Flying non stop to Perth from London

[puddinggalore]

Booking tickets to see family in Australia and noticed Qantas fly non stop London to Perth, taking 16 hrs 45 mins. My flight would be 2 hour stop in Perth to refuel then 3.5 hours onto Melbourne. Would I be crazy to consider spending nearly 17 hours on a single flight with 2 young children? I would only be saving 2ish hours in total travel time compared to other routes. Has anyone done this and would recommend?

How old are the kids? And are you flying on your own?

FWIW I flew solo To Kuala Lumpur solo and everyone on the plane was super helpful, all offered to carry baby etc, help me with bags, etc.

I do that trip regularlyish enough (London to Melb) and it's a looong time without a change of scenery. I don't think my dc would cope! But I like getting off at Singapore and it's a good airport with dc.

Thanks for replies, dc are 6 and 9, 9yo will be fine but 6 year old has asd which is making me think shorter distances will be better. Yes, Dh is coming. This will be my 4th trip with dc but not since youngest was a baby, we previously always stopped in Singapore but flights stopping in Abu Dhabi are coming up significantly cheaper.

I would not do a 17 hour non stop flight with children. Would seriously consider transferring via Singapore instead; Changi is a much better airport in terms of facilities.

Can you fly from Singapore to Melbourne?.

Re your last sentence there's a reason for that (re Abu Dhabi). Its because the airport itself is an unfriendly dump with rude staff and that second leg is horrendously long. Is that with Etihad as well?

@AttilaTheMeerkat it would be an Etihad flight booked as Virgin Australia. Are Etihad that awful??

My family did the 17 hr plus 7hr flight from New Zealand via Doha with a 16 month old, they said it was fine. My husband has done it too. We are going to Perth at the end of this year but I'm not keen on the direct flight. However the direct flight to Perth is on a Dreamliner and they are the best long haul flights I've ever flown on.

We flew 18 hours Auckland to Dubai then another 7 to London with DD6 and she coped better than us. She wouldn't eat the plane food so we had a lot of snacks rather than meals which was a pain but she knew there was no alternative.
She just watched tv or slept. Doing things like colouring are a nightmare- so much mess and doesn't fill up time!
We both felt sick by the end, she ran about her grandparents place in UK as if she'd just been the car for 10 mins

Don’t do it! The plane they are using for this flight has had extra seats squeezed in and gets terrible reviews. Unless you can afford to fly in business class of course