to come to work. Open door policy regarding questions/concerns. We have been voted "the best domestic carrier" consistently year after year and I truly believe that is because of the people that work here.

ConsVirgin is still a baby compared to most airlines (we're going into our sixth year) so there are a few growing pains. I wish the pay scale was a bit higher considering our three bases are in some of the most expensive cities in the U.S. (San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York). Reserve sucks (but that's at every airline). I wish we had more zed fare agreements. Insurance can be a bit expensive.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

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  • Disapproves of CEO

 

Chicago, IL

Current Employee – been working at Virgin America full-time for more than a year

ProsThe only real good thing about working for this company is a majority of the great people you will meet and the friends you will make. Flexibility is good with being able to trade shifts, hours are not bad.

ConsThere are so many things I don't like about this company. The main things are they hire incompetent people to work for them because they care more about personality and looks than they do about how you can perform the job. A lot of the people they hire at Virgin have strong personalities which causes a "too many cooks in the kitchen" atmosphere with strong opinions going left and right and nothing gets agreed upon or accomplished. They like to hire inexperienced leadership, people with no experience to lead a team who have no social skills. They promote egocentric people who get big heads after attaining a position of power. On top of that the company itself is disorganized and they care more about doing what the passenger wants to be happy than abiding by company policies and procedures to make money. Policies and procedures are inconsistent among the entire company as rules aren't ever consistently followed. They aren't doing what they should be to be an airline that will be around for much longer. Career growth/opportunities are null unless you want to relocate to corporate. There is no growth for you at any of the airports. If you want to come here for further career opportunities, think again because there won't be any unless you want to move to expensive San Francisco. On top of that, compensation is low, benefits are not good like other airlines, senior leadership say they care about each of you, they don't.

Advice to Senior ManagementHire more experienced supervisors who know how to run a team like butter. The company over all needs to be more consistent with guest-facing policies and procedures, there is so much unclarity in policies and procedures that no one knows that the proper procedure is and people do what they feel like. Need better leadership.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

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San Francisco, CA

Current Employee – been working at Virgin America full-time for more than 3 years

Prosawesome travel, health and employee benefits

Conssalary, schedule, not enough room for upward growth

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

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San Francisco, CA

Former Employee – worked at Virgin America full-time for more than a year

ProsFun culture and great people on the front line. Lots of flexibility.

ConsUnfortunately the general compensation was quite low, and ultimately the reason I left. I didn't see my career growing here either.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

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Current Employee – been working at Virgin America full-time

ProsGreat product, Fun environment. Flight benefits are the best part.

ConsPay is low, unorganized leadership. Inconsistent with polices and procedures. The company is focused on the wrong things.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

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Los Angeles, CA

Current Employee – been working at Virgin America full-time

ProsFree flights on Virgin America and some other local carriers. Able to trade shifts pretty easily.

ConsYou pay an extremely high portion of your benefits out of pocket. Very little room to advance, you likely will have to move to another city to get ahead.

Advice to Senior ManagementStop trying to expand so fast and use that money to help supplement employee contributions.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

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Burlingame, CA

Former Employee – worked at Virgin America full-time for more than 3 years

ProsPassionate colleagues, great brand, awesome product, challenging industry with lots of room for disruption.

ConsSenior leadership need to get their act together, lots of HR infractions by previous CIO, conniving and back-stabbing galore, lack of organization, highly political, rapidly losing the Virgin culture that really made the brand.

Advice to Senior ManagementStop the political games and creating a fear mentality. Really go back to your roots of the open door and can do attitude of making flying good again. You need to really focus on building up the talent that has stayed with you year after year.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

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