BA’s ‘no-show’ clause cost me £9,000 for new flights

We cut out one leg of our journey, but a clause allows airlines to cancel a whole journey if a passenger misses just one leg To celebrate my 60th birthday, we used an inheritance to book flights from Glasgow to Mexico City via Heathrow, where our son was to join us. We worried that the transfer time of 90 minutes at Heathrow would be tight, given that there had been storms that week, so in the end, my husband, daughter and I instead took a train from Glasgow the night before. But when we showed our boarding passes at security, we were informed that, as three of us had not taken the Glasgow flight, our tickets were now invalid, including the return leg. Since our son’s flight originated in London, he was unaffected. We were left with a desperate decision to make: should we send our student son alone to Mexico and buy new return flights at twice the original price, or give up our trip. In the end we maxed out our credit cards to spend a further £9,000 on new tickets. We were forced to fly the following day as we were told there was no availability on our original flight, despite the fact that my son travelled with three empty seats behind him. BA’s wordy e-ticket confirmation do

May 18, 2026 → May 18, 2026