The expert view

The expansion plans of low-cost airlines such as Norwegian and Wow show that the demand for long-haul leisure travel is growing fast. It’s a trend confirmed by the results of our survey of Telegraph Travel readers, published earlier this month. Travelling to 16 of your top 20 favourite countries involves a flight of more than 12 hours. Only one – Italy – is less than eight hours away. While we clearly love these destinations when we get there, the flight itself is almost always something to be endured rather than enjoyed. But there is still a lot you can do to make longhaul flying more bearable. Here are a few examples, learnt from hard experience.

Choose the right airline The top three for long-haul travel, as rated by readers in our awards, were Emirates (emirates.com), Singapore Airlines (singaporeair.com) and Air New Zealand (airnewzealand.co.uk). For useful detail on legroom and ratings for all airlines, see airlinequality.com.

Stopover If you can plan your trip to include a stopover of a night or two – possible for most routes of 12 hours or more – you will enhance your holiday experience and make the journey more bearable. Book through a reputable agent, such as DialAFlight or Trailfinders, and you can often save by including the cost of your stopover hotel as part of a “package” price along with the flight. They will also advise on the best routes and best-value stopovers.

Upgrade one way Flying in premium economy or business class will give you more legroom, better food, and, hopefully, more attentive service, but is obviously much more expensive than an economy-class flight. A more affordable compromise is to upgrade in one direction only, especially if it’s a leg that involves an overnight flight. Again, agents can provide a useful overview of offers on upgrades.

Travel by day I generally try to book daytime rather than overnight flights. It may mean “losing” a day, but you suffer less sleep deprivation, so you will gain in the end.

Fly around the world If you are heading to Australia or New Zealand – or even to Japan or the Far East – booking a roundthe-world ticket can be good value compared with a standard return. It also lets you fly in a westerly direction (for example, crossing the Atlantic on the first leg). For most people, this makes jet lag easier to cope with.

Adjust for jet lag The best ways to mitigate jet lag are: drinking water not alcohol, taking regular breaks from your seat, setting your watch for the time in your destination before take-off, and trying to stay awake until at least mid-evening on arrival.

40 minutes late in Dallas and the gate was closed by the time she arrived for the Wichita flight. Because it was not her fault she was rebooked on the next flight free of charge.

However, when she arrived back at Wichita Airport on December 13 for the return journey, there was no record of her flight reservation. The situation could not be resolved and we had to pay £990 for a single ticket back to Edinburgh.

When we collected Emily, we spoke to staff on the British Airways desk at Edinburgh airport. They told us that this should never have happened. Her missed flight should have been cancelled and the rebooked section added to her original return flight booking. They said we should take this up with BA’s customer services.

When we took this up with BA, we were told that, as Emily was a no-show on the Wichita flight, the rest of her travel itinerary had been cancelled and there was nothing they could do for us other than offer a refund on the unused part of her ticket. This would have to be processed through the agent, Expedia.

We fully appreciate that airline policy is to cancel the remainder of a ticket if you count as a no-show. But Emily did show, although a few minutes late. We feel that the whole thing was a mistake by the American Airlines representative at Dallas airport who rebooked Emily on another flight without cancelling the one she missed.

We have asked Expedia, as our agent, to help us argue our case with BA but with no success so far. Can you help? ALASDAIR AND ALISON AIRD

AThis was clearly a clerical error made by the American Airlines gate agent and you should not have to pay for it. As British Airways and American Airlines are partners, it shouldn’t be beyond them to organise a refund of the new ticket you were forced to buy, even though it was processed via Expedia, which complicates matters.

Usually in such cases the agent simply updates the reservation to reflect the changed flight. As Expedia didn’t seem to be getting anywhere with BA, I asked the airline to raise the matter with its customer services department.

It has now agreed to refund the cost of the new flight. The airline says that it is introducing a policy of contacting customers direct by email when they appear not to have checked in for a flight to remind them that their subsequent flights are cancelled.

In the meantime, if you do miss a connection, it is important to check with the airline’s online booking manager within a few days of the flight to ensure the rest of your itinerary has not been cancelled.

Questions should be sent by email to asktheexperts@ telegraph.co.uk. Please provide your name and nearest town and, if your query is about a dispute with a travel company, your full address, daytime telephone number and any booking reference. We regret that we cannot answer postal or telephone queries.