Thanks for the tip, I had not thought trying things that way and in going to see if I could do just that, the price for 1 ticket came down to the original ticket of $3,300, I just emailed the Wife as she is probably sleeping still and told her that I bought her a ticket on DELTA for the lower price of $3,300 and that she can go ahead and refund the ticket on Cathay.

Thanks for giving me the impetus to check DELTA.com again!
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With regards to a legit ticket consolidator vs. a person masquerading as a ticket consolidator using miles (potentially even stolen miles) how is the customer to even know to check that the ticket is not legit in the eyes of the airline (obviously the airline contacting them would be the big one)? I am more clued in than most, especially from reading this thread and others like and I sort of knew the pitfalls to look out for, but I would wager if I stopped random people at the Hospital where I work not too many of them would know nor care how their ticket was funded, all they would know they have a ticket for X location and that they paid X amount of dollars for it.

Now they get a call from the Airline Fraud Investigator, their tickets are cancelled and while they did not do anything wrong they still are punished by having the tickets cancelled (that they paid money in good faith for) or as another member said maybe evening being stranded in X location and then having to pay X amount of dollars more to get home.

I completely understand it is NOT the Airline's fault and that they are just doing their jobs, but I would hope that the Airline realizes it may not be the passengers fault either, though I am sure that the Corporate Security folks have probably heard every excuse in the book.

I am sure that AMEX would have made us whole (in our scenario) if had gone with the "consolidator" and subsequently found out that the tickets were acquired in a method against the airline's rules, but my Wife and I would still have a lump of coal to deal with in trying to figure out how to get tickets last minute within our budget.

Is it just a case of caveat emptor?