Introduction:
I will do this report in parts to make it easier. Part 1 will include my flight from BNE-LAX and what I did whilst in LA.
Well after getting back from New Zealand in December I was looking at going on another trip. Thought about going back to NZ but I thought I’d go somewhere different. Thought about going to SE Asia (Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Phuket), or maybe the US and Caribbean (Los Angeles, Seattle and St Maarten). Virgin Australia had a pretty good sale to the US, so we decided on the US. My mate Josh would be joining me.
We would fly with Virgin Australia to LAX on May 26, stay in LA for 6 nights. Then fly Virgin America to Seattle on June 1, stay in Seattle for 2 nights. Then fly American Airlines to St Maarten via Miami on June 3 arriving the following day, stay in St Maarten 6 nights. We would have daytrips to St Barths and Saba whilst in St Maarten. We would then return to Brisbane via Miami and Los Angeles on June 10 with AA and VA. It all worked out well and I was very excited, and finally the day had arrived.
Brisbane Airport:
I arrived at Brisbane International at around 9am for the 11:15 departure. Met up with Josh and said goodbye to my parents. The line for check-in was quite long, after half an hour we made it to the front. We both checked in without any issues, unfortunately for me I had been assigned an aisle seat as all the window seats were already gone, bugger! Josh had been assigned 46K (a window seat) and I was changed to 46G which was only 2 seats away, so it wasn’t too bad.
We passed through security and customs and had a walk around before sitting down at our gate. There wasn’t too much to see. Cathay had a new A333 in, B-LAZ. Other aircraft included an Etihad A332, Qantas B744 (also off to LAX) and two Qantas A333s (one to SIN and one to HKG). And of course my VA B773 was there and it was VH-VPH.
VH-VPH being prepared to take me all the way to LAX
Looking good in the VA livery
Etihad A332 A6-EYL
Cathay Pacific A333 B-LAZ
Boarding commenced at around 10:30. I was very excited to be going to the US for the first time
May 26, 2013
Virgin Australia
VA7
BNE-LAX
VH-VPH B77W
Seat 46G
Got on-board the very nice VA B77W. The interior was very new and looked great. Made my way back to 46G. The seat was quite comfortable and legroom was good too.
Took a quick photo out the window whilst the seats were un-occupied.
Economy Seats
Boarding finally finished so it was time to go. It appeared to be quite a full flight, I only saw one un-occupied seat in economy. We taxied out to RWY19 and began the 12 and a half hour flight to LAX. We made a nice big right hand turn over Brisbane city before flying back around the airport and out to sea.
I started watching The Hobbit about half an hour into the flight. Lunch was served about an hour later, there were two options, I took the BBQ chicken which was nice, can’t remember the other option. The Hobbit went for 3 hours, about half way through the movie we were over New Caledonia and Vanuatu.
Getting close to New Caledonia
Nice mood lighting
After the movie I got up to stretch my legs. Didn’t mind having an aisle seat in the end, it was good being able to get straight up and walk around if I wanted to.
Lights off
Sat back down and started watching the first Lord of the Rings which was another 3 hours.
Passing the Pacific Islands
The crew came through halfway through the flight giving out sandwiches and wraps. I took a chicken sandwich which was very nice.
Near Hawaii
After the movie was over, I got up again and walked around for a bit. Then I sat back down and watched half a dozen episodes of Modern Family. By then we were two hours out of LA. So the cabin crew switched the lights on, I was expecting them to use the mood lighting but they just put the lights straight on haha! For breakfast there was two choices, blueberry crepes or chicken sausage and eggs. I took the crepes which were disgusting! Josh had the sausage and eggs which apparently weren’t that great either.
Time to get up!
I played a few games on the IFE. The VA entertainment system was pretty good, kept me entertained the whole way.
Finally we are nearly there!
Josh took a video of the landing which can be viewed here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCf10kYBjbM
Could just see out of the windows on the right side of the aircraft and got my firsts views of the US. We flew past LAX on downwind for RWY24R. We finally touched down at about 07:10 local time, after 12 hours and 35 minutes flying. My longest flight by far! We made the long taxi to Terminal 5 and exited the aircraft.