Maybe all airlines need to give customers 24 hours to cancel their ticket with no charge and they have 24 hours to correct any fare mistake, after that period both sides are stuck with the tickets.

Scott, many airlines actually do that. While not all advertise it, they allow people to cancel up to 8:59PM PST the night after the ticket was booked.

Currently those I know that don’t are JetBlue and WestJet because they use different systems. Check with the airline in question if they allow such, but not all are required to do so.

Now, having said that, I do believe that if someone makes an error and catches it in a reasonable time, then they should be able to fix it, whether its BA or the customer.

American Airlines allows it, sort of. If you purchase a ticket, you have about 2 hours to cancel the purchase. I can’t speak for other airlines, but it take American Airlines a few hours to actually ticket the purchase. Until then the average agent can and will cancel and refund our money.

On another subject, I disagree with Chris’s characterization of people who hang out in frequent flier websites as bottom feeders. But I understand why he choose those unfortunate words. Go over to Flyertalk.com. The mantra there is get whatever you can, regardless. For example, if there is a fat fingering fare, the protocol is to post it for the entire world to see. People will make multiple bookings in order to secure huge benefits at the expense of the hotel or airline. That’s hardly ethical behavior, but its the norm at some of these websites.

@Nomad I’ve repeatedly said that the base fare was $40 but that with taxes and fees, it came to more than $400. Please read carefully. Those are the facts.

@Scholar I think we will just have to agree to disagree on this issue.

I think what this shows is that the airlines and booking agencies cannot be trusted with our credit cards until they are capable of delivering on their offers. Why should I have to give BA my credit card info before I am sold a product? The real lesson here may be that airlines should figure out if they can give what they offer first *and then* start asking for payment.

Maybe you are the one who is wrong?

What I am interested in is getting this problem resolved to everyone’s satisfaction, and I’m working hard at doing just that. It looks like Travelocity and Expedia are still on the fence about compensation, and I’m hearing that BA hasn’t canceled all reservations, despite claims to the contrary.

So there is hope.

Re: My “bottom-feeder” comment. I’m really surprised so many of you thought I was talking about you. I probably wasn’t. But do you have a guilty conscience?