I suspect this is what most of us would have to do in practice. Pay the extortionist fee and then put a charge-back through at the credit card company. This process is a nightmare, and I was told frequently that you can "never" charge-back an air ticket, under any circumstances. I had to do it once in the 1990s, and it took over a YEAR for the charge to be removed. I was pretty much subjected monthly or more often to threats from the creditor and at one point I was certain we'd all end up in court. Not fun. But you gotta do what you gotta do.
It could not be handled at the time of the flight no matter how polite or how tearful or how loudly you raised your voice. I didn't try the yelling, but I saw others in the same mess try it without success. I stuck with being courteous and very, very sad. But if the agent is determined to be nasty and to imagine that she is being threatened, at some point, there is nothing you can do but go along to get along and file a complaint later. And this was way before 911. I can't imagine that the situation would be any easier to deal with on site today.
Originally Posted by
Marathon Man
I have a similar united horror story that nearly caused security to come over but in the end, I paid $2,000 for a new immediate ticket to get on what I was supposed to be on, and in 3 months' time, after much hell and pressing the issue with all parties, I had my money back with appologies and flight vouchers to boot. It sucked though, lemme tell ya. I had to be the tenacious one.
at the airline desk I experienced lies from supervisors and others, and one employee told me "There IS nothing you or we can do sir, this airline is bankrupt anyway!"
yeah I almost lost it.