Flights DTW-SLC-LAX were uneventful. The “meal” from DTW-SLC was cereal. No choice. How ghetto can Delta fall? Judging from the 767 I’m sitting on heading back to Detroit while typing this, fairly ghetto (picture to follow). Can’t believe how ridden hard and put away wet this 767 is. Every F seat is torn at the bottom and the VOD needed rebooted. Not impressed.
But, let’s get back to the fun. In LA, we had 10 hours and I have several relatives that live there. I have Emerald Exec status with National, and was happy to score a Hyundai
Equus. Very nice car. Hyundai’s attempt to go up against Mercedes E class and BMW 5 series and they did a much better job than I had thought and read in the car mags that it would. Very nice ride and touch surfaces.
After a short visit with my brother and cousin and their families, it was back to the airport to experience Virgin Australia. We got to use the business class line ay LAX and the service was exceptional.
Our seats had been assigned apart from each other over the phone after ticketing, as that was all that was left and I was hoping to get 2 seats on the side, as VA 777s are 2-3-2 configuration. The holy grail is row 5, as business is row 1-4, then a bar, then row 5, which basically has bulkheads both in front of and behind. And, we were assigned row 5 on the side! I was really excited.
The one thing I’ve consistently found is desk agents not being totally informed about airport operations. The VA desk agent told me the bags would come out in Australia and I could get my clothes then. This was important to me, as I wanted to take a shower before 9 hours in MEL and then the flight to Christchurch. Wrong. The bags were through checked to Christchurch, New Zealand and I got to shower but needed to put on my old clothes. The shower was the important part and I learned my lesson about putting the extra clothes in my carry-on. Again, I am jumping ahead. Back to predeparture from LAX.