She Boarded a Plane to See Her Dying Mother. Then Her Ticket Was Canceled.

She Boarded a Plane to See Her Dying Mother. Then Her Ticket Was Canceled.
When Ms. Amrich pleaded, saying her mother was dying, the agent responded that her ticket had been refunded and that “nobody flies for free.”
Back in the airport, Ms. Amrich called Ms. Prelas, sobbing.
It was around 2:30 p.m., and Ms. Prelas immediately called United and had Ms. Amrich switched onto Flight UA5712, leaving Colorado Springs at 5:15 p.m.
That flight would go to Denver, where Ms. Amrich would make a connection to Minneapolis.
But Ms. Amrich and her landlord, Ines Prelas, said they had heard nothing from the agency before she was removed from the plane.
Ms. Prelas said she was given no explanation at the time, but United told The Times
that the plane had already left by the time Ms. Prelas made that offer
Traveler Help Desk, the online agency that sold the ticket, had rescinded it
because the landlord made a change directly through United — even though United had assured the landlord that it was not a problem to do so.
The agent, she said, responded that Ms. Amrich could not get back on the plane.
She said that the intention had been to protect Ms. Amrich against possible fraud and
that a representative had tried “numerous times” to contact Ms. Amrich first.
“I cried the whole way from Pueblo,” Ms. Amrich said in a phone interview on Jan. 18, two days after her mother died.