Virgin Australia Axes Melbourne To Los Angeles Flight

Rumors suggest that Virgin Australia is turning the MEL-LAX flight over to DL.

Whats the miles requirement for us-austrailia and thahiti?

I think Australian Business Traveler is misinformed. As far as I can tell, VA only runs LAX-MEL 3x weekly (STTh). Pulling it down and adding three weekly frequencies to Brisbane is capacity neutral.

There are 4 airlines... Delta has their own LAX-SYD flight as well.

Great. I just booked LAX-MEL-LAX few weeks ago for next March using sky miles. How do you think they'll handle rebookings?

You make a very good point. After SQ stopped the SIN-EWR nonstop service back in Nov 2013, I've found it a lot harder to find business class space on the JFK-FRA-SIN route.

BNE-LAX and MEL-LAX are run on alternating days. So if VA is going daily on BNE-LAX then the change is capacity neutral between US and Australia.

@ Papa Smurf -- My guess is that you'll be automatically rerouted on either the flight through Brisbane or Melbourne.

@ Lantean -- Whoops, good point. Fixed.

@ Mike -- It's 160,000 miles in business class roundtrip.

@ Bgriff -- Totally misread the change originally. Updated now -- thanks!

Fares were already high MEL-LAX.

I just flew the LAX->MEL flight last month. While rather long (15h50m), I found VA's business class quite comfortable and managed to get a good night's sleep, thus was well-rested when we arrived in MEL. They even gave out PJs and service was top-notch. While I haven't flown UA's 787, I have experienced their lie-flat front & rear-facing biz class on other aircraft and VA is better, IMHO. I've never been thrilled with UA's service or food, so I think VA easily wins that competition too. Plus they have a little bar complete with bar stools and the overall Virgin-signature ambiance. Makes me wonder why VA would leave this route because they appear to have a superior product.

@Erik - "Makes me wonder why VA would leave this route because they appear to have a superior product."

What good does a superior product do them if they don't think they're making enough money?

I have a lot of Skymiles to burn and I'm targeting another trip to Oz with them in 2016. I know, I know, way ahead of myself. Though, I would probably book sometime in March of 2015. I am not terribly concerned about this...yet. As others have stated, seems to be capacity neutral as far as seats flying from the USA to Australia. So, this change is a minor concern for me. The bigger concern, of course, is what Gary reported on the other day with the suddenly non-existent VA space.

It's really too bad DL doesn't ever have any space. I liked VA's Biz Class. I was on the SYD-LAX flight back in February. And while I wasn't able to sleep at all due to the flight having left in the early afternoon Sydney time, it was a comfortable experience. Not nearly the privacy that DL's Business Elite has, and I thought the DL seat was also more comfy. I guess I'm an aisle access for every seat snob.