From the beginning this was always going to be a trying experience. The coach from Portland to Boston was a sleepy affair, at Logan we had a painless check-in experience. After paying $15 per bag we were on our way, in my sleepiness, I had forgotten to take my toothpaste out of my carry on, so as a matter of national security, it was promptly confiscated, it did make me smile when the lady, sitting to my right was happily waving, rather sharp, knitting needles around, the mind boggles.

Houston was uneventful, did watch the first few episodes of Weeds, interesting show, must look into it a little more, upon my return.

We were fortunate enough to have family in Los Angeles, and they spoilt us rotten, great dinner, a few glasses of wine and we were ready for road, this really helped to kick us into vacation mode and we were back with plenty time to check-in.

Check-in for Virgin Australia is at the much quieter terminal 3, very smooth and streamlined experience, we were informed that the flight was only half full.. happy days!

The staff were young, enthusiastic and friendly, a breath of fresh air, in comparison to some recent flights I have taken.

So what is the Virgin experience like… I am still kiddy from it all, a brand new 777 with it’s new plane smell, the first thing I noticed was the mood lighting that has changed many times and set a lovely tone, the next WOW moment was the bar, now fair enough, its for the elite amongst us. But it just looked so retro and looks fantastic

Kate and I, have 3 seats to ourselves, so this was always going to be a special experience. I have never been on a aircraft with this much leg room (32” leg room, 19 “ wide, and an extremely generous 6” decline). I have flown on a number of the competitors, Qantas, Air Zealand, Singapore and Cathy Pacific, nothing comes close. The in-flight entertainment (referred to as “RED” ) is my new best friend, for the next 14 hours.

I remember thinking, that if Apple designed planes, this is what it would look, and feel  like. Not the first time I have compared Jobs with Branson.

But back to my friend Red, for those that have traveled with Virgin before, you know that the in-flight entertainment is something they spend a lot of time on (the safety brief alone is fantastic). It has already surpassed any expectations I had.  A personal 9” LCD monitor on every seat back, movies on demand, close to 50 of them from new releases Slumdog Millionaire” and “Body of Lies” to classics like “Wedding Crashers” and “Gladiator” to name a few.

The music selection would make any ipod owner green with envy, hundreds of songs, all split up and easy to navigate through, pick from CD A-Z or by radio style genre icons. Then you can set a playlist for the flight, I have already found some great cd’s that I will be downloading once I get back. Next up, TV stations showing all the greats, Simpsons, The Office, Family Guy, Nat Geo, even some homegrown greats like Flight of the Concords or Summer Heights High.

A couple of other great features, there is a usb port, that you can charge your MP3 player or Ipod/Iphone on so you don’t need to worry about it dying half way through your favorite flick.

There is a chat feature that I was very curious about, lets say you are traveling with a group, there is a chat room that you can instant message each other, very neat. This can be turned off should you prefer your privacy. If instant messaging is not for you, you can play against friends (or strangers too, for that matter) on games like Battleship, Tetris and Golf. A whole lot of fun and will be hard pressed to do it all, even in 15 hours..

This is comfort like I have never experienced, a loverly atmosphere, as I write this the lighting is changing and I cant believe that we only have 2 hours to go until we arrive in Sydney. Kate has slept the whole way so far, and we should be able to hit the ground running upon arrival.

I know when it is time to go home, in two short weeks, I will actually look forward to stepping onboard this aircraft again.

Photos to follow; wifi not as easy to find in Sydney!!