I called the Elite line - talked over a half hour - she checked with supervisor - still no good.

So if you have an advance purchase ticket - then what good is the ability to reschedule - since you then need to book several months out to get the same fare code. All that is available next weekend is Y fares - so any discount fare has a problem.

On the outbound they will reroute or reschedule without regard to fare code, but nothing is available until Sunday at any price - can not even buy a Y fare if you wanted. But the return still needs to be on the same code.

So refund is really the only option unless you want to change and rebook say 2 months down the road - and then you can likely book an equivalent fare (in my case - one even cheaper by $60). I did not ask about NW code share - likely should have - they did not even offer or check. I guess CO would rather give you a refund then book you on a CO partner code share.

All this means is more cash refunds - rerouting is not really an option. So with Katrina and Rita - CO is going to loose a lot of money in September. I have already received three ticket refunds - even though I would have done other equivalent distance city or other near term weekend.