Road trip planning tool

The new low-cost carrier Virgin America takes flight tomorrow (Tuesday), and I dropped by JFK airport this morning to receive a tour of one of its new planes. My guide was Adam Wells, the man most responsible for designing what's in the hulls of Virgin America's aircraft. We walked through a plane sitting on the tarmac. Adam pointed to the tinted windows, which filter out harsh sunlight. He said that the glare-reducing windows combine with soft interior lighting to help passengers appear healthier. Once he pointed this out, it became obvious: There was no harsh yellow and green light, which makes passengers in many standard airplane cabins appear washed out. "The goal is to make passengers feel more relaxed," he said. And his theory is that passengers will relax more if they look around and see other people looking relaxed. The airline's seats feel more like the seats you would find in a Mercedes-Benz than in the economy-class section of an airplane. Under each seat there's a hidden bucket that prevents your tush from feeling any metal bars through the seat cushion. (Thus, the seat avoids the common "bump in the rump" problem that makes so many air travelers so irritated.) The upholstery also cradles the spine a bit more than the typical airline seat. Adam was quick to point out another of the features he championed: A sleek mini-bar at the back of the coach class cabin from which passengers can fetch waters and sodas in mid-flight. If you want food, you press the button marked "food" on the remote control that is hidden in your armrest, place an order using a touchscreen TV, and then swipe your credit card through the bottom of your seatback screen to pay. My favorite unique service is that you can use the "Qwerty" keyboard on the back of your seat's remote control to sound off about your experience. When was the last time you heard of coach class passengers being encouraged to email a customer satisfaction survey to corporate headquarters in mid-flight? Earlier: Virgin America has sparked a price war.

One tempting reason is that you'll have a good chance of witnessing the Aurora Borealis, or northern lights, filling the late-night and early-morning sky with brilliant streaks of purples, greens, blues, and yellows. The area outside Fairbanks, about 110 miles south of the Arctic Circle, is one of the best spots for viewing the natural phenomenon (which can seem like something out of a sci-fi thriller!). The Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, tracks day-by-day visibility levels throughout the state on its website, gedds.alaska.edu. One affordable place to stay is the Northern Sky Lodge, a seven-room log B&B; offering dog sledding tours. Autumn is foliage season in Alaska, too, and leaf peepers can get their fill at Denali National Park, home to Mt. McKinley and located about a two-and-a-half-hour drive south from Fairbanks. The park's lodges have created a new series of six guided three-hour hikes, in addition to their tours of the taiga forest and rolling tundra and heart-pounding whitewater rafting excursions. And as the temperatures drop, so do Denali's room rates. From August 28 to September 18, the fall foliage special allows guests to stay at any of the lodges--McKinley Chalet Resort, McKinley Village Lodge, Denali Bluffs Hotel, or Denali Grande Lodge--for half the price with a 50 percent discount on any Denali excursions. A two-night stay with two tickets to any excursion starts at $329 per room, based on double occupancy. For more details and bookings, contact Denali Park Resorts, 800/276-7234, denaliparkresorts.com.