Continuing this fascinating conversation with myself!

Oh dear, and it was going so well but now........!!!

Like an idiot, I asked the question about why one leg of the return (HVB-BNE) was unavailable if my outbound featured MEL. However if I avoided MEL on the outbound ie flew non stop to BNE from DXB, then the HVB-BNE return leg is showing as available and I get quoted a price.

They say it is because I cannot book to HVB on the same ticket. Hmmmmmmm!!

I have just pointed out that I actually booked and flew to and fro HVB (LHR-BNE-HVB-HVB-BNE-LHR) with all flights on the same booking reference/ticket in May and June.

Not surprisingly, I await the response with considerable interest.