The flight from London to San Francisco crossed over from Canadian airspace
to United States airspace a few minutes ago, meaning that technically I’m
back in the USA. The 10:06 flight is about 80 minutes from landing.

Everything has been uneventful. Service has been OK and I’m only somewhat
tired. I’m looking forward to being up and walking around more than
anything else.

This routing was picked to determine if Premium Economy on Virgin Atlantic
was a reasonable substitute for Business Class on Delta. Answer: No. The
seating is not nearly as comfortable and the service is essentially
Economy.

The next question was if it was worth it to have one very long leg and
three shorter legs rather than one short leg and two longer legs with one
of the long legs in economy. Answer: No. The accomodations on this flight
are pretty tight making it difficult to get up and walk around. A break in
the middle has good value. Also, it’s about a 50-50 chance of beiing
upgraded on Delta’s economy leg.

On the other hand, the accomodations in Upper Class on Virgin Atlantic are
pretty nice. I’ll want to check out the pricing.

My next trip is in early October and Nina is coming with as we’ll do the
European river cruise right after that. That trip is already booked on
Delta since we need to use some frequent flier miles to buy an upgrade for
Nina.

The next trip after that will be after the beginning of next year. There is
a very slim possibility of a trip to Manila in November, but more likely
after the begining of next year.

We’ve just flown over Walla Walla, Washington. The next big ordeal will be
immigration and customs in San Francisco. It is never straight forward and
always takes a long time. I’ll get plenty of stand-up time there, for sure.

My day started at 7 am London time, about midnight Pocatello time. If
everything goes as planned, I’ll arrive home about 11:30 pm — meaning I
will have been up for 24 hours on this return trip. Isn’t travelling
fun….

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