My feeling is that there is something more to this story that we don't know, so I'll refrain from blaming.
Originally Posted by
djohannw
One more thing that seems strange to me on this...my understanding of airline tickets is that every coupon has it's own status - once issued and paid it goes to open, then moves to "airport control" once it is used to check-in for the segment, and finally once the flight is boarded (so once you pass the scanner) it moves to "flown". Also my understanding is that a ticket can only be voided when the coupon status is either "open" or "airport control", so unless the agency got someone at UA to manually revert the coupon from flown (as the passenger was on board already) to either open or airport control, they should not be able to cancel the ticket.
I remember checking Saudi's website for my ticket after boarding a UA flight and while boarding was still ongoing and the coupon was still under airport control. It was "flown" when I checked again after landing. So maybe the change from airport control to flown isn't immediate. It could happen in batches during boarding, or in one batch before or after the door closes, or even later when the plane is off the ground. So maybe the ticket was voided during boarding, and the GA noticed when she closed the flight and the system threw an error when reconciling the coupons. If the TA really thought it was fraud, AND they really tried to call the pax until the last minute and canceled when they couldn't reach the pax, this could have been what happened (but this is speculation).
However, I always thought that "airport control" meant that the TA would have to at least contact the entity that had "control" of the coupon, here the "airport", to confirm the cancelation.
Originally Posted by
chermorg
To my understanding a ticket is "valid" and can thus be "modified" until the time the last leg of the ticket has been fully
A ticket is valid for one year from the date on which transportation commences at the point of origin, or, if no portion of the ticket is used, one year from the date of issuance.