Originally Posted by
Longboater
99% sure it was LAX-AKL-MEL. I think also at one point UA did fly LAX-MEL pre-9/11 on a 744 that was severely weight restricted, i.e. with seats blocked off.
100% was LAX-AKL-MEL. Flew it a handful of times, once got upgraded to 1D on the full flight back from MEL and ended up sitting with the ABC News foreign correspondent (not Sam Donaldson, not Peter Jennings, name on the tip of my tongue) who had been covering the APEC summit in 1999 in NZ.
There definitely was a short period of LAX-MEL nonstop, never took it but would make sense it was weight restricted