Last year I had two airline award tickets issued in the wrong names--names so garbled they represented people who don't exist. True, I contributed to the mess by allowing my stepmother to make the reservations for her and my father using my frequent flyer number. She gave their first names and the agent assumed my last name. Pretty tricky when you have to present picture ID!

Several CRs wanted $50 per to "redeposit" the miles in my account and reissue the tickets. After several arguments, I just kept calling back until I got a Customer SERVICE Representative who did it for free, and was pleasant about the whole thing.