SAN FRANCISCO, April 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Virgin America, the California-based airline reinventing flying, today announces new benefits to make the flying experience even more rewarding for Elevate® members and a new status match offer for travelers with other programs who may be feeling a little 'blue'.  Beginning today, Virgin America will expand its popular Status Match program by offering members of JetBlue's Mosaic program instant upgrades to Elevate® Gold so they can enjoy a premium experience and perks like: priority check-in, security clearance and boarding; points earning bonuses; free checked bag allowances; an expanded advance purchase upgrade window for the airline's exclusive eight-seat First Class, complimentary access to the airline's new ViaSat WiFi – as well as access to the Virgin America Loft at LAX, which offers guests a sleek and modern retreat. From today, the program is also rolling out new improvements to make it even easier to strike Elevate® Gold or Silver status and rack up even more Bonus Points.

The new Elevate® benefits announced today include:

• Increase to Bonus Points for status members:
  • Elevate® Silver Members will now earn 50 percent more points above base rate of 5 points per $1 of spend, up from 25 percent. This represents a total bonus of 7.5 points per $1 spent.
  • Elevate® Gold Members will now earn 140 percent more points above base rate of 5 points per $1 of spend, up from 100 percent. This represents a total bonus of 12 points per $1 spent.
• For Status in 2016, Virgin America travelers will earn status based on either the number of flights they take or the amount they spend purchasing flights. Reward flights will also be counted towards achieving status.  The new flight counter will make it around 70 percent easier to maintain and achieve status with Elevate® and will count all flight activity since 1/1/2016.  Members can view their flight counts in their account on the website from today.

Virgin America also recently announced that Elevate® Gold members can enjoy complimentary access through December 31, 2016 to the airline's new high-speed ViaSat WiFi, which offers guests the fastest internet speeds in the sky and the ability to stream movies and music. The program also launched a new partnership with Starwood Preferred Guest® (SPG®), the award winning loyalty program of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. (NYSE:HOT).  SPG members can now transfer Starpoints into Elevate points at a 1-to-1 ratio, and Elevate members can earn two points for every one dollar spent on Starwood Hotel stays.

"Our loyal flyers have embraced our innovative approach to travel since the beginning, and we're pleased to announce these new benefits so they can strike status even faster and enjoy even more Bonus Points to put towards future travel with Virgin America and our partners", said Virgin America's Director of Loyalty, Stuart Dinnis said: "And for anyone out there who is feeling a little "blue" about their loyalty program, we're offering instant status upgrades so they can enjoy more of the good life with our Gold status".   

JetBlue Mosaic members will be upgraded to Elevate® Gold simply by joining the program and applying online.  Members can enjoy Gold status perks for three months, plus the opportunity to retain Gold status through the end of 2017. It builds on the current program which offers status match to status holders with United Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and now JetBlue.

Virgin America is also running a cheeky "Flights with Bennies" campaign to invite Elevate® members to share the love with their family and friends and encourage them to "break up" with their current loyalty programs and instead enjoy a more "beneficial" relationship with Virgin America. Members can refer up to five friends to the program via email, Facebook, or Twitter – and earn 500 bonus reward points for each sign-up – allowing for up to 2500 points (the equivalent of a free flight on Virgin America).  Each person referred will also score 500 reward points just for signing up. For more: http://flightswithbennies.com/

In addition to a Main Cabin that offers custom leather seating with a deeper, more comfortable pitch, Virgin America'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, dedicated overhead bins and priority check-in/boarding. The Red® entertainment platform offers guests their own seatback touch-screen, with +25 latest release films, TV, interactive maps, videogames, a 3,000 song library, surround sound technology and an on-demand menu, which allows flyers to order from their seatback any time during a flight. Virgin America was the first and still only U.S. airline to offer power outlets at every seat and WiFi on every mainland flight.

Virgin America flies to Austin, Boston, Cancun, Chicago, Dallas Love Field, Denver, Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Los Cabos, Newark, New York (JFK and LGA), Orlando, Palm Springs, Portland, Puerto Vallarta, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington D.C. (IAD and DCA), Honolulu and Kahului, Maui.

Photos and broadcast-quality video of Virgin America aircraft are available here.

About Virgin America: 
Known for its mood-lit cabins, beautifully designed classes of service and innovative fleetwide amenities — like touch-screen personal entertainment, WiFi and power outlets at every seat, Virgin America has built a loyal following of flyers and earned a host of awards since launching in 2007 — including being named both the "Best U.S. Airline" in both Condé Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Awards and "Best Domestic Airline" in Travel + Leisure World's Best Awards for the past eight consecutive years. For more: www.virginamerica.com

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SOURCE Virgin America

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