Long haul flights with kids

[Anxietyandme24]

12 hour flight with 2 children aged 6 and (almost) 4. Aside from the obvious tablets, sticker books and a million snacks.....ideas for comfort and keeping them entertained please.

Any must have accessories e.g. travel pillows etc?

one flight is over night and the other is day time

Just don’t forget a change of clothes for the adults as well as the kids. I once ended up having a child puke on me ten minutes into a long haul flight, kids had two changes each, I had zero!

Yep and lost luggage or delays. I’ve used that change of clothes on every single long haul flight. Best scenario was a spilt apple juice, worst was a 36 hour delay where our checked luggage didn’t reappear until we got home! In hand luggage I do 2 full changes for everyone, all essential toiletries and swimsuits if we’re off on a beach holiday so at least you can chill by the pool whilst you wait for your bag to show up!

Yes I always pack a basic change to get us through the first 24hr of lost luggage. At least if you have underwear and T-shirt you can shower on arrival, before finding shops the next morning for some extras.

They will sleep through on the overnight. I would get headphones and use the in flight entertainment system. But I've mainly done overnight and they only use the in flight system for a couple of hours when they wake up towards the end of the flight.

And yes to a change of clothes in the hand luggage.

• headphones that fit
• waterbottle for each (they will spill the cups of water they keep handing out)
• download cartoons they want to watch - in case the inflight entertainment is down, and for when they switch the system off half an hour before landing.
• take battery charger and cable
• lots of favourite food, ideally not sugary (my kid still refuses most airline food so i need to have something more substantial than sweets and crisps for a UK to Australia flight)

I would disagree…travel pillows a waste of time as you get both pillow and blanket on any decent long haul.
tablets also not worth taking….as the excitement of the inflight entertainment is enough.
headphones a good idea though.
and sweets to suck for descent
dont need extra snacks….we got x 2 meals and loads of snack options in between ( sandwiches, crisps, kitkats, mini magnums, raisins, pretzels, cereal bars ) …..unless you got real fussy eaters.
book an evening flight so then they likely to sleep.

I recently returned from trip to Australia with my 2 GDs …..we had an 8.30pm flight…..the 5 year old slept 10 hours on the first flight and the 8 year old 6 hours