I agree with the OP. His point is that if he contacted CO and said his schedule changed and he wanted to change the flights, CO would allow him to change it, but would charge him a fee and possibly increased fare if his booking class was unavailable. On the alternate end, if CO wants to change its flight times or cancel flights entirely, the OP is upset that CO does little, if anything, to compensate the OP for the inconvenience. What the OP was trying to get at was that he is Gold on CO, meaning he is a pretty good customer - a pretty good customer who buys Y fares. All he wanted was someone from CO to say - he we messed up, we apologize, we will give your wife a comp upgrade to try to help the situation and ease any burden. So, the OP has a valid point - why does CO think it can do whateve it wants, laugh at him when he offers a solution that will satisfy him as a customer and then expect the OP to continue his business on CO.

To the OP: I would take your business elsewere... maybe they will miss it, maybe they won't... three years ago I was GM on DL. I got very close to requalifying and was forced to cancel a return flight and did not take it till after New Years. DL would not give me gold for 2004. I have not flown DL since. Ironic enough, they have since declared bankruptcy since I took my business elsewhere. I would like to say my loss of business had some effect on DL's future - and if enough people like me took our business elsewhere then maybe we did make a difference...