I have all my credit cards set to automatically withdraw the statement balance from from my checking account each month. This prevents me from ever getting charged interest or late fees. I suppose there are cases where it could be bad (i.e. if my card was stolen) but the avoidance of fees and interest is worth that risk to me.

Anyway, yes, this is getting off topic.

Re-reading the original post, one thing really stands out to me - that when the OP spoke to the right person, the whole thing was fixed in "under a minute".

How much of a risk is it that someone behind the counter will call the police if they "don't like your tone"? I'm genuinely curious, because it seems to me that we need to get more assertive. With a lot of the horror stories I've been reading recently, it seemed to me that people accepted the bad things passively, rather than standing up for themselves. I could be wrong, of course - I wasn't there in any of those cases. And of course, one should always start with respect and kindness. But when a smile and "Isn't there *anything* you can do for me?" fails, then we need to move to, "This is unacceptable," to "I'd like to speak with your supervisor," and then start over again. If I'm being mistreated, I have no problem raising my voice, though I will always keep my language polite: "This is entirely unacceptable. I reserved these tickets a month ago and now you are stranding me here in midflight? I've been a loyal customer of your airline for years, as the very fact that I was able to reserve this flight with miles should demonstrate. If you can't help me, please let me speak with someone that can," etc.

Really, it seems like it's mostly about finding the person that CAN help you, at least based on the OP. And as Marathon Man says, how can we do that? How can we find the person that can "make it right" in less than a minute, and speak with them? Any ideas?

-kirax2