Originally Posted by MKE-MR

Actually, given the choice between paying that kind of fee which I know that I will have extreme difficulties recovering later, I would absolutely be asking them to pull the bags, whether I travel or not. That kind of escalation (done politely, of course) will at least get it to a supervisory level within the ANA ground team, who might possibly have the brainpower or managerial discretion to resolve the situation on the spot.
Otherwise, we go down the denied boarding route, we generate lots and lots of paperwork for everybody, and we get at least $600 of entertainment value out of the various responses.

But no way would I pay this under any circumstance. There is such a low chance of getting it back since it falls into a "black hole" area of policy loophole for the airlines. Funny how good they are at plugging those when the benefit the pax, and yet they are "regrettable incidents" when they benefit the airline.