G'day Folks I'm based out of Melbourne and have Platinum status on Virgin Australia.

G'day Folks

I'm based out of Melbourne and have Platinum status on Virgin Australia. I need to fly my family (including a 3 yo child) to Seattle shortly in Economy class. I'm not enthused about flying MEL-LAX with the 3yo, so would prefer to take more, shorter hops. I'm not fussed with minimizing travel time.

Can anyone suggest a routing with tips on good lounges and such during transit so it stresses the kid out less?

Many thanks in advance!

I suggest you cut you velocity card in half and join Qantas Frequent Flyer :) they have a great deal for 4,999 fora family of 4 to Lax at the moment!

I have foolishly reloaded the page with all the details I had written for you before I sent it so I'll have to do a brief summary.

Anyway, without considering an airline preference (as i am QFF and don't know VAV well) here are some options:

Via Pacific Islands or NZ

MEL-AKL-LAX-SEA (Air NZ, VX)

MEL-SYD-PPT-LAX-SEA (VA,Air Tahiti,Air Tahiti or AF,VX)

MEL-SYD-HNL-SEA (VA, Hawaiian) Could instead take JQ MEL-HNLI

MEL-NAN-LAX-SEA (Fiji Airways, VX)

MEL-BNE-LAX-SEA (VA,VX)

I know  (BNE/AKL-LAX) are quite long but still options

Via Asia: (Someone Else might help here)

If ANA have commenced SYD flights by the time you go you could go 

MEL-SYD-HND(Land transport to NRT) then NRT-SEA (Or could take DL HND-SEA)

Otherwise Asiana or Korean Via SYD and ICN

Hong Kong (though CX and QF are OW carriers) then on to SkyTeam carrier DL

Hope this helps and remember that most of this is what I can think of in my head after a big day so may not be 100%

Seeing as you are VA Platinum, I would think your best bet would be flying via Honolulu with a combo of Virgin Aus, Hawaiian Airlines and Delta. Option to go via Auckland with AirNZ if the Australian domestic connection is not great. 

The only Asian carrier is Singapore Airlines. You could fly via Singapore and Tokyo, but I suspect it would be quite expensive and equate to more time in the air overall.

Hmmm that's sounds like a horrible situation.  Aus-Fiji- HNL-Sea maybe?

Whatever you do probably won't be fun. I guess 1hr might seem like 14hrs sometimes.

What about unaccompanied 'luggage'?