That's good to know about how long reservations usually last for. Someone has mentioned it to me briefly but I hadn't had it confirmed. That's the kind of helpful information I needed. Thank you Prospero. Unfortunately in this case the BA flights didn't auto cancel or drop out after a few days. They were there in our accounts from when they added them in November until someone deleted them on Friday. Obviously I have the paper trail to prove it.

If anyone had contacted me to ask about payment or suddenly deleted them from our accounts I would have known there was an issue and they weren't booked as a result of our complaint. Those flight bookings may not be connected in a conventional booking sense but to us - them appearing out the blue after we had complained - misled us to book our whole trip around them.