Delta boosts San Francisco-Los Angeles, now 11 returns daily

If you're a regular Delta or Virgin Australia traveller from Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane to San Francisco via Los Angeles, Delta's LAX-SFO schedules have shifted -- so be aware that your usual flights may have changed.

Eleven daily returns are now in effect, which is useful news for Virgin Australia and Delta trans-Pacific passengers. There are winners and losers depending on whether you're heading to/from Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, so you might want to ring the your airline to see if new flights mean that you can cut down your layover time.

Delta's northern hemisphere winter schedule had previously cut some useful connecting flights, but the revised schedule has 11 daily returns on Delta between LA and SF.

If you're flying with Virgin Australia, you have a further choice of 8 daily returns on Virgin America and another 17 on Alaska Airlines.

Our pick of those airlines, if you have a choice among reasonable schedules, is Virgin America, for its newer planes, swish first class seating (which you end up in as a business class passenger transferring from Virgin Australia) and wifi access en route.

But extra Delta flights to pad out the schedules -- and for late-booking travellers when there's no availability on Virgin America -- are definitely a bonus for US-bound passengers.

John Walton

Aviation journalist and travel columnist John took his first long-haul flight when he was eight weeks old and hasn't looked back since. Well, except when facing rearwards in business class.