Well. Obviously I do not know if they told me the truth, or if they had gotten certificates they were completely unaware of. But I believed them.

On the other hand, I am not sure why an representative would not grant them what they are entitled to.

• I can imagine a rep being poorly informed (and non CO employee). Or taking a "short-cut" because the required vouchers/certificates where not on hand. That might explain why they were asked to sign they had volunteered, when they had not?
• Would a rep have any incentives to pay out less than the entitled amount? Does it look bad on the rep's record if he/she pays out lots of compensation, or has a high number of IDBs (instead of VDBs)?

By the way they were very sweet.
- They said about Smisek that that he was a very young and handsome man . That was even after I told them he was from CO.
- They were initially very upset about airlines overbooking flights at all, but less so after I explained why airlines do it, and how it indirectly can lower the airfares we have to pay.
- The woman next to me also complained that her monthly expenses for health care (I think medicare premium) had gone up from (initially) $37 to $100+ this year. But accepted that price hikes of this magnitude are not unusual when one compares prices that are separated in time by 17 years!!!