There's a lot of comments on this post remarking that the guy who lost his flight just didn't understand how airlines work. This is indeed a mistake only the in

There's a lot of comments on this post remarking that the guy who lost his flight just didn't understand how airlines work. This is indeed a mistake only the inexperienced would make. But it really is a problem that the thing we buy from airlines is called a "ticket". This noun conjures up what you purchase for a bus or a train, a right to a seat on a segment, an anonymous token which should be transferable to somebody else. That is not what you get from an airline these days. You enter instead into a complicated agreement that only applies to you. So I think it is fair to expect the inexperienced to be confused by this terminology.