There’s something that I think needs to be clarified here.
@Chaikel touched upon it, but I’d like to elaborate a bit.
If
you booked via a travel agent but
your credit card was charged by the airline, that is
NOT the same as if you booked directly with the airline. See, it may LOOK like a pure airline transaction, but it’s not. Here’s what will happen:
You dispute the charge with the airline. The airline loses (rightfully so), and you get the money back on your credit card. Then,
separately, at a later date, the airline sends the TA a debit memo
for the full price of the ticket. Not just clawing back the $50 (or whatever) of commission that they paid the TA for bringing you; they make him pay
the full $1,200 price tag of your ticket.
Yes, it’s insane. Why are they allowed to get away with it? I have no idea. As my good friend and fellow TA
@chff has said many times, “debit memos are basically a legalized form of robbery.” The airlines are bullies, and they take the agents’ money simply because they can. Like an immature brat at the playground: “It’s my ball, and you have to play by my rules. If you don’t, I’m taking my ball and going home.”
So yes. If you dispute the charge, (a) you are putting the TA on the hook for the
full price of your ticket, he’s not just losing his commission; (b) you are
not stealing the money
directly from the travel agent’s pocket, you’re taking it (rightfully) from the airline,
BUT (c) know that you are
directly causing the airline to steal from the defenseless travel agent.
Maybe you can get off by claiming it’s “only a grama”? Or perhaps the opposite - maybe you’re supposed to be mevater and not claim your money from the airline, if you know for a fact you’re directly throwing a frum Jew under the bus? I don’t know. I’m a travel agent, not a dayan. What I
do know is that if you can’t reach an amicable compromise with your TA, then as a G-d fearing Jew, you can’t just take the law into your own hands. You need to
ask a shaila of a competent rav or dayan, and/or work the matter out in Beis Din.
Will you win, financially, if you throw your TA under the bus? Probably. But will you win in Beis Din Shel Mailah? Maybe, maybe not. At the very least, it’s worth consulting Da’as Torah before doing something that could affect your soul for eternity.