One other option - you could buy a 1 way ticket from a consolidator, which is often just half the cost of the roundtrip (in contrast to a 1 way ticket purchased directly from the airline). You could then buy a 1 way ticket back when you are sure of your return date - also from a consolidator. You may not get miles on a consolidator ticket, however.

Actually that's not entirely correct.

It does depend on the ticket - most of BA's short haul routings are now changeable for a fee (having said that, I recently cancelled and rebooked because to do so was cheaper than the £60 change fee when I messed up a booking recently). Long-haul, different matter.

Since it's a BA/AC split, yes, seems more likely to be a long haul. But I thought I'd add the caveat anyway.

If other conditions are favorable you might just wait until you are ready to return home and show up and try to stand by with the ticket you could not originally make. If they let you on for less than it would cost to buy another ticket, possibly from another airline, then accept that and board.

Thanks for all the help!
Since everything is all still so uncertain I think I will buy the BA tickets and as the suggested-either make the return as scheduled or if that is not possible miss my return and go to the airport when I am able to go back and see what happens

Wirelessly posted (Palm Treo 650: BlackBerry9630/4.7.1.61 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

If you simply fail to show up for your return flight, your ticket will be cancelled for sure and there is no way they will let you just hop on any later flight, whether you offer to pay a change fee or not. That is a really bad idea. If you can't make the flight, you must call BA (or any airline) *in advance* of that flight to change the ticket. If you just don't show up, and don't tell them ahead of time that you need to change it, you will be a no-show and have no rights at all to a flight at a later date.

+1

And there are fares that are changeable only within a certain period, e.g. maximum stay 30 stays. Once pass the 30 days after the departure date, not changeable at all even with a fee.