[Paul]

Guess what? All airlines will cancel any remaining segments of an itinerary if you "no-show." Taking your business elsewhere or encouraging others to do so won't change this.

Guess what? You are completely wrong. I have already had the same situation with another company (and even a lowcost one, accidentally). I missed the outbound (in that case my fault - I was too late) and took another company for the outbound. My return flight was not influenced, why should it be. I am buying two tickets for two flights, there is no reason for the airline to cancel my reservation - except of an one-sided contract, as Jim has mentioned.

Did you bother to notify Austrian that you wouldn't be taking the AMS-VIE flight?

No, I did not notify them. Unfortunately, I did not read all the xxx pages of the rules&conditions (actually, I think I did it a few years ago but I have not remembered this rule) and I could not even think that I should do that and that the airline could cancel my reservation, without even letting me know! Perhaps you are a very frequent flyer or an airline employee but I can assure you that it is not normal for vast majority of people - I have already discussed it with quite a few people and nobody shared your "common sense point of view" and did not ever hear about this policy.

If they didn't fly to VIE on Austrian Airlines why should the airline hold their return reservation on the assumption they may have traveled there by some other means of transportation?

Because I paid for BOTH tickets?
Or do you think it is ok if the airline takes money for both ways, then cancels your return flight without letting you know, sells it to another customer and let you stuck at the airport?

They had two weeks from the initial no-show until the originally scheduled return and in all that time not a single phone call not even to re-confirm. They just showed up in VIE expecting their reservation to still be intact. Sorry it just doesn't work that way.

Yes, I did not know it does not work that way by Austrian, even though it worked that way by another company. I learned my lesson. Legally, Austrian is right (they had it in their rules) and I can do nothing about it. However, a company with even a minimal care for their customers would never cancel a flight without at least informing the customer. They can send me their advertisement but they cannot send me an important email about a flight cancellation?

Do you know why Austrian (in the near future Lufthansa) *really* does this? It is simple: it earns them a lot of money. The Austrian stuff admitted to us that these situations happen quite often and it was apparent they were very well trained for them. First they sell the flight to a customer. Then they cancel it and sell it once again. And finally, part of the customers stuck at the airport buy yet another ticket from them. Immediately after we were denied the check-in, we were sent from the check-in desk right to their sell point to buy new tickets. Is it not a great business? It would be extremely simple to send an email to inform the customer. However, if they informed or asked the customer, this great business would not work anymore. It is as simple as that.