Had a flight booked for the whole family from IAD-LHR in biz class, and was using coupons for all 4 of us to upgrade to first. We went to the check in nice and early and proceeded to check in, the woman at the desk did the first 2 tickets then said her pc died and left. 30 mins later!!, she came back with the supervisor, who proceeded to tap away at the pc and told us that we had to buy 2 new tickets in biz class at $6000 as 2 tickets were showing up as stolen! Can you believe it?? These tickets were paid for through the company and issued by AMEX Travel. She says that obviously AMEX have sold u stolen tickets and we have to bear the penalty! Is this any way to treat your customers? The story continues... We made the UA supervisor call AMEX's Emergency Helpdesk and she told them that they have issued 2 stolen tickets and they must either reissue them electronicaly or we have to buy new tickets. The person on the helpdesk at AMEX was useless, she did not understand that the tickets were stolen and she wouldnt get the supervisor. Anyway after being at the ticket counter for over 1.45mins with 30 mins till the flight leaves we are still wondering whether we are flying to london or whether we will have to pay $12000 to UA for a mistake! AMEX finally agreed to reissue the tickets electronically, which convinced the ticket agent that we were not trying to use stolen tickets. We were issued our boarding cards and told to go & board, no time for the lounge at all! We barely made the flight and they put our boarding cards through the machine at the gate and the agent there tells us "see the concierge we have a problem with these boarding cards!!" Apparently they had to reissue electronic boarding cards, anyway United runied our first class experience along with AMEX and I want compensation for this, who should I contact on my return to the US, and what are the chances of succedding?? AMEX say it is a pc fault with UA, UA blame AMEX. Let me know please.