I'm taking the family to Bozeman this summer — booked two tickets with cash and two tickets using my Amex companion pass. We booked slightly less than optimal schedules, because it saved us almost $300 combined.

This morning, we got an almost-two-hour schedule change so I was looking forward to using the schedule change to get on the flights I'd wanted from the beginning. And I was doubly motivated because taking a 3-year-old and 6-month-old on an 8 p.m. flight didn't strike me as fun (it had moved from a 5:45 departure to a 7:40 departure).

Called in, and the first agent tried to tell me I was not eligible for a new flight unless the change was more than four hours. I pressed very gently ("I thought it was just one hour?") — and was firmly rebuffed. Fine. I know how this is going to go. ("Well, I guess I was mistaken. Thanks so much for your help. Click.")

Call back five minutes later and get a lovely agent who processes my request within 5 minutes.

I know I'm not the first, and won't be the last, FTer to encounter incompetent airline reservation agents, but I still don't know how it happens. How do these airlines tolerate it?