Everyone is missing something important here - he flew on an open jaw ticekt. In other words, ABQ-DCA was one ticket, DCA-AUS was another. These types of bookings just don't happen very often. Yes in this case, they did make a little money off of you. But "people in my, or a similar, situation" are very rare. In the end they more than likly lost more money than what they gained off of you. Going from ABQ to DCa, you would have had to make a connection, so there are people who missed connections, probably ended up in hotels, or got meal vouvhers.
Besides, the reservations systems are just not quite that complex that some alarm goes off for the gate agents saying "must cancel flight - open jaw ticket on this flight."
|