Airline won't help because "ticket was issued through a travel agent"
A lot of airlines I've noticed are doing this, saying that if you book through a travel agent, they won't help you. For tickets issued under their own stock.
It feels like 100% crap, considering all airlines suddenly are only interested if you OK paying any change fees.
Or in the case of airlines dealing with mistake fares, suddenly have no problem taking control of the ticket to cancel or downgrade passengers. (Alitalia *cough*)
Is this just a way of "punishing" passengers for not booking direct through them, by having them deal with Indian call centers from the shady/not-shady OTA they booked through, and double up on agency change fees?
Or are tickets issued from travel agents actually blocked from the airline for doing anything?
It seems to be no problem, when there's a schedule change and you deal directly with the airline. Nor is it a problem when you voluntary pay fees to change things. Or when you upgrade seats.
So, what is it?