Originally Posted by
KARFA
With respect, I think you are underestimating the complexity of airfares in genera, and the one you specifically bought - which appears to be borne out by the fact you needed half an hour with the agent to book it.
I can read and understand text version of fare rules, so I understand their complexity. I also work in IT and daily solve problems more complex and time consuming than applying such fare rules (by several orders of magnitude more complex). It’s really just 1) outdated systems 2) not enough investment and 3) bad engineering.
I had a friend who worked in Alaska airlines IT and gave me a lot of interesting insights how airline websites and front end systems are connected to backends implemented in 1980s and it’s absolutely appalling.