Virgin America

It's the holiday season, and we're getting in the spirit with our fourth annual 18 Days of Holiday Giveaways! Every day for the first 18 days of December, one of the POPSUGAR sites will feature a new fabulous giveaway.

For our eighth day of giveaways, Condé Nast Traveler's Readers' Choice Awards winner for best US airline, Virgin America, will fly you and a friend in style anywhere in its domestic network!

This giveaway has ended.

After you enter our giveaway above, don't forget to enter Circle of Moms' giveaway to win one of four $250 GAP gift cards, YumSugar's giveaway to win one of two cookware sets from Williams-Sonoma, PopSugar Shop's giveaway to win a $1,000 gift card to Henri Bendel, BellaSugar's giveaway to win $1,500 to Sephora, and CasaSugar's giveaway to win $1,500 in home decor from Anthropologie.

After days of electronics sales online and in stores, you're in the mood for a Cyber Monday deal of a different feather — perhaps of a different bird all together. To get geeks ready for CES 2013 in January, Virgin America and Gilt teamed up to offer the #nerdbird, an Airbus A320 for a private round-trip charter to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show. Yes, that would be an entire airplane filled only with 135 people selected by you. The cost for this private party 35,000 feet in the sky? $49,000.

But not so fast with that credit card — if you can believe it, the deal's sold out. The private flight wasn't the only highlight though, also included is elite status on Virgin America for the purchaser and all guests, 136 passes to CES (currently priced at $100 per registration), in-flight WiFi, and the opportunity to create a decal of choice (à la the nerdy glasses seen above) for the bird to fly emblazoned with for one month.

Well, this certainly beats the 22-inch LCD TV I had my eye on. Have you found any outrageous Cyber Monday deals?

Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• Stella McCartney will introduce a collection of lingerie next month made of organic cotton and recycled metal (for the rings on the bra straps). "Feeling constricted by one's underwear just isn't my thing; you need to rely on the quality," she said. Bras will cost $55, and panties will go for $26. [T Magazine]
  

• Dolce & Gabbana's debut showing of couture — or, more appropriately, Alta Moda — was so intense that several people actually fainted during the festivities surrounding it. [The Cut]
  

• Now that couture week is over, Karlie Kloss is looking forward to a family trip to Denmark. "That's where my grandparents are originally from, and I just booked for the entire family. We're meeting relatives we never met," she said. [Page Six]
  

• Jason Wu dispensed a piece of advice to aspiring young designers during a breakfast talk this week that everyone should follow. "Sometimes you just need a good night of sleep," he said. [WWD]
  

• Chloe Sevigny says she has trouble getting designers to lend her dresses. "Aren't I one of the top searches on Style.com, for crying out loud?" she said jokingly in a recent interview. "How hard is it to get a f*cking dress from Valentino?" [Out]
  

• APC partnered with Nike to refresh its classic Dunk and Air Max sneakers. The reissued shoes will be available in APC stores and online at the end of August. [Refinery29]
  

• Charlize Theron and Michael Fassbender are on the cover of the August issue of W magazine. [Design Scene]
  

• Banana Republic partnered with Virgin America to outfit the airline's 1,200 flight attendants with new uniforms in a palette of gray, black, and orange. The uniforms will debut on Aug. 8, and travelers will be able to purchase pieces inspired by the uniforms during their flights. [Fashionologie Inbox]

Heading to Philly? This Spring is a great time to check out the city — especially with Virgin America launching its low-fare, high-frills daily nonstop flights from LAX and SFO to PHL as of April 2012. Known for its tricked-out new planes, touch-screen entertainment, and amenities like fleet-wide WiFi, the airline has created a cult-like following on the coasts. And the airline's in-flight entertainment does credit to its California roots — with an iPad-like seatback touchscreen for flyers with 35 films, live TV, Google Maps, video games, seat-to-seat chat, music videos, a 3,000-song library, an on-demand menu, and more.

To mark the quickly growing airline's Philly launch, Virgin America first shared the news with its social media fans via a video that spotted the beloved and mysterious "Greenman" from the hit FX television show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia near a Virgin America aircraft. In addition to grabbing those super-low fares to Philly, visitors to the airline's Facebook page can enter for a chance to win round-trip flights and the ultimate It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia fan pack, consisting of seasons 1-6 DVDs, a Paddy's Pub t-shirt, the official board game, and a guide to the characters' favorite haunts. Oh, and of course, you can check out It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia en route at 35,000 feet on Virgin America.

The FAA's announcement that American Airlines pilots can use iPads in the cockpit at all times in flight, including takeoff and landing, is just one example of how airlines are evolving with technology. Virgin America, an airline known for tech partnerships like gate-side Chromebook rentals, also makes sure the people flying the planes have the latest gear as well.

During a recent press trip on the airline's inaugural flight to Puerto Vallarta, the staff showed off the geeky details of the Airbus A320 that make it one of the industry's most state-of-the-art birds. The A320 planes all lack the steering wheel, or "yoke" as it's actually called, that most people have come to expect to see when imagining how planes work, with Airbus instead opting to design a joystick steering mechanism reflective of the video games popular in the '80s at the time it was first created. Geek factor aside, the side-stick control is a practical option, as it gives pilots a more comfortable in-flight experience and the option for a pull-out tray just like cabin passengers.

It may not be an iPad, but the gadget of choice for Virgin America pilots is the NavAero tPad, which serves as an Electronic Flight Bag, replacing the heavy and cumbersome paperwork and maps that pilots once carried constantly. The EFBs are the navigation tools for a crew of the 21st Century.

Peep another angle of Virgin America's side-stick and tablet-powered cabin after the break.

Staying entertained and connected on Virgin America flights will soon be even easier than before. Starting in late 2012, Virgin America will be rolling out a new in-flight entertainment and technology system called BoardConnect, which will feature larger, HD touchscreen seat-back monitors with full WiFi connectivity and the ability for passengers to connect their personal gadgets to the system before takeoff, while in the air, and even postflight.

This means that passengers can get their curated content, games, and connectivity via the seat-back screen, or connect and use their smartphones and tablets instead. Additional details are scarce, but these new features and benefits could soon make other airlines, who are still jumping on the in-flight WiFi trend, much less desirable.

We launched our new PopSugar iPad app, so now you can experience PopSugar Network in HD and enjoy amazing full-screen galleries, flip the pages just like a magazine, and easily share stories with friends on Facebook and Twitter. And to celebrate, we want to send you, a guest, and a new PopSugar-loaded iPad 2 all the way to Mexico!

That's right — thanks to our friends at Pueblo Bonito Pacifica Resort and Spa and Virgin America, you could experience the ultimate Cabo getaway! After you jet away on Virgin America, you will have the amazing experience of the Pueblo Bonito Pacifica Resort and Spa, which offers an all-inclusive vacation experience with private beaches, gourmet dining, tequila tastings, and more — it's truly the ultimate vacation destination. Just think, you and your guest could be relaxing on a private beach in Cabo reading PopSugar using the PopSugar iPad app in no time. To enter for your chance to win, just:

If you're heading into the friendly skies this Summer, there's another reason besides awesome mood lighting to fly with Virgin America — you could get the extra added bonus of surfing the web at 35,000 feet with a new Chromebook. Starting today, and running through Sept. 30, Virgin America and Google are loaning free Chromebooks to passengers for use on select flights out of San Francisco, Dallas-Fort Worth, Boston, and Chicago. To get one, all you have to do is find the ChromeZone kiosk nearest your departure gate for check out, enjoy during your flight, and then return it to your arrival crew before you leave the airport.

But there's another way for NYC travelers to get their hands on a Chromebook. Find out how after the break.