My job gives me the opportunity to go to different places. Most of the time, the places I go will always give me the chance to meet up with friends (and sometimes family) who have relocated there or are really from that place. Actually, these are friends whom I’ve met through work, too! Anyway, when I travel, I try to squeeze in, if at all possible, and arrange to catch up.

I’m leaving again for America this Saturday to assist at an exhibit that my company has signed up for. The exhibit/conference is at Baltimore, MD and will run from the 13th until the 16th. This trip will give me the chance to catch up with a friend and his fiancee, plus one of our ex-colleagues who has now moved to that part of the US. We’ve initially set Saturday evening, for drinks and dinner.

Now, according to my work itinerary, I need to fly out to Dallas after Baltimore for a meeting on the 18th. I stopped over Dallas the last time I went on a US business trip because a good friend of mine is currently working on a project there. During that time I was there, he told me that they were watching Maroon 5 on the 19th of March. So, when I learned that I needed to be in Dallas for a meeting on the 18th, I searched the mighty internet high and low for tickets to the concert with a seat number as close as possible to where my friend and his colleagues are going to be.

I found tickets but I had to buy 2 as minimum and the damage to my credit card is $200. I asked my friend then if he could find someone to buy the other ticket. I was willing to let it go for $60. He said that there will more of his colleagues arriving from Manila on that weekend of the concert and one of them might want to get my other ticket. So, I completed the non-refundable transaction over the internet.

Moreover, I asked our travel department to book me on a flight from Dallas to London on Sunday, the 20th.

Everything was honky dory until I got the call from our Boston office today. They told me that the Dallas meeting has been cancelled! UH-OH!

Yes, these things happen…it’s all part of the biz, they say. I know I really shouldn’t get upset BUT I already paid for those tickets and they are non-refundable!!! That is, if I change my flight bookings: cancel the Baltimore to Dallas flight and change my inbound flight to be originating from Baltimore instead of Dallas.

This is where I’m splitting up. I could…

…not cancel nor change my current flight bookings; take Thursday and Friday off (which means that the company won’t be paying for my accommodations); go see the concert. Good thing that I have friend there who’s got a place where I could crash.

…change all my existing flight bookings and go back to London from Baltimore; lose the $200 I paid for the Maroon 5 concert tickets.

What would you do, if you were in my shoes?

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