As for the refund portion..you want to contest what you booked with ATA (cheap tickets) not what you booked with Aloha because after paying that ticket it was valid and used..you want to contest the one that was not valid yet paid for. Normally with problems like that, reason I said to go back to cheap tickets, is that normally the airlines say you have to go back to the original booking agent to iron out the problems. As for travel agents business is actually doing really good. I know personally for our agency which does only hawaii our numbers are way up this year than from past years..setting great records so far this year and yes travel agents, if they are good and I have had people afraid to use an agent because they have had problems with them before, can iron out problems before hand. We do it all the time. For instance in this case we would have booked it through a wholesaler, if we booked that ticket that was not honored they would definately either take care of it with the airline or we would basically make them (the wholesaler) refund the money for their mistake which they have done in the past. In my years I have never had a ticket not honored when booked through us..we always give the customer their record locator when we book and input names, meaning before you even pay for it, you will have a locator where you can check yourself if the reservation is really made with the airline, which some people do just do be sure and I understand. We get schedule changes almost weekly..of course those are out of our control, but we can however fix a connecting flight when we see that misconnect ahead of time which we have done. I have even personally contacted airlines about bad schedule changes and worked with them to find a solution satisfactory to the customer...as well as personally took up issues to get vouchers for customers because of mechanical problems (which technically they don't have to give anything for) ...again though not all agents will do that..you have to get a good one..because of course we make no extra money for that time, but in my opinion that extra work is worth it to make my customers happy..and you know..it works for me because they become repeat customers and appreciate the extra work I do for them..so in the short version yes a good travel agent will take care of these things for you...technically its our job..not your job to make sure your trip runs as planned...plus our contracted bulk fares carry far less strict rules and have more flexibility as well as an excellent no penalty waiver..I had a recent one, I had to cancel and rebook, class of service was higher they had the waiver and it saved them $200.00!

"Bo-you planning a trip to Africa? I'll tell you one agent NOT to use!"

hehe...funny ;-)

Just to let you know--I protested the $94.90 charge with my credit card carrier--Chase--and received notification that they have applied a credit to my account for that amount.
There was a statement that if the merchant, ATA in this case, later provides proof that the disputed amount is valid, my account will be rebilled for that amount. That's where a problem MIGHT come in. It might have been Aloha's mistake rather than ATA's. I really don't know who's at fault. I only know that I had to pay $94.90 for the inter-island ticket because Aloha couldn't find the reservation in the system even though we had an e ticket with the confirmation.
At any rate, so far, so good. We'll see how it goes. Thanks, All, for the suggestions.

Thanks for keeping us posted.

I would ask for the booking histories, it would record the events on each booking, if there was a schedule change, who received it and why they didn't pass the info to you.