[covercash]

>America really does love make things needlessly complicated, doesn't it.

I'd say it's just another manipulation tactic companies use to squeeze every cent they can out of their customers - real world dark patterns.

[Guvante]

To be fair, handling refunds has a real cost that may not be considered in the cost of the ticket. Also since most of these are government agencies, the lost fares are probably counted as part of the money they need to collect.

Thus fixing the issues could require higher fares to compensate.