Setting off on our Christmas vacation we flew Virgin Australia business class from Brisbane to Los Angeles. Virgin is our airline of choice for domestic travel within Australia and this was our first time travelling with Virgin internationally in Business. Checkin in Brisbane was nice and easy, however new regulations for travel to the US mean’t we we had to be interviewed by a customs officer before checkin. We had heard that this was a lot more involved than what it actually turned out to be. A few of the normal questions…. did you pack your bag yourself, do you know the contents of your bag… pretty simple stuff.
Once checked in we headed to the Singapore lounge. Virgin use the Singapore Krisflyer lounge in Brisbane. Its nice but nothing over the top…. a simple buffet breakfast and a champagne or two to get into the holiday mood. Boarding was quick and efficient and once in the air the service started with champagne and stuffed olives and parmisean biscuits.
As our flight was 11:55am the meals were lunch and breakfast. The lunch menu had about 5 choices for main and we both chose the Lamb Cutlets which were delicious. Desert we both had the chocolate tart… (clearly we both like the same things). Desert was so tempting Damon only remembered to take a photo half way though. We made our choice for breakfast which was served 2 hours before landing LAX.
After lunch we settled in with our Virgin Pj’s, amenities kit and seat turned into a fully lie flat bed which was nice and comfortable. A good choice of movies meant we didn’t really get much sleep. It’s always hard to trick the body into thinking its night time.
Virgin business has a bar in the middle of the business cabin, which we made good use of half way through the flight when everyone else was asleep. A few wines at that bar and then back to bed to try and get some sleep.
All in all, Virgin Business on the Boeing 777 was one of the most enjoyable business flights we have had. The cabin is beautiful with stars and lighting that really make it feel like night time. The crew were incredible and the bar made things that little bit more fun!. Definitely recommend Virgin’s 777 service to LAX.
Landing in LAX on the other hand…. not so great. We have been to LAX a few times and it’s never a pleasant experience. Since our last visit there is now ePassport stations and after about an hour line up were were finally at the front thinking we were almost there. Using the ePassport machines is pretty straight forward. Mine went through without a problem, but Damon was too tall for the machine to take his photo so after 2 failed attempts he bent down and finally got his photo taken only to get a big cross on his print out. We both knew what this meant, joining yet another queue to be manually processed! After another 30 minutes or so were were finally granted access to the US of A. We had to then transfer across to terminal 6 from the Tom Bradley terminal ready to check in for our Air Canada flight to Calgary.