I believe Virgin America were bailed out and absorbed by Alaska Airlines when VX were in financial trouble. Makes you wonder if the VX business plan didn't work for them in the US, then why would it work here in Australia?

2 comments in a row both wrong.

Virgin America was sold to Alaska Airlines for US$2.6bn. I’ll take that😌

And the year it was acquired it posted a 215 million dollar profit.

Looks like you've got of the blanks filled in yourself!

Tell your mates to accept whatever is offered, bide their time, keep current and marketable. Eventually the market will turn and there will be a pilot shortage offering good opportunities for better paying opportunities.Eventually the pilot jobs market will change - it always does. Sitting it out while remaining current is the key.

Option B Is driving Ubers. Fine, if that’s what they want.The good thing is they will be able to wear their uniform shirt and four bars while driving the wife’s Corolla.

Off the mark by more than 100%.

VX was not bailed out by AS.

AS paid a significant amount of money for VX primarily as a blocking move to keep the PNW and CA from falling completely into UA and DL hands.

As for pilot pay, we are all going to take a hit, the industry will not be like it was before.

I wish all pilots at the new VA the best of luck but I suggest a flexible approach be taken when offering your skills on the labor market.

VX product was incredible! I primarily fly JetBlue now, mainly due to the fact it's product and service offerings are most similarly aligned with those that VX had.

If they can pull off the trendy, VX-style service and product they are on to a winner. VA went from silly and unprofessional (see early DJ days of dancing in the aisles) to the most recent VA, trying to clone the QF model.

It would seem quite likely that VA will start up again but in a different format.
It would be a great pity IMOP for them to ditch the fabulous Business Class that VA had , mainly on the B777 and A330's.
Having flown both VA and QF in both Classes quite a bit i would say without any doubt the onboard service of VA is better than QF but on the ground QF win hands down with their rather good lounges.
VA were doing quite well in the late stages and were on the road to profits until Covid-19 well and truly stuffed that!
QF have always had an advantage with Corporate travel as they got most Govt. Contracts and the attraction of their far better lounges did not help VA win many Corporate flyers over either.
Dropping The VA Business Class as it was would be quite a shame as it will just give the leprechaun everything he wanted , total dominance in the Corporate sector.
Without any reasonable competition in Business Class QF can write their own rules and fare structures.
Sad to see a piece of aviation history and service go down the gurgler.
I guess the bright side of things is that hopefully most VA employees will have a job and that's the most important thing but my comments are only about Business Class demise in VA.
Maybe the new owners will keep Business Class as it is but the reports don't seem to think that will happen.
I will really miss VA in Business Class.

Rod, there was nothing in Virgin's FY20-H1 interim report that could be seen as having them 'on the road to profits'. To the contrary, that half year result, all booked before COVID-19 came onto the scene, was Virgin's worst half year performance since the GFC. Apart from revenue, almost every key business metric was going backwards, some quite alarmingly. Most notably, the profitability of Domestic, the engine room of the business, had slumped by nearly 40 percent. And for the first time since the business was floated it had a negative Net Equity position (ie debts and liabilities exceeded assets).

Had the coronavirus crisis not emerged Virgin were on their way to another monumental loss this FY, likely something in the order of half a billion in the red.

The highest paid pilot in a renegotiate agreement in 2013 got paid about 127K for 75 hour guarantee as a Captain. They used sliding scales with years of service so it is all downhill from there. First year Captain made around 101k. And that was 7 years after they first started. 2nd Year FO made 63K. It's all by the hour so it would depend on how many hours you flew over 75. Either way you wouldn't be living anywhere near San Francisco on that money at the time

It would be really useful if you expressed those dollars as AUD or USD.

That was US Dollars

What US pilots get paid is totally irrelevant. You can buy a house for there 250K and a new Mustang for 35000. The cost of living is very different.

You can buy a house here for 250K too....in Mudgee

Point being that the pay was very very low ball compared to all other operators of the similar equipment at the time.

Isn't that what the previous management thought? How'd that work out for them?

USA is a hard one to compare remuneration wise. You’ve got loco’s over there that pay more than the likes of Delta. Southwest has always paid a premium vs the competitors. But yes living is cheaper. Considerably. $hithole to live though.

Virgin America paid much less during its founding years just like many startups. Go back to Tiger Australia startup. Very similar low comparable salaries compared to the competitor. Eventually they caught up and were a quarter ahead of the competition. Sadly then it was goodnight Irene.

Pay has come a very long way over there compared to 10-15 years ago. Remember Skybus? Paid its Airbus drivers 65k/100k. Cabin Crew $9 an hour.

Yep. Here was a chance for a bunch of young pilots - tired of waiting around for jobs elsewhere - to fly a shiny new Airbus in a hip environment. Fresh faced FAs, and no tie! So they went to work for pennies on the dollar. Worked out for them eventually though - got gobbled up by Alaska and started being paid more appropriately.