Virgin America Employee Reviews about "teammates"

Pros

There's a great culture at HQ, it's sad that at the station level it's not as great. It seems to get more diluted the further away you are from HQ. Leadership is great at HQ however it seems to vary greatly station to station depending on the manager. It's a great place to work as far as scheduling as it's extremely flexible for guest services teammates and it definitely is the best airline to work for as far as culture, especially as a first airline. It is a totally different airline. Best product, best planes, great teammates. Best of all, if you can work part time, like me, you can take advantage of the the travel benefits and work as little as 2 days a week (or 8 days a month) and you're done. Also, you get the option to switch from part time to full time almost every time the work schedule changes (about every 3-4 months). It's growing rapidly and it has a lot of potential as far as continuing to be the best airline (to work for and to travel on).

Cons

It is difficult to get ahead if local leadership doesn't want to promote you. In general there are opportunities, however you have to be willing to move. If there is an opportunity at a local level your chances depend greatly local leadership and how they feel about you. Since it varies station to station (which is normal) you could have a very supportive team or a very negative team (or leader/manager). You can put in a lot of work above and beyond what is expected of you as a guest services teammate, try to help out your station, only to get back a lot of negativity. Morale is reviewed by HQ leadership once a year, yet is completely ignored by local leadership. Teammates that complain to HQ about every little thing, mundane or not, get special treatment/consideration from local leadership (seemingly out of fear).

Pros

It’s a great work environment with a fresh take on things. Virgin America was a great airline to work for with an amazing group of teammates.

Cons

Unfortunately, Virgin America’s brand is going away soon as it is now owned by Alaska Air Group.

Pros

Great group of teammates in every department that still have the virgin spirit of running a great airline and having a good time while you do it. Nice benefits package.

Cons

Management doesn't follow that code like it used to and has turned to micromanaging and taking away the empowerment that frontline teammates used to have to show our guests that this is the greatest airline. It's limited to individual teams who still exude the virgin brand of 'Screw it, Let's do it'

Pros

The culture that is formed here along with a love for the company by teammates is the best environment I've ever had in a workplace.

Cons

It's harder to move to different departments if you wanted to experience different sides of the company.

Pros

Virgin America a Creative, collaborative, and authentic. A great place to work

Cons

Acquired by another company with wavering commitment to teammates and work life balance

Pros

Virgin has major brand recognition and quite a following among consumers - great for the resume. They truly look out for the 'guest' and make decisions in their best interest. For the most part, this includes their internal teammates. Due to the buyout by Alaska, I think their internal culture amongst teammates is even stronger. Flight benefits are awesome!

Cons

There is a bit of a disparity between the internal and external brand. However, not much of that matters too much now since they were purchased by Alaska :( Was not much internal career growth and some senior level positions were filled with people that shouldn't be in them. Limited vacation time didn't allow for full use of flight benefits.

Pros

Fun place and great teammates. Training was thorough and professional. Awesome uniforms, amazing airplanes and destinations. Long vacation type layovers. Very impressed with the CEO sitting down & speaking to employees one on one at the hands on meeting.

Cons

The only 3 bases are in the most expensive cities SFO, LAX, JFK, thought to come out ahead if you don't already live in your base city. Great destinations just not enough of them to commute on your own metal which makes you last priority on every other airline. Probation period is a whopping 6months!!! Don't get sick in those 6 months because they have a strict 2 strike police which means you only get 1 strike... Second one = separation. Flying time is not balanced among reserves, while some blocked over 100 hrs, others didn't break 40.