TC

Sharing an FYI: I've known this for a long time, but had the point hammered home again last night - never take "no" for an answer from an airline reservation agent.

I made an on-line reservation on the Continental web site. Made a little mistake with the connection in Newark which I immediately recognized in the purchase confirmation. I called the CO help line to ask to have the reservation changed or cancelled so I could correct the mistake. My ticket was a "refundable" ticket. After an eternity on hold, I was told that it would cost $100 to change the ticket. There was no use arguing. The agent was convinced and convincing. I thanked her, hung up, dialed CO again and immediately got an agent who canceled the incorrect ticket so that I could rebook. She didn't even question why I wanted to cancel.

The moral of the story - ask, ask, and ask again. I shudder to think of all the travelers who are dissatisfied or pay unnecessary penalties because an agent gives an incorrect response.

Flyboy

I know that with Northwest Airlines, their "Customers First" policy allows these types of changes and/or cancellations to be made at no charge within 24 hours. It makes a lot of sense and addresses situations like this.

FainaAgain

TC, speaking not only about the airlines - I found out the answers may be different if you send them an e-mail instead of calling an 800 number. People handling written (e-mails) requests seem to be more knowledgeable.

Patty

In my experience Delta, Southwest, Northwest, Alaska, United, and JetBlue all allow zero penalty cancellations/refunds on tickets purchased online within 24 hours for any reason, even if the tickets are nonrefundable. I've had to cancel purchases with each of these airlines for one reason or another within this deadline. So I'm not surprised that CO also has this policy. You handled it perfectly by being polite, thanking her, hanging up and redialing. It's just too bad that it's frequently necessary to make multiple calls.

jdbird

I couldn't agree more.We had to rebook a Lima-Cusco flight in the Miami airport due to a flight delay in Chicago. We were told "NO flights, No seats, No chance" by numerous people at the the service counter. Forunately, we had the time and persistance to stick with it. There were plenty of flights, and we got on one without paying extra.