Don't know if this will be helpful to anyone, but we just got back from a 20 hr flight and here are things I discovered / wished that I had known...
- too many wipes are almost enough
- clothes dry quickly suspended from the overhead storage (just shut the edge of them in the 'door'
- United only give you a skycot on international, not domestic flights.
- On United, even if you get a (requested) bulkhead, only one person will get it. They can't seat you side by side with two under two year olds because of the oxygen masks. However, we found this okay because we were both given an aisle seat which was good for getting up and down.
- On a long flight, a window seat is not particularly useful for a 2 year old as there isn't much to see a lot of the time and you just have to try and keep the child from crawling all over your (unlucky) co-passenger. An aisle seat means it is easy for child to walk up and down.
- This is probably specific to my kid, but long car journeys aren't good. We did better staying mainly in one place and making short trips.
- Quite obvious but bring more nappies than you think you need! We had an extra 3 hrs added onto the end of our 10 hr flight and we were down to our last ones (ulp!)
- Yes, night flights did seem to be easier because they did sleep for part of it.
- Yes, it was hard but I am glad we did it - we had a great time once we got there.
- homeopathic remedies do seem to help with jet lag. I used gelsemium or arnica, but prob. good to consult a homeopath first.
Think that is it....
Good luck!