Virgin Australia, Delta begin codesharing to USA in November

Virgin Australia and Delta will begin codesharing on trans-Pacific flights between Australia and Los Angeles' LAX airport, the airlines have revealed.

Delta's DL flight numbers will appear on V Australia flights, and Virgin's VA code will also be seen on Delta's services. Virgin Australia tells us that the codeshare flights will be available today, for travel starting 6 November.

The codesharing agreement means that the two airlines combined now have three flights daily across the Pacific: two to Sydney and one V Australia flight to Melbourne or Brisbane. The arrangements were approved by regulators in June.

Velocity frequent flyers will be able to earn full frequent flyer miles on Delta's trans-Pacific flights from Sydney to LAX airport, and will also have access to Delta's Sky Club lounges. Reciprocal arrangements are also in place for Delta's passengers.

But in even better news, V Australia's arriving flights will move from the awful Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT) at LAX, and will instead arrive at Delta's Terminal 5.

That means faster security (since TBIT has more non-US international airlines and flights) and an easier connection to Delta's US network of flights at LAX.

V Australia flights departing LAX will still leave from Terminal 3, however, so don't turn up at Terminal 5 for your flight.

Virgin Australia's Merren McArthur has also outlined the next step for the alliance: "The next milestone will be the expansion of the existing domestic codeshare on each airline's domestic network, further improving connectivity of our services and giving Virgin Australia guests access to 250 destinations across the United States, Canada and Mexico."

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.