I thought about that so when I was buying the new return ticket I asked Continental if it would have made a difference if I had cancelled the last leg when I checked in for the earlier first leg flight. I was told that it would not and that I still would have had to pay for the change and the new return price. And that was something that kind of bothered me. Why would I have to pay more for not flying?

Something else I found odd was that the two days before the return I called to see if there were any seats available on a different flight. I gave them my confirmation number so they were looking at my itinerary. They never mentioned that my return ticket had been cancelled. I haven't figured that one out yet.