You better read the fine print-a cautionary tale

I had to travel to Los Angeles for work this week, and my experience with the airlines leaves a lot to be desired.

I had booked a flight with airline  " A"  thirteen days out for a cool $500.  I was to fly out late Tuesday night arrive in La at 10pm.  I was then supposed to return to Chicago on the red-eye and arrive home Friday morning at 5am.  It was perfect. I could maximize my time at home and get everything I needed done.

Then parenting got in the way, and it became impossible for me to leave Tuesday night.  The best I could do was an early flight Wednesday morning.  I was able to push my first meeting back, to account for my later arrival. 

I called airline "A", and to change my flight to the next morning was going to be another $500 so I bought a one-way from airline "B "for $360. 

Fast forward to Thursday morning.  I was staying at a friend's condo for the night and they had told me to leave the keys in the unit and lock the door behind me when I left.  And I did, I'm good at following directions.  I then had the bright idea to call airline "A" to confirm my flight that night only  to discover that since I missed the first leg of the flight, they canceled my reservation, and to reinstate it would cost an additional $700.  I was told that it was airline policy and this was stated in all that fine print you click on when you" agree to the terms".  And this part is beautiful-since i didn't tell them I was going to miss the flight, the outbound portion of my ticket had no value.

There were no other seats under a grand available that night so I had to resign myself to an early morning flight with a $50 change fee and a much longer connecting flight through Dallas, Texas Now I had to arrange for my girls to go home with friends after school since my plane didn't get in until after 3pm.  But the worst part was that, since I had locked the keys in the condo, I didn't have anywhere to stay but a hotel near the airport--another $100 bucks..

So next time want to fly cross country-read the fine print or it may end up costing you double what you expected plus all the aggravation of an extra night away from home.