Originally Posted by
love_to_travel
+1
Instead of blaming the OP wouldn't it be better to help him find a solution?
I second the suggestion to send a PM to UA Insider, hopefully Aaron can help.
This isn't one of those disasters where there's no seat to be had because it involves a lap child. All that's needed is for OP to either pay the $1,800 or cancel. To repeat, he is no better nor no worse off and it's water under a bridge whether he loused up or UA loused up.
If this had worked smoothly, OP would have been quoted miles + $1,800 and either paid that or not and been ticketed or not. But, it didn't work smoothly, so he's being asked to pay the $1,800 now. There's no difference.