Day or night flight for trip to Oz?

[scrambledsnake]

Flying on my own to Oz on Qantas with 3 yr old DS and 5 mth old DD. Friend recommended early morning flight so arrive early eve and go straight to bed. Other option is 10pm flight arriving early morn but worried about how littlies will handle jetlag. Opinions of more seasoned travellers?

I would always (with kids or without) say you want the 10pm flight out of Heathrow, transitting through Singapore with a two hour stopover if you're coming straight through

Well with time differences to & it taking over 24hrs to get here, it won't be the same day when you arrive, let alone bedtime on the same day.

Later is better, imo. Having done it three times. You will arrive mid morning & the children will sleep, albeit maybe not for long, at some point.

When my dd 1st did the trip, she had her normal nap on arriving & slept OK. She was 18mth old first time.

Second time, she was almost 3. Didn't sleep when we arrived, (but I did) and had broken nights for a few days.

It really does differ, but children are more resilient than adults I found!!

I did the flight on my own too with a 2 and 5 year old. I went on the 10pm one too and would recommend it. They stayed awake till 6pm on the first day with the excitement and then they woke at normal time the next day and were fine after that. The other advantage is that they can have their PJs on the whole time as both flights are night flights.

You want them to sleep on the plane and that would be much harder on a flight where everyone else is wide awake and they are bringing food etc. On the night flights they dim the lights and you can tell the dcs that is is time to go to sleep.

Night flight definitely have done it 3 times too and it makes a huge difference.

Thanks, all. I remember all too clearly our trip when DS was 9 mths. Went from sleeping through the night at home to waking 4 times a night for the first week, 3 times for the second, 2 for..... That was not a holiday!