I'm sure Virgin US does have the best service. In fact, their results might be better if they just mailed every customer a crisp $100 bill and said "thanks for flying United." It isn't hard to be popular when your charging nothing for an expensive product.

Making a profit is an entirely different thing.

What Virgin was set up to do, failed. Virgin was unable to drive United out of operation. Eating United is a cost prohibitive big bite that Virgin can't chew.

At this point Virgin is illegally dumping capacity in the US market. In more normal days Virgin would be up to its ears in DOJ attorneys, but in these times government officials are only too happy to unload some Brits of their money to employ California residents, thankfully accepting the money as the teacup sized bailing operation which might prolong the buoyancy of the Titanic.

Eventually whoever is funding this folly will pull the plug.

Great airline, I guess. But it is economic nonsense. The surprise is that it has been around this long.