Christmas down under

We have finally plucked up the courage to fly long haul with O for the first time and are going to spend Christmas in Adelaide with the in-laws. Having gotten over my nerves about the flight, I was starting to look forward to the prospect. Hitting Boomer beach, lunch at the Flying Fish, taking O to feed kangaroos and pet Koalas in Clelland Park, wandering down Norwood Parade for gelati and iced coffees, buying goodies from the Central Markets, barbecues, lots of lovely Barossa valley wine and just generally chilling out in my in-laws newly renovated lovely house and garden. Not to mention catching up with our favourite, favourite friends Nick, Sheree and Jack.

But then we took a trip to Austravel, and horrors of horrors my favourite airline, Singapore, is fully booked already! I am quite a nervous flyer, but have had so many good flights with them, I would have felt really reassured that flying with them would make O's maiden long haul flight as comfortable as it could be. Argh, what to do! It's looking like we are going to have to go with Malaysia. We've flown them before, and they were ok, service not quite up to Singapore, food not as good but not bad. My main beef was that the planes were older and a bit tatty. And they didn't have on-demand tv. The travel review sites do still award them a 5 star ranking, and the customer reviews aren't bad. But I'd still rather we were able to spend our money with Singapore!

Does anyone out there have any recent experiences of Malaysia long haul? Or any tips on long haul with pre-schoolers?