Can They Do This?

[Icntoan]

I wonder if anyone has any useful tips re cancelling flights.

i originally booked returned flights via an airline.

Unfortunately due to an emergency we were unable to fly out as planned. I had checked in online. Out of courtesy, we let the airline know we were unable to fly but that we wanted to keep the return flight as we hoped to be able to fly out a bit later than planned but still enjoy at least some of our holiday. However, the airline subsequently phoned us to say that they would not keep our return flight booking unless we paid over an extra £300 for the privilege. I am absolutely gob smacked. These flights were booked in Jan so they have had our money all this time. These were business class flights to Nice from Heathrow. We refused to pay, especially as we were still unsure if we would get to go at all so certainly we were not prepared to loose even more money. 
 

I am trying to raise a complaint with the airline for our treatment but it is extremely difficult and they closed mY case without even offering a proper apology.

They now have our seats for sale at 1400 euros. It just really doesn't feel right or fair. I wish I had never contacted them.

Thanks

[douglas9401]

I think if you had just turned up for the return flight having not used the outbound portion of your ticket you'd have been refused boarding for breaching the terms of your contract with the company.

[Pete65]

Why should the airline apologise?

They did nothing wrong.

[237SJ]

If you don't turn up for the outbound flight, the booking will be cancelled.  If you price outbound and inbound flights, one price is dependent on the other so one way flights tend to be more expensive per sector than returns hence the increase in price.

[Canary42]

Did you take out cancellation insurance ?

[Icntoan]

We have travel insurance but don't think we are covered as it was due to an emergency with a pet. We will check. I still don't understand why we should be charged more just because we missed the outbound flight. We had paid for both flights in full. Why does it cancel the contract if we don't use one of the flights? So if you miss your flight due to being stuck in traffic, are you saying that they could cancel your booking? 
 

[237SJ]

Yes it does unfortunately.