Actually that's sort of a silly question because we're guessing on long-haul flights like this most of you are going to take the least expensive option which is economy unless you just happen to be a movie star, recording artist, successful business person or are checking off the last few bullet points on your bucket list.

Yet just in case your budget has some wiggle room, we've summarized each class on the brand-new V Australia 777 planes, the first of which makes its maiden trip from LAX to Sydney on Feb. 27th.

Since the flight is almost 15 hours long, seat pitch and booze are what we're interested in the most. But there are a few other perks, namely the in-flight entertainment system RED which we love so much on Virgin America. Additionally, CEO Brett Godfrey told us about the Aeromobile plans for the plane in which people would be able to use their PDAs and cellphones to send emails and text messages. "But not phone," he said. "I don't want all these voices in the cabins."

Since the plane is not going to have in-flight WiFi (at least not at the start), this Aeromobile plan sounds pretty good. Except we aren't quite sure what the data charges will be like on our cellphone bill and the service is not actually guaranteed to be working come Feb. 27.

Overall, we were in love with the business class seats especially since they lie totally flat. The premium economy seats were nice, certainly better than coach but still lacking any "wow" factor.

Economy, however, made us cry on the inside a little. We've flown to Sydney from LAX in coach on Qantas (in a middle seat no less) and we were kind of hoping that Virgin Australia would use the same type of leather coach seats as the Virgin America planes. Instead, they went with cloth seats and strange color combos. Here's to hoping that Richard Gere is sitting up in biz class all alone and wants our company. But we'll settle for a cheap prescription of sleeping meds instead.]]> juliana 2009-02-09T12:43:21-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/2/6/115915/3689

On an atypical rainy day in Los Angeles, we ventured out to the Flight Path Learning Center and Museum at the Los Angeles International Airport to witness the arrival of the much-anticipated Virgin Australia 777.

This bird will be making its first official flight from Sydney to LAX and back on February 27th and us travel geeks were practically frothing at the mouth as we awaited an inside look at her. Of course, we had to wait for Sir Richard Branson to show up first.

He arrived on the plane (which flew down from Seattle) a little past three just as the rain was starting up again. Weather, however, does not delay this high-flying billionaire. Branson, along with CEO Brett Godfrey and flight attendants rolled out a red carpet on the wing and promptly popped some champagne.

Later at the press conference, Branson continued to amp up the crowd by announcing not only flights from LAX to Melbourne (starting in September) but also Johannesburg to Sydney.

Once the media frenzy died down, we were able to get a tour of the three different classes on board V Australia. Our initial reaction? If you can afford business, your 14-hour flight to Sydney will probably pass in a state of relaxed bliss, helped along either by the fully reclining seats, the drinks from the business class bar, the personal TVs or the food coma from the meals served.

If you're in premium, life will just be comfortable with 38" of leg room and leather seats. In coach, well, it's a good thing Virgin Australia has the RED in-flight entertainment system. But you should bring along your Lunesta prescription just in case.

More pics and video after the jump.]]> juliana 2009-02-07T00:40:16-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/