Which online travel agents are deliberately marking up the ticket price into a higher fare bucket when a lower fare is available? I haven’t seen this behavior on other OTAs, they are fairly consistent with best available pricing. I’ve seen it before on the Chase portal but I was able to work around it using the multi city trip builder.

The fact that an Amex PTS agent can price and book the correct fare when prompted to do so clearly indicates a deliberate attempt to overprice web bookings as a back door devaluation of points, and gaining commission by ripping off cash buyers.