I Should Always Pay Attention to the Teensie, Weensie Print, Even if Means Bustin’ Out My Glasses

In two weeks, I’m going to Chicago for a long weekend with a college friend. We live on opposite coasts, so I haven’t seen her in a long time. I compared flights, but eventually used AirTran, which wasn't bad ($232) considering my dates and times were pretty inflexible. I also got a 50% bonus frequent flyer points by paying with my MBNA-issued American Express card. I was in charge of booking the hotel on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, which I did using hotels.com. One major caveat is you have to prepay the entire amount instead of just a credit card to guarantee your stay. Also, there’s a $25 change fee. I did not know about the second problem until I had already booked my stay--and in hindsight I wouldn’t have booked it if I had read the fine print! Two weeks after I booked my hotel stay, the price went down by $28 bucks. But, because of that change fee, it wasn’t worth the hassle. I know, I know! That’s a whole three bucks, which could be breakfast or a really cheap lunch. I’d rather skip lunch and make up the $3 on another route. Or, I could do both and save $6. But I didn’t. I’ve still been checking, but I haven’t found a big enough drop in price to offset the change fee. I would have been better off reading the fine print in the first place.

As far as other aspects of my trip, I hope to spend less than $800 for my entire 4 night stay. So, since I’ve already spent $232 on my flight and $204 (my share) on the hotel, so that’s $364 left I have to spend while I’m there. I’ll see how that goes. I am hoping the Windy City doesn’t blow all of my money away.