Originally Posted by
Adam Smith
If AC cancels the outbound, they may cancel the return at the same time. If they don't, you can easily have them refund it. Assuming this is a round trip booking - one of the (some would say few) times where a round trip booking is handy even though the price may have been the same as two one-ways.
To expand on this, the distinction for the consumer is if the ticket is "booked as" a round trip, not if it was "priced as" a round trip.
For example, in NA, tickets are priced as one-way, but if round trip is booked together, AC (
et all) will take care of you as a trip, e.g. if the outbound is delayed 24 hours they should let you delay your return by 24 hours (same time away), or if its a short trip, they should let you cancel (and refund) the return.
Under non-strike conditions, if they cancel an outbound, you'd get rebooked for "the next flight", they would happily adjust the return, within reason. I don't know what the default would be with these dangling returns, but I'd imagine the options will be reasonably consumer friendly.