Aborted transaction with a live person

Yeah, so the airline people really don’t want us calling them on the phone.

We’re going to a convention in Vegas in July. The convention has a deal with American Airlines for us to get 5 percent off the lowest fare. You can’t book this via internet, so I call. The automated voice tells me there will be a $10 fee per ticket to book on the phone. And while the live person starts looking up flights, I calculate that 5 percent of $300 is $15, so we’d still save a little money.

I’d looked up American flights online, and they were $272 but not nonstop, so I was hoping the live person might find something better.

Oh, no.

She wants us to go through DALLAS on the way home. And then sounds perturbed when I tell her that’s a bit out of the way. Still, I think maybe we’ll save a lot of money to fly through Dallas.

Oh, no.

Quoted fare? $955.61! EACH.