The trouble didn’t start on their flight from Buffalo to Philadelphia, when their 50-seat regional jet got tossed around in the heavy turbulence. It was so violent that Christopher Prucha’s wife begged him not to continue their trip to Wilmington, N.C., and to drive instead.

The Pruchas’ trouble really started in Philadelphia. That’s when a kind American Airlines agent reassured them that they could cancel the second leg of their trip and continue by car, and promised them they wouldn’t forfeit their return flight to New York.

They should have known better than to take him at his word.

You can probably guess what happened next. When they arrived at the airport for their return flight, an American Airlines representative informed them that since they’d skipped the last leg of their outbound trip, the airline had canceled their return.

Their only option: Spend another $969 for a last-minute, one-way ticket back to Buffalo. 

“I would like to be reimbursed for the price of the new one-way tickets, plus the seat assignment fees we had to pay when the desk agent canceled our return itinerary,” he says.

Of course, American Airlines is refusing.

This case raises several critical questions for travelers:

• Can an airline cancel your return ticket if you skip a flight segment?
• What happens when an airline agent gives you wrong information?
• How can you fight back when a company refuses a refund?

Let’s unpack what happened — and what every passenger needs to know.

“The agent and her supervisor assured us our return tickets would remain valid”

Let’s rewind to the rough landing in Philadelphia. After experiencing severe turbulence, Prucha approached American Airlines agents in Philadelphia. Could they drive the final leg to Wilmington without losing their return flights?

“The agent and her supervisor assured us our return tickets would remain valid,” Prucha recalls. They added notes to his reservation confirming the arrangement. The couple upgraded their return seats for $24, checked in for their flight home and received boarding passes, and then rented a car. That boarding pass is an important detail. (Here’s our best guide to booking an airline ticket.)

But when the Pruchas arrived at the airport in Wilmington to fly home, an agent dropped a bombshell: American Airlines had voided their return tickets. She apologized for the inconvenience, but rules were rules. 

“She insisted we had to buy new tickets,” he recalls.

Prucha felt he had no choice but to pony up an extra $969 to get back home.

When he complained, American Airlines sent him a form letter offering 10,000 frequent flier miles and a $100 flight voucher. In other words, someone at American Airlines reviewed his notes, admitted it was wrong, but would not return his money.

He appealed the decision to a supervisor, but the answer didn’t change.

“I received a phone call from an American Airlines representative indicating that my request was denied as that is their policy,” he says.

Can an airline cancel your return ticket if you skip a flight segment?

Yes. And it’s automatic. If you miss a connecting flight, your entire itinerary, including your return trip, will be canceled.

There are two reasons for this. First, if you miss a leg, the airline assumes you won’t be on the return flight. Canceling your seat frees it up so the airline can resell it. That makes sense.

The second reason makes less sense. Airlines require that you use your ticket as booked. That’s because if you don’t, you could deprive the airline of revenue. 

If you get off the plane at a stopover, the airline might have charged a higher fare to that stopover city, meaning that you’ve just “stolen” money from the carrier. None of this would be an issue if airlines used common sense in their ticket pricing.

American Airlines has a reputation for hunting down passengers who violate its fare rules by getting off the plane early, or “skiplagging” as some have called it. It has built computer systems to track down these fare violators.

So, even though two representatives promised that the Pruchas could fly home on their current itinerery, the system said otherwise. And the system won.

The problem was simple: The agent in Philadelphia had given Prucha incorrect information. The notes were irrelevant.

What happens when an airline agent gives you wrong information?

Airline agents have some ability to override the system, and supervisors have even more authority to bend the rules. So it’s curious that the changes the kind American agent offered to make didn’t actually go through.

The trick, as always, is to get the promise in writing. The agent stood in front of his terminal and assured Prucha’s nervous wife that she wouldn’t have to fly to Wilmington. She could drive, and everything would be OK.

But where was the proof?

Get a recording. Prucha could have recorded the conversation on his phone. That might have counted for something — if he could have gotten the recording to the right person at American. But recording a conversation can be awkward, and, understandably, agents don’t want to be part of your next viral video.

Ask for something in writing. Another option is to ask for something — a handwritten note on the back of a ticket jacket might even be enough — to verify that you can take the return flight.

At the very least, get the name of the employee. You’d be surprised by how many people fail to ask for an employee’s name and contact information when they’ve made a significant promise, such as waiving a normally ironclad rule. As far as I can tell, Prucha didn’t have any names.

How can you fight back when a company refuses a refund?

While Department of Transportation rules prohibit “deceptive” practices, they don’t cover one-off agent errors. If two agents give you two different answers, American Airlines is free to choose whichever promise benefits it the most.

But this story has a twist. The Pruchas might have been able to board the return flight if there hadn’t been weather problems on the way home. 

They were connecting through Washington’s National Airport on the way home, and the day before their departure, they received a travel advisory saying flights into DCA were being delayed because of weather. (Related: “Not enough time for your bags”: How a 90-minute connection rule upended a flight.)

Prucha called American Airlines to see if there was a way to get routed around the disruption, and it appears the agent he spoke with undid something in the system that triggered a cancellation. After speaking with the agent, he received a notification saying he needed to check in at the airport, which is where he received the bad news about the cancellation of his return flight.

Had he not called American to get rerouted, who knows?

At any rate, they had to pay extra to get home. And since there was no evidence that American had promised they could use their return tickets, they were out of luck.

But wait. They did have evidence. 

The agent had printed a return boarding pass for him and his wife and had even allowed them to buy a seat upgrade. All of that was in the system. But more importantly, the Pruchas also had paper boarding passes generated after cancelling the second leg of their flight — hard evidence that American had made a promise.

Here’s what American Airlines did next

By the time our advocacy team took over this case, it had been months since the flight. The Pruchas had received a form apology, a flight voucher and some miles, but were still out $969 for American Airlines’ error.

Our advocate Dwayne Coward contacted the carrier on their behalf. Although American agreed to review the case, we heard nothing for weeks. Finally, after repeated inquiries, the airline agreed to refund both the airfare and the upgrade fee, and allowed them to keep the miles and the flight voucher. 

What went wrong? American wouldn’t say, and it’s possible that they don’t even know what went wrong. But someone must have reviewed his reservation, seen the note, and decided to issue a refund. Better late than never, right?

Is American Airlines ignoring your complaint?

When an agent’s mistake costs you money and the airline refuses to issue a refund, you need to talk to someone with authority. We have the executive contacts to help you get results. Get the American Airlines executive contacts