u/Accomplished_Two_502

CSR+CSRB holder. I booked a $3,500 Business Class roundtrip between US and Asia on a star alliance airline using the "points boost" feature. Not a travel rookie by all means, this is my third trip to asia this year and i've bee playing the points game 15+ years.

Due to unforseen circumstances I needed to delay my return by 10 days. Called the chase rep to do it, they quoted me $320 to change it. Seemed reasonable, I told them to proceed. Chase charged my card, I see the updated flight on the airline app, and hung up.

An hour later, the same rep called back saying the change was "unsuccessful" and told me I needed to pay an additional $1,700 to complete the change... WTF?? When questioned, i just got really standard boilerplate answers "ticket change subject to updated fares, yada yada yada" and he even tried to lecture me saying if i dont keep original ticket "of course i need to pay". After a few more snarky answers from the rep..... lets just say coworkers came by my office to check if i was ok.

I found out here, when Chase travel was calculating the "change fee" they were literally taking a full fare, one way business class ticket (one way ticket more expensive than roundtrip ticket i paid) then deducting the unused portion of the original fare. Basically booking a second, one way ticket and applying the first unflown value of roundtrip ticket.

And no matter how much I explain that it doesnt work like that, they just kept replying with boilerplate answers. What makes matters worse, the rep said they cannot change the ticket back because the original date is no longer available.

Long story short TL;DR completely defeated by stupidity, I decided to give the airline a shot. Called the airline, told them Chase completely wrecked my booking. Fortunately I have star alliance gold status with the airline so they pushed me over to a supervisor who not only fixed the booking, but put me on the date I requested, and charged $170 fee (instead of $320).

2 hours wasted with the chase travel rep (he called the airline two or three times during the call). Plus 15 minutes with the airline to fix it. My only hope is that Chase doesnt get cranky with the unilateral change with the airline.

Two "direct deposits" in, the "one time" hit in cashflow that they suggest is absolutely BS way of selling something that should never have been pushed out. What were they thinking??

This new disbursement policy is an absolute joke and terrible policy for small sellers (probably a majority of sellers) busting their ass on this platform..... While Amazon is sitting on billions of dollars of cash they decide they want to sit on seller money for 7 more days, what gives?

Cashflow for a seller is just as important as profit, it allows us to reorder and HOLD inventory, pay suppliers, and pay employees. DD+7 means less inventory availability, probably a step backwards!

I just dont get why they feel like clawing 7-days of cashflow from seller makes sense when sellers are already squeezed for margins. That's the difference between making payroll, restocking a bestseller before it goes out of stock, or straight-up surviving the month. And the infuriating part is they'll announce some phony new seller "benefit" with one hand while quietly killing cash flow with the other... one step forward, three steps back, every.single.time!!!

They know exactly what they're doing. Longer holds mean Amazon keeps that capital longer, collects the float interest, and tightens their grip on sellers who are already completely dependent on their ecosystem with nowhere else to go.

This gives me much better validation of developing and promoting a Shopify store as a PL seller. Shopify/Paypal deposits are so fast compared to Amazon. This crap amazon is doing is totally predatory.

/End Rant

- Low 8 figure seller