Outbound flight not taken, return cancelled?
 

If you have a return flight, but for some reason don't use the first outbound leg, does the return and other onward flights on the same booking get cancelled?

Yes, the entire booking will be canceled if you are a 'no show' on the first or any subsequent segments.

As Andriyko said, yes, the entire booking is automatically cancelled and BA don't seem to tell you about it either.

Unfortunately, that is what will happen indeed.

I usually book 2 x one ways for that very reason, unless the fare difference justifies a return booking, as is normally the case with long haul.

Thank you all. So, I have a discounted economy booking man-lhr-las return.

The las-lhr leg just got availability for a business seat. I can't upgrade due to the fare class of my economy ticket. So, I can grab the business seat, but when I get to lhr the final leg will be cancelled.

I'm assuming that there's no way to "hold" the final leg given that I will still be on the same flight, albeit on a different ticket.

You will end up losing all subsequent legs if you don't fly one of the legs, unfortunately. I do not believe there is any way round it.

Regardless of the fare class you can't upgrade using Avios to Business (CW) from economy (WT) anyway, as you need to be in WT+ (premium economy) to be able to upgrade to business.

It seems an inefficient way to do things - but why not "grab" a ticket all the way back to MAN ?

What comeback from the airline is there if you book a return but only fly the outward leg? BA (and KLM /Alitalia) often have one-ways for 3 times more than a return so just do a no-show for the second leg. If I cancelled the return rather than did the no-show option would BA charge me for the full single ticket (all in ET if that makes a difference).

They are well within their right to charge you for a full fare single, should you cancel the return sector. However, in reality, I would just no show for the return sector if I knew I was not going to take it, and not inform BA.

Nope. The only time they re-instate sectors is if you provided an extremely good force majeure. I once had a flight from NCL to an obscure airport on NZ's South Island. Fog hit Newcastle, the first flight was cancelled, but I got to LHR with 2 hours to spare for my HKG sector, thanks to the train. The system had automatically cancelled the entire booking, there and back. In that 2 hours they (3 staff) just, only just, got me re-instated as far as Sydney, and then asked the back office to sort out the rest (which did happen). It was amazingly difficult to do.

Technically incorrect. You can do it on AA flights, and on BA flights on the A321

If you're splitting hairs, AA don't have a CW cabin... :p

I think most airlines have this policy. Once my son and I missed our flight, and we were connecting. He had on pnr while my ticket was on 2. Thanks to HB's help we reroute s through another country... I guess it is too complicated to post the whole thing here. Anyway when we finally reached the connecting airport, my son's ticket was cancelled. We had to buy him a new one.

I was in this situation, booked a new return ticket with avios as I had 24 hours to spare. Then, the return flight from EDI was delayed, because one pax was somehow checked in twice... So on this occasion I need not have arranged a new ticket and could have just showed up with my original BP.

Can anyone show me on BA.com where in writing it states that is you no show for outbound the return flight/entire booking is cancelled?

https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb...ns-of-carriage

3c2 in the Conditions of Carriage would seem to cover it:

I shall now withdraw and let the lawyers fight over whether such clauses are fair/enforceable/etc

The LH website now seems to allow you to choose whether you'd like a ticket that can be used out of sequence in a similar way the BA site allows you to choose whether you'd like flexibility. I've not had time to draw comparisons on the fares being quoted there but I'd be as bold as to suggest opting for a ticket that can be used out of sequence will cost more than one that cannot.

I'm pretty sure that checking that box prices the itinerary as full fare one way tickets (YY fare basis) so you could then use them in any order. So for a Vienna-Frankfurt-Amsterdam return ticket, you're buying four separate flexible one ways. Even then, if you simply no-show without cancelling, I think you loose the value of that segment.

I'm sure someone posted such a comparison with the out of sequence ticket double the price..

The court case also gave the airline the right to reprice the passenger's itinerary based on what he flew and the changes he operated. It is only the actual cancellation that was deemed disproportionate.

Not quite.

German courts have ruled that a carrier must offer to sell a ticket which does not require that the segments be flown in the order issued. However, the court expressly did not require that such tickets be sold at the same price. Thus, if you purchase from a German POS, you may purchase such a ticket. However, the pricing is generally astronomically higher than what standard tickets cost for the same route and otherwise same conditions. There may be some limited instances where purchasing one of these special tickets makes sense, but I have yet to find one.

Spain has recently suggested the same. However, the pricing issue is still fluid. But, nothing in the Spanish court decision appears to prohibit carriers from selling tickets with segment-skipping flexibility at a premium.

The bottom line is that this is an interesting academic debate with precious little value in the real world.

I am not saying they would tbh, but doesn't this condition say exactly that? Probably more relevant for long haul where a one way can easily be a lot more than booking a return and throwing the return leg away.

https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb...ns-of-carriage

The question asked in both the thread OP and the later post #15 seems to be "if you no show for a segment then are subsequent segments cancelled?"

There are no YY fares anymore