Fortunately the passengers were super cool and no-one cared.

The passengers were super British and didnt dare let you know what they were thinking! 😉

I would counsel against a stopover as you then have is two lots of miserable 2 year old jetlag. Get it done in one and deal with it in one go. I have taken my daughter to/from NZ 3 times since she was 18 months old and have decided that’s the best approach.

As said before take food, take spare clothes for you and them, take a blanket or something and get them a separate seat. Go as far forward as you can afford and ignore the haters. Be courteous but also be a bit stiff upped lip about it as you will inevitably get the heroes who think you can keep a 2 year old quiet for 16 hours.

Also plan for an unexpected delay – take extra nappies, extra food, extra everything in your hand luggage. Enough to keep you going for 12 hours without having to leave the airport, just in case.

Couldn’t agree more!

Second for doing things slowly. In fact it is amazing how long you can drag things out for when you put your mind to it. See how long you can take to open some sweets.

I’ve just done a couple of long haul flights with emirates and the staff were amazing with the parents and children handing out toys and kits to entertain them.

Book a centre seat against the bulk head and they have small cots that attach to the bulk head so you can put the baby in there when sleeping, they even had little mobiles to put on them and entertain the kid.

Book a centre seat against the bulk head and they have small cots that attach to the bulk head so you can put the baby in there when sleeping, they even had little mobiles to put on them and entertain the kid.

You can try and book these but they do allocate on need and I think they are more for the younger ones not toddlers, usual rules apply where they will rattle down some criteria to see who gets those ones. Downside of those is you get fixed armrests and TV is pull out so as said not as good for stretching out sideways.

Staffing levels and help will depends a lot on the timing of the flight, a lot of the ones up from Oz try and do a night flight so the staff do dinner and hit the lights ASAP, can’t remember how it works the other way – but when that happens the staff do wind it down a bit and head for the crew areas.

Maybe a daft suggestion but a pocketful of earplugs so if the kid does cry a lot you can offer them to folk around you? I always have earplugs with me on planes partly for this reason