This is unfortunately exactly right. So it was indeed a total waste of time and we ended up with an overtired baby and even worse sleep than usual as a consequence.

The main guy I spoke to used to have the role I would have needed but they shut the ticket desks down, so now there’s literally nobody there at the airport that can do anything..

He did try and call in a pnr for an evoucher, but no success. I had already tried this in a panic anyway shortly after I realised my error. I admit I got pretty (non combatively) distraught, courtesy of seeing the total cost of the flights on his screen

Customer relations is now my only recourse.

I’m not sure if it will help or not to understand, but what exactly is the point of this policy? Maybe I can make a request that clearly avoids whatever issue they think no shows are creating that they believe warrants such an extreme penalty.

I’m not going to respond to the many comments absolving ba because of t+c which we have no hand in creating and no realistic option but to accept, beyond saying that it’s our collective British habit of accepting sh*t sandwiches that emboldens companies to keep serving them to us, and getting away with it. I guess I’m going to keep that tradition alive since I don’t have the energy and time to be the one taking a stand right now