I covered what to pack for a 5-hour flight with kids in an earlier post, but this time, with our move to Ireland, our first leg was a 14.5-hour flight to Heathrow Airport in the UK – the longest flight we’ve ever taken.
I’m planning a separate post on all the gear we brought for the long-haul flight, so I’ll only touch on it briefly here.
This time, building on some past mistakes, I want to cover what’s worth knowing before a long-haul flight with kids.
What Matters Most on a Long-Haul Flight With Kids?
When you’re flying long-haul with kids, I think the single most important thing is getting them to sleep.
Keeping a normal routine matters, of course, but a cranky, fussy kid on the plane is harder on everyone – the kids included – than you’d think.
Since our flight departed late at night, we let our older son – who’d outgrown naps by then – nap in the afternoon if he got sleepy, to nudge his body clock toward sleeping on the plane.
Getting a comfortable rest on the plane – for kids and adults alike – takes some preparation beforehand.
MOGU Smart Neck Pillow
This is the well-known JetKids.
We’d had it for a while, and I used to think it was bulky for how little it actually holds, but…
…this time, it was a lifesaver. Thanks to this, we actually got to relax.
Find the Stokke JetKids BedBox!
JetKids turned out to be more useful than I expected. We only had one, but we bought a second one right after we arrived (ha!).
There are a few seats where you can’t use it, so keep that in mind, but for a long-haul flight, it’s genuinely worth having.
Keeping Kids Entertained While They’re Awake
Our 4-Year-Old
Thanks to JetKids, both our older and younger sons slept for 8+ hours.
We’d told the kids ahead of time that, even though we normally don’t let them use the iPad for long stretches, “on the plane, you can watch for as long as you want.”
So naturally, the moment our older son woke up, it was “Can I watch the iPad now?” (ha!)
I was surprised he’d say that at only 4 years and 9 months old, but we’d made the promise beforehand, so we let him.
After that, he didn’t need anything else the whole flight (ha!). I’m honestly not sure if that counts as him growing up or regressing…
A Past Mistake With Downloaded Videos
On a previous flight, I thought I’d saved some videos offline, only to find out somehow they wouldn’t play.
So this time, I spread the downloads of the kids’ favorite videos out over several days ahead of time, and tested over and over that they’d actually play offline.
⚠️ You might think you’ve saved something offline when you actually haven’t!
Double-check ahead of time!
Our 2-Year-Old
Our younger son also slept for about 9 hours, thanks to JetKids and being held.
He’ll watch videos too, of course, but he gets bored of them fast.
Eating the in-flight meal, picking at a few snacks, doing some drawing – even with 9 hours of sleep, that still left 5.5 hours to fill (sob).
That’s where our seat location really came through for us this time.
Seat Selection: Tips and Things to Watch Out For
We’ve picked seats before thinking they’d be a good choice, only to end up regretting it – more than once.
Past Seat-Selection Mistakes
・Thought we’d booked a bassinet, but it turned out we hadn’t
・Flew an airline with stricter rules, and had a flight attendant seat right in front of us, which made things harder
・Ended up with a seat that wouldn’t recline, with armrests that wouldn’t lift (this can happen on certain seats depending on the aircraft type)
・Our seats were split across the aisle, and with the seatbelt sign staying on, I ended up watching both kids alone
Learning from that, this time we made sure to meet these conditions.
- 4 seats together, no exceptions
- Seats that recline and have armrests that lift
- A seat near the restroom
Having 4 seats together meant the kids could climb onto my lap or my husband’s, letting us shift things around a bit even in a cramped cabin.
Being seated right in front of the restroom meant we weren’t bothering anyone even if we reclined our seats or shifted around a bit, and
if our younger son got fussy, we could stand up right away, safely.
Being right in front of the restroom was genuinely so convenient. If there’s a downside, it’s that you can hear the toilet flushing pretty clearly (ha!). But the cabin is noisy enough overall that it never once woke the kids up.
You can’t always get your ideal seat. I used to think window seats were the way to go, but middle seats turned out to be surprisingly convenient – you can get in and out from either side, and there’s room to set up JetKids right there in the middle seat.
We also got lucky this time with an empty row in front of our 2 middle seats. (In my experience, middle seats seem to end up empty more often than window seats.)
One Surprise Mid-Flight: Sunrise Glare
Our flight departed late at night, headed for Heathrow Airport in the UK – which meant we were flying toward the sunrise.
I hadn’t thought much about it, but about 3.5 hours in, the sun started coming up, and it was blinding! Given where our seats were, it hit our younger son right in the face as I held him.
When we asked a flight attendant, they put up a black cover like this over the window.
Some planes have a built-in shade for this, but if yours doesn’t, it’s worth asking like we did.
It’s not just about brightness, either – there were other moments where we wanted a bit of privacy, so a clip you can use to attach your own cloth would come in handy.
After flying toward the sunrise for a while, we then flew into darkness again as we headed toward night.
It really gave us a feel for how the earth and sun relate to each other, and paired with a map, even the kids found it fascinating!
Differences by Age, and How to Handle Them
As with most things, the best approach really depends on your child’s age and personality.
For example, if your baby is under 2 and weighs somewhere in the low teens of kilograms, you can use a bassinet – a sort of bed that lets a baby lie flat and sleep (the exact conditions vary by airline).
In that case, only certain seats can be used, and you’ll need to reserve it in advance.
Babies under 1 sleep a lot and their fussing tends to be quieter, so in my experience it’s often more manageable than you’d expect. A lot of parents are also still adjusting breastfeeding or formula schedules around then.
Personally, I think ages 1-2 are the toughest.
That’s the stage where their sense of self is emerging, they want to do what they want to do, and moving their body around is just plain fun – so getting them to sleep really is the key.
Why Explaining Things in Advance Works So Well
In pediatric healthcare, there’s a concept called psychological preparation – helping a child mentally prepare, in a way suited to their age and stage of development, for an upcoming test, procedure, surgery, or hospital stay. In the US and UK, this is often handled by a Child Life Specialist.
Put simply, telling a child ahead of time what’s going to happen helps them understand and process it in their own way, no matter their age.
This isn’t limited to medicine – I think it applies just as well to something like a long-haul flight, or really any time a child is about to do something new or out of the ordinary.
Since this flight was 14.5 hours, I took the time to explain things concretely, tying it back to experiences they already knew: “We’ll get on the plane at night, wake up, eat breakfast, and we still won’t be there yet,” “We’ll land around the time you’d normally be taking a nap,” and (showing them a map) “Here’s where the UK is. Here’s Tokyo, and here’s Osaka. Here’s the Philippines, here’s Singapore – we’re going somewhere even farther than that.”
When they were 2, both of our kids would sometimes get upset and cry “I want to get off!” – but this time, that never happened.
It also helps a lot to walk through how you’ll handle problems you can already picture happening – things like, “If you say you want to get off but we can’t, let’s have a snack instead,” or “If you get fussy and it bothers other passengers, let’s go to the bathroom together.”
Of course, how much a child understands depends on their age and personality, but in pediatric healthcare, this kind of preparation is used even with babies.
What matters most is trying to tell them, instead of assuming “they won’t understand anyway.”
Even if it doesn’t go perfectly this time, that experience carries over to the next one!
Airport Play Areas Can Be a Trap!
Most airports have a play area for kids. I’ve used them plenty of times myself, and let my kids play there too – but these days, I try to avoid them as much as I can.
The reason is the risk of picking something up there.
Everyone’s careful about their health in the days leading up to a trip. But when departure day actually arrives, I think a lot of people push through with a bit of a cough or a runny nose, telling themselves “no fever, so it’s fine, I can’t cancel now anyway.”
Traveling is fun, but it takes a toll on your body too.
You’re eating things you don’t normally eat, and both kids and adults tend to push themselves without realizing it – which often means your immune system isn’t at its best.
Even without the play area, kids tend to enjoy themselves just exploring – a window seat with a good view of the planes, an empty gate nobody’s using, that sort of thing!
Keep an eye on things at the airport too, so nobody ends up sick right at the start of your trip!
In Closing
At 14.5 hours, this was the longest flight we’ve ever taken, but by being thoughtful about our seats and how we spent our time on board, we got through it more easily than expected.
I’ve written up the gear that really saved us in a separate post, so take a look if you’re curious.
Thanks so much for reading to the end.
