Ever wonder if the high cost of a premium credit card is really worthwhile? This week I discovered the answer when Chase Travel made an honest but costly mistake.
My wife and I bought one-way business class tickets from LAX to South Africa for later this Spring on Turkish Airlines. (Our return trip is on another airline using points.) My wife decided to try to find new flights that would avoid Istanbul because of its proximity to the Middle East and the big mess going on there.
She spoke to a travel agent at Chase Travel who booked the original tickets. Chase Travel is the travel agency available to us through our Chase Sapphire Reserve Card. The agent spent quite a bit of time and worked very hard looking for alternative flights and eventually discovered a flight via Frankfurt for $6000 for the two of us, the same amount as the Turkish Airline flight.
The agent said that before booking she would need to cancel the Turkish Airline flights, and we gave her permission to do so. But then, a few minutes later as she was booking the new flights, the agent let out a gasp and realized she made a mistake. She discovered that the new fare was $6000 for each of us, not both. So this new flight would cost $6000 more than our original reservations. She apologized profusely and brought a supervisor onto the line.
The supervisor said the agent had explained the issue to him, admitted to making the error. He said he would find a solution. He looked at other flight options and concluded that the flight the agent found was the best available.
Then, before we could say anything, he said that Chase Travel would absorb the extra $6000 due to their mistake and book us on the Frankfurt flight for the same cost as our original Turkish Airline flights, plus $400 in fees to Turkish Airlines. He said it might take several days to receive the credits, but they showed up within the hour.
In these days where fewer companies take responsibility for their errors, it was gratifying to see how well Chase handled this situation. The $795 annual fee comes with many perks, but the one perk we didn’t know about was being treated so well. Yes, many would resond by saying that this is the service we should get from all companies, but it has truly become a rarity, especially for those dealing with airlines, hotels and others in the travel industry
Southwest Update
I know I’ve sworn to never fly Southwest again after they changed to assigned seating. But sometimes you just need to get from here to there and Southwest is the only solution. After two trips after the changes were implemented, I’m still trying to figure out their boarding policy – and it seems like Southwest is also trying to do the same.. But as luck would have it, Sapphire awarded me a A-List status on Southwest for meeting one of their spending thresholds last year. I also snagged a new Southwest Credit card offer that offered a free Companion Pass for meeting a modest spending criteria. So from swearing off the airline, I’m now suddenly an A-List member with a Companion Pass for my wife.
But when I recently tried to make reservation for me and my wife it was not clear how to book a ticket for her. It appeared the website hadn’t been fully developed to lead me through the process. So I asked Claude AI about the new procedures and got this answer:
“Southwest abandoned open seating. Southwest moved from open seating to assigned seating for all flights booked from July 29, 2025 for travel starting January 27, 2026, with boarding now organized into Groups 1 through 8 based on seat location rather than check-in time. A-List Members seated in Preferred or Standard seats will board no later than Group 5. A-List Members who upgrade to an Extra Legroom seat within 48 hours of departure will board in Groups 1 or 2. Boarding groups for both the Companion Pass holder and their Companion are assigned based on seat location or Credit Cardmember/Tier boarding benefit — whichever is higher. Sequential boarding is not guaranteed. But here’s the catch: A seat will not be assigned to your Companion automatically. After booking the Companion’s ticket, you need to go back into the reservation and select “modify seat” to select a seat for them.Easy to miss but important to do right after booking.”
Now if you understand this please let me know!
Southwest’s transition to assigned seating has been met with mixed opinions from its customers. CEO Bob Jordan has called the rollout smooth and highlighted overwhelmingly positive customer response, but I’m not sure which customers he’s been speaking with.
From scanning the forums and listening to fellow flyers, many are complaining about the boarding chaos, the overhead bin space chaos, A-List Preferred members boarding in later groups than promised, and passengers being unable to switch to open seats even when the cabin is mostly empty and they are squeezed into a fully occupied row.
When they had open seating, passengers selected their seats and stored their baggage across the cabin. Assigned seating has changed that. Rear-seated passengers, boarding all together, quickly fill their bin space at the back and are walking forward to find other bin space, often above the premium seats, and then fighting the boarding passengers back to their seats. This is of course a result of bpassengers not wanting to pay for checked bags, so more are carrying them on the plane. Then there’s the case of a passenger paying for a premium seat wanting to move to another seat in an empty row and being told by the flight attendant that all passengers much remain in their assigned seats for the entire flight. Southwest acknowledged the problems and has committed to improvements, including adjustments to the boarding group logic and a retrofit of 70% of its fleet with larger overhead bins.
This fiasco began in late 2024 when Southwest and Elliott Investment Management, an unfriendly investor, reached an agreement where Southwest avoided a full proxy war and Jordan kept his job by agreeing to appoint five board members nominated by Elliott, restructuring its leadership and adopting many of Elliot’s demands for assigned seating, fewer perks and no more free bags. Now, after Southwest instituted these changes, Elliott has been cashing out and reducing its stake in the company. And Southwest’s management and passengers are left literally holding the bag.
