Seems you got very lucky. "Back in the days" the airlines usually would refund with a doctors note of some sort (I'm assuming this was a medical emergency), however, now it is usually no exceptions. I have been fighting Priceline for weeks now over a different issue - they issued me a connection on US in PIT of 29 minutes, commuter to mainline. I've explained it over and over to them, that it was NOT a schedule change (they say it was) and that they ticketed me with the illegal connection. I will give it a few more days before I have to refuse the charge.