This week the actual Olympic flag – not the fake Tom Cruise one from the ceremony – was flown from Paris to Los Angeles, where the next Games will take place in 2028.
It was a flight worthy of champions, with a fascinating Instagram video by Nicky Kelvin, Editor at Large at The Points Guy, showing why.
He was given a seat on board and filmed the entire extraordinary experience, which began on Monday with a departure party at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport – and medal-winning athletes from the USA team and Olympic dignitaries were in attendance.
Delta is the official airline of the LA Olympic Games, so aptly the plane was a Delta Airbus A350. But this one was brand new.
In fact, the trip was only the plane’s third-ever journey. What’s more, it was ‘dressed for the occasion’, Nicky explains in the video.
On the outside, it was branded with an ‘LA28’ livery. And inside, every seat had a headrest cover carrying the message ‘Au Revoir Paris, Hello Los Angeles’.
Nicky was in economy, with the travel guru revealing that ‘every seat had an exclusive cap and pin for the LA Games’.
And with him in economy was the actual Olympic flag, hung up on a partition wall behind the last row.
After take-off Nicky is treated to a ‘lovely’ lunch and gets the chance to mingle with some of the US athletes, with rowing gold-medalist Liam Corrigan and Olympic diver Delaney Schnell featuring in the video.
Nicky then takes part in a raffle with some ‘swanky prizes’ and gets to enjoy some ‘fun touches’, including a bright-yellow Delta-branded macaron.
There’s then an ‘exciting’ moment where Nicky is shown ‘the actual box the Olympic flag lives in’.
As seen in the video, this is a wooden box emblazoned with logos of former Olympic Games, including Sydney 2000 and Rio 2016.
There was a ‘big welcome’ awaiting the flight in Los Angeles, Nicky remarks.
After saying ‘bye to the incredible crew’, Nicky ‘gets to watch the Olympic flag being walked off the plane’.
The athletes onboard then gather for a photo with the flag to welcome it to LA for the next Games.
From that point, Nicky says it’s ‘food, drink and snacks galore’ in a celebration at LAX Airport.
He adds: ‘It was a chance for the athletes to let their hair down after Paris and look forward to the Los Angeles Games.
‘With four years to go until the next Games, LA is already excited. And so are we.’
For more from The Points Guy visit thepointsguy.com/uk-travel.
