I purchase refundable tickets quite often; especially if I am more than 50% sure my travel plans might change. Recently, on a full Y coach ticket (fare basis YB) I was stuck in traffic headed for EWR with a dead cellphone and a livery driver who refused to let me either use his or plug mine into his cigarette lighter...anyway, I digress. While still in security I heard the final boarding call along with my name announced - the ultimate walk of shame - and halfway to the gate (for some reason Phoenix flights seem to always operate out of gates at the extreme ends of the concourses) I heard the dreaded announcement that the flight had been closed to boarding. A quick about-face and I was in the PC and on my laptop and lo and behold found a cheap one-way fare on the next flight which I immediately purchased. I then approached the PC concierge about refunding the unused ticket and was told to contact the Elite toll-free number later as the flight was in post-departure and was still under gate-control so nothing could be done at that point. So I relaxed in the PC, boarded my flight, arrived home, and then called the Elite desk to issue the refund. The representative was very puzzled. It seemed my fully refundable Y fare ticket had been flagged by the airport as a no-show and was made ineligable for re-issue or refund. I was placed on hold for almost 15 minutes while the agent contacted a specialty desk to "undo" what the GA at EWR had done to make my $545 ticket worthless. I'm sure that was not the first time that happened and will probably not be the last. Apparently not all GA's realize that Y=refundable=no-show, no-worries! Oh well, still love CO. Oh, and did I mention that I got an upgrade on that ridiculously low last-minute fare?