Originally Posted by
bocastephen
There is no difference between an old ticket and a new ticket - availability is availability. They are either full of crap, incompetent, or there is something in their own system that is designed to withhold inventory from rebooking so they can sell new tickets and claim commission - if so, this is a blatant violation of GDS rules.
They are absolutely full of crap. The agents (and supervisors) are incompetent and work off a script. If you get one who's willing to try and help, you can often walk them through the process and get to the right result, but it seems in this case that (a) OP has not reached that agent (and also may not have the knowledge/confidence level to parse through their bs), and (b) the ticket status is now so royally screwed-up that no one there knows how to fix it. So they just make up a bunch of bs and try to get you off the phone as fast as they can. Just kick the can down the road and make it someone else's problem.
You need to get out of the AmexTravel/Expedia loop of insanity by escalating to Amex's Executive Office.