One advantage the original design has is its low cost of ink. Just look at SquareSpace's redesigns and those huge blocks of black, red, and blue. Just trying to eye it, I would estimate anywhere from an 800% to 1000% increase in ink. Multiply that with the enormous amount of tickets printed, and that's a lot of ink....and a lot of money.

Yes, they are prettier, easier to use, but I'd be interested to see a design effort with this additional parameter of saving cost on ink or paper.

Notice how, while Virgin America does seem to be printing a lot of colors on the backside of their tickets, their ticket size is about half the size of standard tickets, thus, saving money on paper stock.

Edit: looks like some of the updates from other designers have addressed a more minimal use of ink. I think the Wallet Size one in particular wins for me. There's just no convenient place to carry standard-size tickets.