The problematic situation I wrote about yesterday has a happy ending after all. At 8:30pm last night I was left a voicemail message from Nelson, a Customer Service Rep in a Phoenix, AZ office. Nelson was the last person I had spoken to that afternoon, and his message stated that he had been bothered all day about how they had not resolved my problem, so he did some extra research and spoke again with his supervisor, finally securing me clearance for a refund. Hallelujah!
So, because of Nelson in Phoenix, I will continue to be a reasonably happy USAirways customer. – Thanks, Nelson!