Friday marked the first aircraft delivery for V Australia, Virgin Blue’s long haul arm that will inaugurate service on February between Sydney and Los Angeles. On the way down from Boeing, V Australia brought the plane to LAX for a reception and viewing of the onboard product, and I was able to get on board. First thoughts? Coach and Premium Economy seem to be quite good, but Business, while good, is not quite best-in-class.

Usually we get picture-perfect Southern California days for these events, but Friday was filled with cloudy skies and rain. That didn’t stop V Australia from throwing a heck of party. There were free drinks, trendy seating areas, loud music, and of course, famous folks (I’m pretty sure I saw Chase from House there). In other words, it’s exactly what you’d expect from a Virgin airline, though probably not the best way to spend money in these lean times.

Though there was a lot to like at the event, it started out on a sour note when they brought members of the USC marching band and cheerleading squad out to greet the plane. As a UCLA fan, I couldn’t support that at all. (Ok, maybe the cheerleaders did look pretty good.)

Finally, the plane arrived and Sir Richard Branson went into PR mode. He came out on to the wing with some members of the crew and popped open a bottle of champagne. At that point, it started to rain so people started to retreat into the tent where LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa fawned all over Branson for bringing jobs to the area, and Branson announced on stage that the airline would begin 3 times weekly flights from LA to Melbourne in addition to the already announced flights to Sydney and Brisbane. Flights from Sydney to Johannesburg were also announced.

After that, it was time to go on the plane. I joined Grant Martin from Gadling (click for Gadling’s coverage) and Juliana Shallcross from Jaunted (click for Jaunted’s coverage) along with the rest of the media in a preview tour. First impression of the airplane? It looked like a Virgin bird, and that’s not a bad thing at all.

As usual, there was mood lighting in full effect. We settled down at the bar toward the back of Business Class as Branson and Villaraigosa popped another bottle of champagne and made a toast to the airline. At that point, they turned the lights down and showed off the nighttime lighting which projects stars on the ceiling. Branson actually said that he wanted to get a skylight in the bar, but Boeing told him that wouldn’t happen.

Another reason it seemed like a Virgin plane? Padded toilet seats. I’ll let you connect the dots on that one.

Let’s get to what matters here. The Business Class product was nice, but it isn’t the best in its class. Despite what you might expect, the airplane does not have the herringbone configuration that Virgin Atlantic pioneered. Instead, they’ve opted for a 2-3-2 configuration that is forward-facing and is said to go fully flat.

My friend Paul and I tried the seat out (you may remember him from previous events at LAX), and while it was comfortable, the bed didn’t feel completely level to me. That could have just been me though, but it wasn’t bad. The biggest problem? If everyone is sleeping, there’s a lot of climbing required to get to the aisle from the window seat. And nobody is going to want to be in that dreaded middle seat. The footrest was also sort of awkward and I couldn’t quite figure it out.

One quick tip – if you’re flying in Business, I’d go for row 5. It’s separated from the rest of the Business Class, and it’s very private back there.

If you’re flying Premium Economy, you’re going to get a very comfortable leather seat with 38 inches of pitch. I personally liked the little flat square at the end of each armrest that acts as a cupholder when the tray isn’t being used.

Coach has about 32 inches of pitch, so it’s about average (though better than United’s Economy Minus by an inch). My friend noted that the color scheme was going to show a lot of dirt, and these aren’t leather seats. So there could be some cleanliness issues here. Overall however, it was a relatively normal-feeling coach seat with decent legroom. So why do I say it’s best in class? The inflight entertainment.

Every seat has Red, the same system Virgin America uses, though it won’t have live television. Oh, and unlike Virgin America, coach seats don’t have power outlets (Business and Premium Economy do). Very lame.

But overall, I’d say the seats were good and relatively comfortable, something that’s very important for the long haul flights they’ll be operating. Hopefully this added competition will help keep prices lower on a route that has historically been filled with high fares. I’m glad to see V Australia flying this route, and I think they’ll do well.

Stay tuned for part two to be posted soon with my interview with Brett Godfrey, CEO of Virgin Blue Group (owner of V Australia).

To see all my pictures from the day, visit my Flickr Photoset.

I received a note from a reader down under recently pointing out that Aussies can now book flights to Seattle on the V Australia website. Is this the long-anticipated codeshare with Virgin America finally showing its head? Nope. It’s actually a codeshare partnership with Alaska. For some reason, I don’t remember this deal being announced. Did I miss something?

If you’d like to check it out, you have to go to the V Australia site in Australia. You can’t book trips from Seattle, at least not yet, but those in Australia can fly to either LAX or beyond to Seattle. What happens if you choose Seattle? Take a look.

It doesn’t appear to be a codeshare, because it shows as an Alaska Airlines flight number, but you can book the entire itinerary on the V Australia site. This just seems so strange to me. V Australia’s Sydney flight gets you to LA at 430p (that shifts to 5p later on in the year). Those flying to Seattle come over to Terminal 3 at LAX, but instead of taking the 710p flight to Seattle on Virgin America, they’ll take one of several Alaska flights around the same time.

On the way home, Alaska makes you sit at LAX for almost 4 hours before the V Australia flight goes back to Sydney. On the other hand, Virgin America could get you to LA with only 1 hour 10 minute layover, something that’s just about perfect for a domestic to international connection that doesn’t require changing terminals.

I’m not sure why Virgin America isn’t carrying this traffic, but it absolutely should be doing it. Why hasn’t this codeshare happened yet?

[Updated 2/2 @ 528p to fix codeshare language]

For the last few years, Qantas and United have been the only two airlines to get passengers nonstop from the mainland US to Australia (Hawaiian will get you from Honolulu as well). While Qantas may have a good onboard product, its fares are high. United, on the other hand, has both high fares and a poor product. As we look forward to next year, we’re finally going to see some competition on these routes, and it will be interesting to see how this changes the route dynamic.

Beginning on February 27, V Australia will begin flights from LAX to Sydney. Brisbane flights will follow soon after. The airline is owned by Australian-based carrier Virgin Blue, and it will form the last link in the Virgin Group’s ability to get you around the world. (Virgin Atlantic can get you from LA to London to Sydney.)

V Australia will fly 777-300s in three classes. Fortunately, the third class in this case means Premium Economy, and I have to think that on such a long route, this will do well for them. All seats have audio/video on demand, and, uh, mood lighting. (This IS a Virgin airline after all.) In Business Class, there is a flat bed, but it’s not the excellent Virgin Atlantic seat they’re using.

They’ve come in with some pretty low fares, but there’s a problem. As of right now, they can’t get you anywhere beyond LA. In Australia they’re in good shape since they’re owned by Virgin Blue and can feed the network nicely, but in the US they have nothing. It is assumed that they’ll have an agreement with Virgin America since they’re both Virgin companies and they’re in the same terminal at LAX, but nothing has been finalized. Even if that happens, it will only get you to San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, New York, and Boston. Everyone else in the US will still have to fly United or Qantas (with its American codeshare) . . . or not.

Delta, in its quest to replicate Pan Am’s global domination (that didn’t end well), is going to start flights from LA to Sydney this summer. Delta will have its usual two class product on the route, but since it’s operating 777-200LRs on it, business class will have the flat bed Virgin Atlantic-style seats up front and audio/video on demand throughout the plane.

Here is what all the airlines will be flying between the US and Australia during the northern summer in 2009. Remember, this is low season for Qantas, so during the rest of the year it often has even more flights.

The Delta and V Australia flights really seem to be designed for connections. The flights from LA are redeyes, as is every other flight on the route these days (an afternoon Qantas flight doesn’t seem to be running this summer), so that’s easy to connect into at night or out of in the morning. But the flights back from Sydney provide more time flexibility.

The Delta flight leaves early from Sydney and lands very early as well. That’s awful for people coming from elsewhere in Australia but great for people connecting to the east coast who want to get in at a decent hour, and it’s going to make it attractive for those people.  The V Australia flight, on the other hand, leaves Sydney after 8p, long after any other airline and arrives at 5p.  This is great for collecting connecting passengers from around Australia, but it makes for a limited number of connections upon arriving in LAX at 5p.  Clearly, both these airlines are playing to their bases, as they should be.

It’s likely that these airlines won’t make a huge dent in Qantas’s offerings since Qantas has so many seats in the market and such entrenched loyalty, but United stands to be the big loser here. Its inferior product in coach will be put under severe pressure as these other airlines bring down fares and offer much better products.

Will this be successful for everyone? I’d be surprised. My guess is that Delta will have a hard time of making this work, but they are hell bent on flying everywhere these days. I’m not sure that there’s room for this many airlines on the route in the long term, but for now it should help bring fares down significantly and improve the travel experience for many.

You may have heard of Australia’s second largest airline, Virgin Blue, but you probably haven’t heard of V Australia. That’s because until yesterday, it didn’t really exist.

V Australia is Virgin Blue’s new long haul arm. It launched officially yesterday as the US and Australia signed an open skies agreement which allowed the airline to start flights between Australia and the US. First up will be a daily Sydney – Los Angeles trip beginning on December 15, 2008, just in time for high summer season in Australia.

US-Australia flying has always been an interesting market. There are really only three nonstop options, and only two are major players. Of course there’s Qantas, Australia’s largest airline, and then there’s also United. The third player? Hawaiian flies from Honolulu to Sydney, but that’s not a strong option for many people on the Mainland.

Air New Zealand used to fly the route, but they abandoned it several years back. And Singapore has been trying to fly it for years as well, but Australia’s protectionist policies won’t let them in. This has led to high fares and not nearly enough competition. Now, there will finally be a third major option.

You might expect V Australia to come in with a torrent of low fares, but really they aren’t. Their lowest published fare starts at just 16% below the current lowest published fare (if you believe their own press). They have been touting a sale fare, but it’s already sold out for the first two months. Then again, this is high season, so I wouldn’t expect many deals.

We’ll see how much competition really does to lower fares once the shoulder and low seasons come around, but in a market that has previously been so restricted as this one, it should only be good news.