I have never flown long haul and I'm not a great flyer any way so I am particularly dreading this.

We're going to Singapore and Bali in June and Oli will be 21 months and I have literally no idea what to expect. Where do they sit you? Where will Oli sleep? What about when there is turbulence? Do we just have to hold him?

I'm worried that he's going to get bored and have tantrums but to be honest I can live with that. I'm mainly worried about the practicalities of where he'll eat/sleep/walk about etc. I'm also worried about having to breastfeed him on the plane where other people will be as I haven't had to do this for months and months and I'm worried about others' reactions (stupid I know).

Sooo help? Any advice? ANYTHING. I really don't have a clue what to expect

what airline are you flying with?
will it be an overnight flight?
most airlines have cots, but from my research, it's for kids weighing up to 11 kilos, which i'm sure your baby already weighs.
i'm going to the US west coast in May and I think I'll fly with BA. I've heard they have an infant seat developed by Britta that you can borrow.
we're thinking of buying her a seat, I don't think I could bear having her on me/husband for 11 hours.
she never sleeps on our arms and I think she will only sleep lying on a seat between us. unfortunately, i cannot find any overnight flights, so she should only sleep 2 hours (hopefully) maybe twice during the flight.

I'm flying to Australia in 3 weeks with my 16 month old...

So far I have reserved seats with extra leg room, checked at the airport about if they sell milk past passport control (obviously not a concern of yours)

Noah will travel on our knees and will have a seat belt extension for when we need to be belted up. We are also hoping as we are travelling by airbus for most of the way that there will be some spare seats so Noah can sleep on the seats, otherwise I'm packing plenty of blankets so I can set up a bed on the floor space.

Apparently the flight attendants are great with children and bring lots of snacks and activities to distract them!

I have been weaning my child onto television and will be taking my iPad with lots of episodes of chuggington and timmy time loaded on it

I will be taking lots of little new toys on board to to give him when he needs distracting

Most of all I'm trying not to stress! I'm pretty sure the journey will be horrid but I'm trying to focus on Noah playing in the sand and surf rather than the journey! Xxx

I will be In This situation as well very soon. I am 100% dreading it! Our flight will be 10 hours. I know the airplane will have milk. And I'm curious, do you have to bring a car seat for flights? I know our car seat is set up to be used on airplanes... And thinking it is a good idea, since Alexa sleeps quite well in her car seat. We had to drive 4 hours once, I drove at night and she slept all the way through. Will hopefully have a night flight. I too will be bringing an iPad decked with baby cartoons and movies! And that's a good idea to buy new toys for the flight to keep them entertained! Didn't think of that.

Nothing to add really just that I am jealous..hope it all goes well!! x

We haven't flown long haul with Erin since she's been walking but we did fly 12 hours to Mauritius when she was nine months old, and are flying to the Caribbean in March when she will be 20 months old.

Have you booked your flights already? I would imagine flying to Singapore you will have at least a partial night flight on the way out, I think all of my flights to the Far East have involved some night time flying but daytime on the way back.

I would book him his own seat if you can, the space will make a big difference to you and give him somewhere to lay down to sleep. If this is not possible you should be able to pre book the bulk head seats with the cots, or reclining seats. Even if he is too big to fit in these it's worth trying to get the seats as they will give you some extra space. I would definitely call the airline a way before you fly to sort out your seating, you would think that they would automatically put you in child friendly seats but no, they really don't! Some airlines are a complete sh*t shambles when it comes to their seating arrangements!

Eating: If you can book a seat for him you could just feed him snacky finger food in his seat, I would imagine this would be easiest. Airline staff are very helpful and will usually heat anything up for you if you want to give him a hot meal. It's a good idea to try and get a decent meal into him at the airport if you can, then you know he's had one good meal at least!

Breastfeeding - If you are able to book him a seat then if you are flying on a 747 it would probably be worth checking in online if your airline allows it and trying to get three seats on the window sides of the plane, this way you could tuck yourself away at the window and bf - if you OH reads a paper or something I doubt anyone would be able to see what you were doing. I guess if you can't tuck yourself away at all then you may get some funny looks but hopefully not! Have OH on the lookout ready to shoot them down with some serious "Say anything I kill you" type of looks :-)

Be prepared to spend quite a bit of time walking up and down the plane! You will have to do this! I found it helped if OH and I just took short half hour to 45 min shifts each.

Before you go buy some new toys and books, whatever he is into etc and bring these out at intervals during the flight. He may be too excited to play for long but I definitely found the novelty of new toys and books did help to entertain Erin for a while!

If there is turbulence he will have to be sat on your lap and clipped in with one of the seat belt extenders. If he has his own seat I am not sure at his age they may still make you have him on your lap. If he is sleeping and the seatbelt sign comes on you will also have to strap him to you or in his seat.

Errr what else?!

Ignore any "one piece of hand luggage restrictions". If you are travelling with an infant you can always take an extra bag for them, no one at security ever checks this anyway!

If by any chance you haven't booked your flight yet then it would be worth looking at flying via the Middle East, the two seven/eight hour flights with a couple of hours break in the middle are a great way to fly out to the Far East. a twelve hour flight gets a little long towards the last two or three hours!

If I can think of anything else I will come back and add more!

Oh and have a wonderful time! x

Ahhhh thank you all SO SO much! Amazing advice here. I really was clueless, I didn't even know there was a seatbelt extender

Brilliant tips about new toys/books and calling the airline to try and book the seats with the most room. Unfortunately we can't afford to book him a seat, we'd love to but it's not possible at the moment. It should be ok as he still naps on me and is a very cuddly toddler so it shouldn't be too bad.

I really do appreciate all of your help and I'll be back with more questions as and when I think of them so if you can help again I'll be eternally grateful!

For all those waiting to go away, I hope you have a lovely time!

I've never heard of cots on a plane where do they put them!? I've never done a long haul flight, nevermind with a toddler! But both times we've flown, and with the holiday we've just booked, children under 2 have to sit on their parent's lap and don't get a seat of their own. Not sure if this is different long haul though. Once you're up in the air and the seatbelt signs go off he'll be allowed to roam around (well up and down the aisle!). I wouldn't worry about BF'ing hun, I doubt anyone will see you do it anyway. If anyone gives you funny looks ask them if they want some caring is sharing and all that! x

i've done a search and this is what the children seats look like in BA and Virgin.
virgin, which you get if you book an extra seat:
virgin_seat.jpg
ba, you get regardless:
british_airways_bassinet.jpg