OK, now I feel really really bad.
For some reason, my sister always leaves it up to me to book airline reservations.
I wish she wouldn't. I'm terrified of flying and so am extremely superstitious about that sort of thing and want to leave it up to the Fates to put me in a seat and on a particular flight. Instead she makes me take an active part in my own destiny.
She has the credit card. Don't know why she makes me do this. (hmmm, maybe she's superstitious, too
) Anyway, another bad reason to let me make reservations is that due to my fear of flying, I don't fly if I can't help it, so I don't know my way around reading the screens about flights and all the dinky little details about how to reserve seats make me nervous and anxious.
Anyway, yesterday I found a
non-stop, food included, direct from Texas to Paris, flight at an amazing price roundtrip of $582 (without taxes). I called my sister and she said go ahead and book it. However, I only had enough immediate funds to pay for one ticket, so I bought mine and then transferred funds from one bank account to another so I could afford to buy her ticket. But that's an overnight transaction. I told her this.
Again, I'm nervous, unfamiliar with the screens, the small print is like a wall that my eyes glaze over and I just buy my ticket.
Today, my sister drops off the cash so I can book her a ticket, and when I go to the website, the price has gone up nearly $300 for the same flight one way. Needless to say, my sister's upset and can no longer afford the same flight. I had to book her on another flight that has a 1.5 hour layover, that's more expensive but she still arrives in Paris before I do.
Downside is we have to travel separately and our departure times are hours apart, so we either have to go to the airport separately or we arrive at the airport together and one of us has to hang around for about 3 hours.
Upside is that we're traveling separately.
WORSE part is...as I was buying her ticket today, I realized that the small print at the bottom of the screen told me I could have reserved a seat at the price quoted without paying for it for 24 hours. She's going to end up paying $200 more than me because I was too rattled yesterday to notice this.
I feel really really bad...