Your "must have" item(s) for long haul flight?

[DeadTall]

We're off to Oz at Easter with DS 12 and DD 10. We fly out of Heathrow 10pm on a Friday, arriving Cairns on a Sunday morning (changing at Bangkok & Sydney).

What would be your "must have" item(s) for this sort of long haul flight?

Noise Cancelling Headphones.
Electronic console/good book.
Food.

Slipper socks. My feet swell and get cold x enjoy your trip :)

A seat at the opposite end of the plane to your children.

An iPad if you have one. If not then mp3 player & headphone. Puzzle books for the kids (sudoko maybe?), Uno cards, a novel or kindle (there are load of classic kids books that you can download for free).

I would probably take a few snacks too as the kids may get hungry on one of your stopovers when you don't have any local money.

I've often found my kids cope better on a longer flight where there's a screen with movies & games right in front of them rather than a short haul flight where there's nothing.

And if you have space a change of clothes (for you as well as them) as you never know when they're going to knock something over.

My DH generally takes ear plugs and a good book!!!

Ipad or iPhone
Bananas

Earplugs, lip balm and or any warm large shawl thingy (pashmina).
Why do planes get so cold ?

magnetic travel games (snakes and ladders; ludo; cluedo etc - WHSmith sell a fair few). Mini etch-a-sketch (again, WH Smith). Rubiks' cube.

Portable DVD player if the kids are not fans of the sorts of films you get on the plane (can usually preview the programme guide on airline's website for that month)

Second the spare headphones -the ones you get for the screens on the plane are usually awful.

Neck pillows or pillow-pets (animal pillows for the kids) - again airline pillows badly shaped and scratchy!

Big bag of snacks- we usually take sweets for takeoff, ceral bars, sandwiches, little pots of cheese/dipping stick combos, popcorn, pitta bread plus slices of ham/cheese etc, and I buy fruit salad/pasta salad from Boots at the airport, plus extra water. I always find that my DC are hungry at different times to when they feed you on the plane (and are often asleep when they bring the food round!)

Enjoy!

The afternoon of the flight go for a long walk or get them out in the garden running around before you go. Have a good dinner at the airport before you get on the plane. Then if a miracle happens and they fall asleep before the food is served you don't need to wake them up.

Let them buy new DVDs, games and magazines in Duty Free - it kills time waiting for the flight to board and then when they get on the plane they have new stuff to entertain them. Get them to save their pocket money up for then. Or buy stuff on Amazon before you go and give it to them as a surprise on the plane.

Portable DVD players (get headphone splitters if you want them to share)
Nintendo DS or sony thing. If you have an Ipad - get uno, scrabble apps - then you can all play! Don't forget to make sure everything is fully charged!

Top Trumps.

Definitely worth getting those pillows that go round your neck. Noise cancelling headphones for me are the best invention ever!

Snacks like bananas, biscuits etc. Most airlines inflight entertainment are pretty good though.

Kindle, water, sweets, new books/DS games for kids, puzzle books for all, several changes of clothes.

Great ideas from everyone! Thank you. We have an iPad so I'm loading it with games and I might investigate getting a film downloaded onto it too. The qantas films don't look that inspiring, but hopefully they'll be better over Easter. I hadn't thought about the stopovers - we have a few hours in Bangkok airport on the way there and singapore on the way back :-( but the trip will be worth it!