Top tips for flying long-haul with young children

I envy them. Having their own plane filled with personal staff would certainly make the 20-hour flight easier than the rest of us have it, CNN reports. For one, it's likely the royal staff don't roll their eyes in annoyance as Kate struggles to soothe George's wails, his little ears in pain due to changing air pressure. Nor does she have to beat the post-dinner in-flight pee rush and squeeze into a tiny washroom to change his royally soiled nappy. For most travelers, flying long haul with kids -- particularly babies -- stomps on any romantic notions of travel being about the journey, not the destination. As a Canadian mother who lives in Bangkok, Thailand, I've been taking my two boys -- now aged five and six -- on the 20-plus-hour multi-flight journey back home to see family annually since they were born. Here are a few key things I've learned along the way. 1. Before you go: Pre-order the kids' meals Your average long-haul flight -- say, journeys of more than eight hours -- still serves meals in economy class for free. That's where the good news ends. To be fair, airline food has improved in recent years. But not much. When you peel back the foil top of that hot rectangular dish, exclamations of "Man, I can't wait to dig into that grotesque mash-up of peas and rubbery chicken" rarely follow. And good luck trying to serve it to your average five-year-old. (Go ahead, tell me your child is a wonderful eater who loves rubbery poultry and hard peas. Liar.) Fortunately, many airlines allow you to order child's meals when you book your flight. This is essential -- they usually only bring as many meals as were ordered, so extras are rare. Sample dishes my kids have had on recent flights include macaroni and cheese, ravioli with tomato sauce and simple fried rice with pork. I wanted to trade, they weren't having it. 2. A bit of junk food is OK Yes, yes. Junk food is bad, the world is getting fat. But until you've experienced the horror of not sleeping in a bed for 30-plus hours because you promised your niece you'd fly from Bangkok to Cancun so your six-year-old could be a ring bearer in her wedding, you really can't judge a mom for letting her kids rip into a pack of Oreo cookies so she can have a few minutes of peace. On long-haul flights I always bring a few extra packs of snacks my kids are only allowed on rare occasions, along with their usual healthy goodies. But I avoid chocolate (messy) and other high-sugar items, for obvious reasons. Now is not the time for a sugar high, but neither is it an occasion to be too rigid about nutrition. Trust me, that little bag of potato chips is going to keep your kid quieter on those first critical moments of a flight than those organic/gluten-free/cranberry-flecked granola bars you whipped up a few hours earlier. Thai Airways even gives child fliers a metal cartoon-themed lunch box filled with a chocolate bar, a big juice box, gummy candies and cookies. I know. They're evil. Regardless of what you feed your kids, the chewing makes the air pressure changes easier on their ears. Details also at