Latest Salvo in Boston-LAX/SFO Virgin/American Airlines Fight: Triple Miles

American Airlines (AA) is pulling out all the stops to make life difficult for Virgin America on their new Boston to Los Angeles and San Francisco flights. First, as we already discussed, AA has already added flights and changed to larger aircraft on the LAX route.

Now American has added triple frequent flyer miles to the mix. American is clearly hell bent on defending their turf and making life as difficult as possible for little Virgin America. Harnessing the powerful AAdvantage program to drive and retain customers is a typical move for the major carriers but the amount of miles (triple) and the length of this offer (until the end of May) is unprecedented in recent times.

And, to add salt to the wound, notice that AA is using an image of Big Ben as a potential redemption destination! Maybe AA's customers can drop in on Sir Richard BrAAnson while they are in London?

Sir Richard responds to Alaska Air's claims of "un-Americanism" and kicks off VX's new Boston Service

Wow, thanks to the gang over at Crunch Gear for this great video and photos of the highlights of Virgin's inaugural flight from Boston. Yes, Sir Richard is in drag. Yes, there are cheer-leaders. Yes, there are wicked awesome accents. Probably not any Dunkin Donuts because JetBlue has that angle.

But watch the video past the semi-humorous comments from the Massport boss and Dave Cush - the real show (of course) starts when Branson arrives on the scene. And he has a clear message for Alaska Air that is (as those of us from Boston grew up saying) wicked pissa'