How long is a child's passport valid?

Five years for under-16s in most countries, and it cannot be renewed early to reset the clock. The five years runs from the date of issue rather than from a birthday. Combined with the entry rules many countries apply, that makes the practical life of a child's passport shorter than the number on it, and it is one of the most common reasons a family trip falls over before it starts.

What is the six month passport rule?

Many countries require a passport to have at least six months of validity remaining beyond your travel dates, and airlines enforce it at the gate. For an adult with a ten year passport that is a minor detail. For a child on a five year passport it effectively shortens the usable life to about four and a half years, which is why families get caught.

Is a stopover better than a direct flight with children?

On journeys over about fifteen hours, usually yes, and for a specific reason: it breaks the sleep problem into two manageable halves rather than one impossible one. A one-night stopover also lets everyone shower and lie flat. The cost is an extra set of airport transitions, which with a toddler is not nothing, so under about twelve hours fly direct.

Should we fly overnight with children?

If they sleep in strange places, an overnight is the best flight you will ever take. If they do not, it is the worst, because you arrive having had no sleep at all and then face a full day. Be honest about which child you have rather than which one you would like, and consider a daytime flight plus an early night on arrival.

How do you handle jet lag with kids?

Get outside in daylight at the destination as early as you can, keep the first day gentle and outdoors, and push through to a normal local bedtime rather than allowing a late afternoon nap. Expect roughly a day of adjustment for each hour or two of time difference, and expect eastward travel to be harder than westward for children as it is for adults.

Long haul flights with kids, and the passport that expires sooner than you think

Long haul with children, from the stopover decision to jet lag, plus the child passport rule that quietly makes a five year document last four and a half.

Priya Nair · Updated 3 Sep 2026 · 5 min read

Photo · Thomas · Pexels

Long haul with children is two problems, and only one of them is the flight. The flight is a sleep problem you can plan around. The other one is paperwork, and it is the one that stops families at the check-in desk.

Check the children's passports before you check the prices. A child's passport is valid for five years in most countries for under-16s, it runs from the date of issue rather than a birthday, and it cannot be renewed early to reset the clock.

Now add the six month rule: a large number of countries require at least six months of validity beyond your travel dates, and airlines enforce it at the gate. That makes the usable life of a child's five year passport closer to four and a half years.

A passport issued when a child was three is technically valid when they are seven, and can still be refused at a border if the trip falls inside the last six months. Look at the expiry date today, not the week before you fly. Renewals can take weeks, and the entry requirement databases airlines check at the gate are the same ones you can look at yourself.

The stopover decision

Under about twelve hours: fly direct. The extra airport transition costs more than it buys.

Over about fifteen hours: consider breaking it, and the reason is not comfort, it is structure.

A single twenty-two hour journey is one unsolvable sleep problem. Two flights with a night in the middle is two ordinary ones, plus a shower, a lie-flat bed and a swim.

Where the useful stopovers are, on the routes between Australia or New Zealand and Europe: Singapore, Dubai, Doha, Bangkok, Hong Kong. All are within a few hours of the halfway mark and all have airports built for exactly this.

Singapore and Dubai are the two we would choose with children, because both airports are genuinely pleasant to be stuck in and both cities are easy for a one-night stop. Singapore with kids and Dubai with kids cover what to do with the day if you make it two nights, and one day in Singapore has the layover version including how long you need to leave the airport.

The honest cost of a stopover: two descents rather than one, two security queues, and a hotel night. With a baby under one, that trade is often not worth it. With a three to eight-year-old, it usually is.

Booking the flight itself

Seat selection is the whole game and it is worth paying for. A family split across the cabin on a fourteen hour flight is a genuinely bad night, and airlines do not reliably seat families together for free.

Bulkhead rows have the bassinet points and more floor space, and they also have fixed armrests and no under-seat storage. With a baby, take them. With a five-year-old, do not.

Avoid the very back if you can, because it is louder and the toilets are busiest there, and take the row in front of a galley over the row behind one.

Overnight or daytime? Be honest about the child you have. A child who sleeps in strange places makes an overnight the best flight of your life. A child who does not makes it the worst, because you land having had none at all and then face a full day. A daytime flight plus an early night on arrival is the underrated option.

The twelve hours themselves

Structure it in blocks rather than trying to fill it. A long flight with children has a natural shape: eat, screen, sleep, wake, eat, land.

Feed on the ascent and the descent. The descent is the one that hurts and it starts about forty minutes before landing. Flying with a toddler has the mechanism and the fix.

Screen time rules go out of the window and that is fine. Download everything before you leave; seat-back systems fail and aircraft wifi is not a plan.

Change a baby before the cabin lights go down, not after, when there will be a queue for the one changing table.

Move. A walk to the back galley every couple of hours is worth more than any toy, for everyone.

A change of clothes for every person including the adults. The adult spare is the one people leave out and the one they need.

Landing, and the first forty-eight hours

Jet lag with children is mostly a light problem.

Get outside in daylight as early as you can on the first day. Daylight is the signal that resets the clock, and it does more than any amount of determination.

Keep day one gentle and outdoors. A park, a beach, a walk. Not a museum, not a booked timed entry, not a queue.

Resist the late afternoon nap and push through to a normal local bedtime, even a slightly early one. A 4pm sleep costs you the night.

Expect roughly a day of adjustment per hour or two of difference, and expect eastward travel to be harder than westward, which is true for children as it is for adults.

Accept the 3am wake-up for the first two nights. Have something quiet ready for it rather than fighting it.

What this costs, and where the money goes

The seat for an under-two is the big decision. An international lap infant typically costs about ten per cent of the adult fare plus taxes, and a full seat costs a child fare. On a long-haul the gap is substantial and the sleep is real.

Seat selection fees for four people on two flights each way add up to more than people expect, and are close to unavoidable if you want to sit together.

A stopover night is a hotel, transfers and a meal.

Where you should not economise: insurance that covers medical care at the destination, and enough time between connecting flights. Ninety minutes is not enough with children. Three hours is comfortable, and a missed connection with a family is the most expensive mistake on this page.

What to skip

Booking before checking the children's passport expiry dates.

A ninety minute connection.

Bulkhead seats with an older child who wants to put things under the seat in front.

An overnight flight with a child who does not sleep away from home.

A packed first day at the destination.

Relying on the airline to seat you together.

Before you book

Flying with a toddler covers the seat, the harness and the descent in detail, and the family packing list has the cabin bag and the liquid rules for milk and medicine. How to plan a family trip is the method behind the whole desk.

For the destinations at the end of a long flight: Thailand with kids, Vietnam with kids, Bali with kids, Japan with kids and Fiji with kids are the long-haul family guides on this desk, and there is more in the with kids hub. Check entry rules for your own passports at the same time as the expiry dates, because they are the same conversation.

Passport validity rules and airline practice checked September 2026. Validity periods and entry requirements are set by individual governments and change, so your own passport authority and the destination's rules are the sources to check rather than any guide, this one included. Here is how we research and re-check guides.