Believe me when I say that I have searched this site in depth for an answer. What I found is a few comments from several years ago with people saying they were able to bypass the counter and use EA when their credit card expired or they had entered a new credit card, despite what the reservation said about going to the counter. I'm looking for a recent answer from someone with my specific situation, ideally who has firsthand recently done what I'm specifically asking about: bypassing the counter on a brand-new EC account. My assumption is that you're trying to say this is doable, but your answer isn't clear. Posts in this forum can go back a quarter-century, so just telling someone to "search the forum" isn't exactly always helpful.

I'm sure we all know that some employees like to assert their power by pointing to signs and forms and saying "Go back that way. You didn't follow the rules." I'm trying to avoid putting myself in that situation.