“From Frankfurt you take flight 410 to Newark, then connect to a commuter shuttle into John Glenn International in Columbus.”

“Book it, please,” I said.

“Since it’s three separate carrier legs booked less than three hours before departure, the change penalty is twelve hundred dollars per ticket segment,” he said.

“The total fare adjustment comes to two thousand four hundred dollars.”

I took my personal credit card out of my wallet and pushed it into the little pass-through tray under the glass.

The card terminal beeped three times, approved the charge, and printed a receipt that curled down onto the floor like a paper streamer.