SN Brussels - questionable policy or "fare's fair"?

[Bus429]

Booked NCL/HEL/NCL (via BRU) for departure 29th Mar, return April 9th. Could not make departure on 29th for reasons beyond my control and travelled later by other means. However, I am in a position to make the return sector on April 9th but learn that SN Brussels have cancelled the booking on the basis that "...I did not fly out so how could I fly back?" I have four separate coupons for each NCL-BRU-HEL-BRU-NCL sector so how can they cancel the return sectors?
SN Brussels also advise that, due to the fare basis, I have no chance of compensation.
SAS, Finnair and even KLM are happy to honour return sectors without having made the outbound - why not SN Brussels?
Is this policy legal?

[BRUpax]

They are well within their rights depending on the type of ticket. If it's a discounted roundtrip ticket the rule will apply. The reason is that one-ways are so expensive that it is not unusual for pax to book a return for a much lesser fare. You can get away with it if it's the return you don't use, but not when you fail to use the outbound. If you are on a non-flexible ticket and you fail to show for the outbound, all subsequent sectors will be cancelled automatically by the system. The same will apply with KLM, Finnair and SAS if the circumstances are as your situation with SN Brussels. Remember, type of ticket dictates the rules.

[Boss Raptor]

Most airline are the same, the reason being that anyone who was canny and/or had a good travel agent realised that to buy 2 return tickets and not using 2 of the sectors, on certain reduced/lower tariffs i.e. over a Saturday night etc., was cheaper than buying the individual 'real' return ticket which was at a much higher tariff/price

[MarkD]

bus429

this has been discussed on PPRuNe before - cancellation of the entire ticket is SOP on most airlines, especially if not contacted beforehand.

[Animalclub]

BUS429
If you'd cancelled your first sector and informed the airline there would not have been a problem. It appears that you no-shoed thus the airline unable to resell the seat and they assume that your whole itinerary would not be followed.

[skydriller]

I think this is just another example of the totally screwed up airline ticket system.....:*

It has always wound me up that buying a single ticket somewhere is always at least twice as expensive as buying a fixed return ticket. I knowingly perpetuate the system because in my line of work I always know the outbound date of travel, but the inbound date invariably changes or I dont know the return date until a few days before. So I have the choice of a buying single tickets, a flexible return ticket, or a fixed return.... It is Always cheaper to get two fixed return tickets and just not use the return portions than do either of the others.

You want an example?

The other day I was looking for flights BOD - AMS.

AF Single - over €850
AF Flexible Return - 800+, depending on route.
AF Fixed Return €275 - 350, depending on route.

Absolute f:mad:king madness,

What happens is that I no-show on half the flights I book, which then also perpetuates the overbooking policy of airlines etc. ad infinitum.....

[Bus429]

Thanks to all for replies. Colleagues of mine who also use SN have mentioned similar circumstances. One had a series of return tickets booked over a month or so (he commutes to BRU from MAN) and he missed one outbound sector and the whole series was cancelled (he got his bookings reinstated). Seems sharp practice to me, even if it is in the conditions.

[Globaliser]

skydriller: It has always wound me up that buying a single ticket somewhere is always at least twice as expensive as buying a fixed return ticket. I knowingly perpetuate the system because in my line of work I always know the outbound date of travel, but the inbound date invariably changes or I dont know the return date until a few days before. So I have the choice of a buying single tickets, a flexible return ticket, or a fixed return.... It is Always cheaper to get two fixed return tickets and just not use the return portions than do either of the others.Why don't you see if you can construct a fare combining a cheapie outbound with a flexible inbound? And if that doesn't work out cheaper than buying two cheapies and throwing away the return halves of both, the airline obviously cares relatively little if a non-changeable cheapie ticket no-shows because they've banked the revenue, they've only sold a limited number of cheapies, and they don't have to provide a seat for the no-show at a later time.