There was an interesting article in the NY Times today that recounted Ralph Nader's effort to get US Airways to refund his money for a flight that he cancelled.

He basically wrote US Airways asking for a refund, was rebuffed several times, but when he mentioned that he would take the case to small claims court they relented and refunded his ticket plus the $150 fee he was charged to change the ticket.

The take away from the article was that people don't use small claims court enough to deal with unreasonable airline restrictions. I was wondering if anyone has had experience with this?

On the one hand, I could see the airline just wanting to get Nader off of their back and this might not translate to Joe Traveler. On the other hand, it might work for the average traveler since the airline might not want to deal with the hassle of court.