Reasonably good flight

We're in [name of Seattle-area city] now, with my parents. Had a good Friday flight. We were a bit concerned over how The Bub would travel, but she was a little jewel. Plus she's good for special treatment.

The usual trip from Brisbane to SeaTac is by way of Sydney, then Los Angeles -- a nuisance, since you're going down, across, then back up, rather than straight across. (Picture a parallelogram, if you will...) We'd save two three(?)-hour legs, plus maybe five hours layover if we could just take the direct flight -- but they don't exist. This time around, we took advantage of the new Qantas Brisbane-to-L.A. route, which at least chopped off one layover and one leg (the Brisbane-Sydney leg). Unfortunately, when we booked, we'd have to sit through a seven-hour layover in Los Angeles -- with a baby. Oh well.

In Brisbane, the helpful ticket guy suggested we inquire about going earlier (via standby) in L.A. -- worth the shot. We did -- and managed to snag a flight just two(?) hours after we arrived!!! We think the kid let us jump the queue a bit; we also got special "traveling with kids" treatment when going through Customs.

Thus, instead of hanging around LAX for seven hours, we hung around for two, and hung around at my parents' place for an extra five. Not bad.

--GG