My son is 8 years old and has never slept on a flight or in any kind of travel. We’re going for our first long haul flight setting off at 9pm.
Any tricks to get him to sleep as otherwise he’ll be exhausted on arrival and mess up the next few days?
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Alcohol?
I’ll see myself out …
Ours also never slept on any flights. Switzerland to Australia and back a couple of times, CH to US West coast, etc.
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The chances are that the cabin will be dimmed and quiet, and at 8 years old, he’ll figure out that he should be doing what everyone else is doing. I would also put a limit on screens, say let him have an hour while they are still wired from getting on the flight, they may also be serving dinner, etc.
Take some books, colouring stuff and other slightly “mundane” activities that will get boring eventually.
Finally, don’t beat yourself up if there’s not much sleep. Kids catch up after a night or so, max.
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Yeah, but what about the parents? 
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Muhahahaha!
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We took our boys (5 & 7 at the time) ZRH-SYD return in February. Not much you can do, but as long as they have a screen in front of them they will be quiet, and will sleep in their normal rythym.
I suggest bringing your own (simple) food for them so that a) you can feed them before meal service and b) avoid hunger if they don’t want to eat airline food (can’t blame them).
Oh, and you can get inflatable cushions for kids to fill the gap between the seat cushion and the chair in front. This allows most kids to lie flat (at an angle)
The worst thing for us was the SYD-ZRH flight, as it left at 6pm and arrived at 8am. With only marginal sleep an the filghts, the kids fell asleep at 2pm on arrival day…we weren’t far behind them. I think we adjusted in 2hr increments over the following days.
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Melatonine (at the right dose)
@Your_Full_Name … You were faster than me on proven (yet alternative) methods 
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Opps:laughing:
Well alcohol does the job passout