A cloudy day at an architectural marvel

After my 15 hour flight in V Australia Business Class from LAX to Sydney, I decided to spend some time in the fresh air rather than hopping on another flight right away.  I was pretty well rested after my flight, but I wanted to spend some time enjoying a great city instead of spending that time in Cairns.  

After a quick immigration and customs experience with no lines, I ...

When I originally booked my V Australia Business Class ticket via Delta miles, I had a long layover at LAX that I was hoping to change as the date got closer.  Eventually I convinced myself that this was a good thing, I could get out of the airport a bit before a 15 hour flight.  That and I struggled with Delta's famous award availability.  So I embraced this and decided to make the most of the time I had.

I planned on going for a run in the nice warm LA air, as I try ...

As someone who loves to eat and loves to fly, I usually have pretty high expectations when flying internationally in premium cabins.   My recent V Australia Business Class from LAX to Sydney provided great service and very good meals.  V Australia really seemed to do the little things well, particularly for a business class product.  One example of that is in the fact that all glassware used during the service was made by Reidel, a small thing but a nice touch.

The ...

After all the planning and waiting the day of my business class flight on V Australia was finally here. As you may remember, I had redeemed Delta SkyMiles for the V Australia ticket and flew Delta Airlines to Los Angeles prior to this flight.  One comment on the airline name, as it a bit confusing.  V Australia (VA) is part of the Virgin Australia group, but until 2012, it will maintain its distinct name, due to some rule regarding carrying the Virgin name on flights to the ...

I've talked a lot about about planning my trip down under on V Australia via a Delta Skymiles award, and I have posted a few preview photos during my trip.  I spent much of November on this journey.  It is the longest vacation I have ever taken, 3 weeks off work.   

This will be quite a large trip report with various separate posts, and it will likely take me a while to get it all out, so please bear with me.  I will attempt to focus on the frequent flyer ...

I’m back to civilization, and wanted to post a few photos from my journey thus far, as well as one diving photo.  More to come.

The V Australia experience was good, but not great.  Apparently Janet Jackson was on my flight, but I didn't know that until afterwards.  She was in the private row 5 of Business Class.  Much more to come in the full trip report.  My wife flew out on a later flight, and she was delayed almost 12 hours.  I ...