Sofia OsborneThis year, I decided that I wanted to go to Toronto during reading week because I am an adult and I can do stuff like this (like how I can just buy and eat a whole cake if I want to).
One responsibility of going on a trip is actually planning it all out. This includes booking your flight, figuring out hotels, and of course, budgeting. I have personally found that if you book a flight earlier, the price tends to be a bit lower, so I always book my flights sooner rather than later.
So, in November 2016, I went and looked up the dates for reading week, took out my credit card, and found what I thought was the cheapest and most perfect flight to Toronto. Then, I proceeded to cringe (flying is costly no matter what you do) as I entered my credit card number and paid for the flight. This event was followed by me excitedly texting all of my friends announcing that I had just booked a trip to Toronto and that I was super pumped. I subsequently forgot about it for the next couple of months.
Fast forward to the end of Christmas break, I was hanging out with some friends and one of them was asking if anyone wanted to go to a concert with him on February 10. I answered very seriously informing him that I was not available because I was going to Toronto as it was reading week. They all looked at me as if I was slightly crazy and proceeded to inform me that reading week was from February 20 to 24. Immediately, I took out my phone and looked up the reading week dates because there was no way that I could have messed it up! My heart sank as I pretty quickly realized that I had looked at the 2016 dates for reading week instead of 2017.
I definitely feel like an error like this could have easily been avoided if I had consulted with real adults (my parents) because clearly I still have not learned to adult. My mom would always take a couple of weeks to book a flight as she always would triple check the dates and make sure there were no conflicts. It honestly used to annoy me so much because booking a flight just seemed so simple and I could never understand why she would not just relax. I now know why she always was extra careful.
Changing a flight is crazy expensive, it’s almost like booking another flight. I rushed booking a flight, as a result, I ended up having no choice but to shorten my trip as well as pay a change fee. Lesson learned!
