Leaving on a Jet Plane

The suitcases are (mostly) packed, the carry-on bags are packed, and the boarding passes are printed.

Tomorrow morning, we leave at 5:00am for our drive to Buffalo Airport. The boys are extremely excited and much of our conversation has revolved around airplanes and the toys in the carry-on bags:

"Can I have the toys now?"

"Not until tomorrow."

"How about now?"

We are flying Southwest Airlines, which lacks assigned seating. They no longer allow pre-boarding of small children, so we ponied up an extra $40 to get "early bird" check-in. This, unfortunately, does not guarantee an "A" boarding pass- we have "B" passes for our Buffalo-Las Vegas flight. Essentially, we paid an extra $40 for nothing. They don't limit the number of people using the "early bird" check-in, so you could theoretically get a "C" boarding pass after spending extra money. Also, Business Select and A-List customers get to board before the "early bird" purchasers- I really don't see the advantage of wasting another $40 for early check-in. The flights on Southwest aren't any cheaper than flying Continental, so our next trip to LA will be on a different airline- assigned seats are nice with small children, especially when you aren't allowed to pre-board the aircraft.

They do allow the parents of small children to board between the "A" and "B" groups, so we will board then to install the carseat and to ensure that we are sitting with our children. I think Southwest's new policy is less than wonderful, because it takes some time to install a carseat, and we are going to block other passengers while we get this accomplished.

We should land at 1:00pm tomorrow (California time), and Matt will ride to Oxnard with his grandparents while Dennis, Nolan, and I check into the Annenberg apartments. I hope to blog from Los Angeles, depending on the availability of wi-fi.

California, here we come!