Yes, the northern route, the return trip was faster, straight across. The good thing is in LA we gave up our seats on the connector flight for first class seats on the next flight back to Northern Virginia.Now that is what I'm talking about. Did you really??Try 13 hours non stop riding coach from LA to Seoul......I took a flight from Cincinnati to Heathrow... that SUCKED. I can't sleep in a chair and the inflight movie was the Horse Whisperer I think.