Fly like a rock star

If you're not used to it, let me tell you, being a rock star can be off-putting. Not for all the adulation and recognition - because here at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) no-one seems to have matched me with the profile shot that's often beside my articles - but for the sheer decadence of timing. Rock stars, it would seem, don't have to arrive early and line up like the rest of us. Rock stars, it would seem, arrive just in the nick of time.

Maybe that's why I'm not one (at least, it's one of the reasons). Because this VIP boarding of Delta flight 41 from LAX to Sydney is making me sweat. I'm used to watching the progress of my flight evolve slowly on the TV screen at LAX's international terminal. I'm used to walking to my gate early, just in case. I'm used to waiting till my seat row is called, then standing in a queue to sit in a seat I long ago secured. But rock stars don't do any of this. And because LA is the home of them, it seems like the right place to pay to be like one, if only for an evening. Delta Air Lines offer passengers the opportunity to be treated like a rock star for $US350 ($515). That's not a bad price to feel like Mick Jagger for a few hours.

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I'm opting for Delta Air Lines' VIP Select service. When I arrive at the airport, a concierge meets me at the curb outside Terminal 3. They take my bags, check me in at a priority lane and take me through a security line where the officers don't yell at me, not even a little bit. Then I'm escorted to Delta's new Sky Club. Instead of lining up for my usual orange chicken at Panda Express, I'm whisked up an escalator beneath a roof modelled after ocean waves into a 3000-square-metre lounge with an indoor double bar. But it's the sunset that gets my attention. It's fading ever-so-slowly into the Hollywood Hills beyond the outdoor bar of the lounge where a barman is about to fix me a margarita. As I sip, the Hollywood sign lights up like it's made of neon.

The tequila relaxes me a little, but habit has me pacing back and forth to the TV monitor. My flight's boarding, a voice over the loudspeaker announces. Minutes pass. I consider another margarita to take the edge off. My in-house concierge arrives, and takes me down a secret elevator at the side of the lounge. I ask if I'm running late. "Don't worry," he tells me. "You're going right to the plane." A door opens and a Porsche 4WD awaits on the tarmac. A driver takes me across several runways, waiting between planes, till I'm underneath the Airbus A350-900 flying me to Sydney (note: not everyone is transported by Porsche, some will be walked to the gate depending on availability). I have my passport out ready to show at the gate. Instead I climb a set of stairs, walk through a doorway and join the air bridge just steps from the front of the plane. "But do they know I'm leaving the country?" I ask. "Everything is taken care of sir," I'm assured.

And then, like that, Delta flight 41 hits the skies above LA and sets course across the Pacific. I just wonder if someone can make sure I don't have to queue for the loo.

Delta VIP Select is available at LAX, Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis, New York (JFK and LaGuardia), Salt Lake City, Seattle and San Francisco airports, but must be booked through a travel agent that partners with Delta Air Lines.