It seems that the EU Parliament, yesterday, approved revisions to EU air passengers rights rules, hopefully effective in 2015. One of which is to ban the current airline practice of cancelling all remaining flights on a ticket if you miss a flight. So if you miss the outbound flight you would still be able to use the return flight rather than also lose it as you currently do.
Yes it should mean exactly what you said about being able to buy a ticket for A to B to C that is cheaper than B to C (due to airline marketing) and get on at B, which the airlines will absolutely hate, I am sure that more than few brown envelopes filled with euros will be changing hands to try and stop this.
All the relevant info can be found in this page in the web of the European Parliament. (BTW, don't overlook the "next steps" part).
P.S.: I recall a court in Spain ruled against Iberia for that practice but I also recall an online complaint of someone who had been affected by that practice after that court judgment...
I used to benefit from no-shows using stand-by tickets for employees and family members on several intercontinental flights (with stopovers). I waited and checked-in as the last passenger, with little comfort and much thrill.
With the new EU policy all those travel opportunities would disappear instantly.
In my opinion A-B-C shouldn't be different from A-C. Why would any carrier have to keep an empty seat, even if paid, through the entire flight (train or bus)including return trip, if another person might use it along the way?
If you buy a return ticket, you pay for it right, what is the Airline losing by you not showing up to use the return leg, you lose out because you do not use something you have already paid for, but what do they lose?
The bottom line is surely this, what do the airlines lose?
The answer is no matter what way you look at it is nothing.
#5 if you do not show up for the return leg then the airline can only cancel that, because you have already flown the outbound leg, but that is not what is changing, it is that if you do not show up for the outbound leg then they cannot cancel the return leg as well as the outbound leg which is what they now do.
#7 nothing is changing about the airline being able to cancel, without compensation, the legs that you do not fly, the change is only that they now cannot cancel without compensation the legs that you do want to fly simpley because you missed an earlier leg.
#8 your contention that singles are exactly half the price of a return is only true on short haul flights in the EU, look at any long haul flight and you will see it is completely false.
The reason this was brought in, was years back it used to be much cheaper to buy a return than a single ticket so people would buy a return ticket with the intention of only using it one way. So its really an old law that does not really matter these days as singles are normally exactly half the price of a return.