OK, out of my own mistake, and a clerical error by a University, I realized I had lost $1000, but I am working to try to recover the funds. Yes I know it is not the same as “finding” money, but either way, I hope to retrieve this money, or make it usable to me in some way.
The first $320 was due to me being too darn efficient (that’s how I want to remember it). At Thanksgiving, I booked one of my daughter’s trip home for Reading Week (March Break for Universities in Canada, except this year it is in February), and got a very good price using Porter Airlines. The problem arose in January, when I did it again, and didn’t get as good a price, but I still booked another flight around the same time (but not exactly the same).
Why did I do this twice? I forgot? My wife claims it is because we never got a Paper Ticket for the purchase (which I think is a good argument), but however, I ended up with yet another ticket. Stop snickering, it happens!
The problem is I wouldn’t have even noticed, except that Porter sent me a reminder e-mail about my daughter’s return trip to Halifax, but on a different day. I phoned up and then I learned of my extra purchase, and  confirmed it going back over my Quicken records and Credit Cards records and seeing that I had a charge in October and a charge in January. This goes to show that while I do keep track of all of my purchases, I don’t necessarily look close enough.
At that moment I felt like quite the Shlemiel, however, I figured I’d call, confess my mistake and see what Porter would do for me (at no time did I Lose It, as that would not have been appropriate).
To my surprise, the Porter Agent I spoke to after a short while, pretty much refunded me the price of my first purchase (in credits and such), so next term, my daughter’s trip home on Thanksgiving (I think) will be mostly paid for. I am very impressed that Porter effectively refunded me the purchase even though it was my own darn fault.
It just goes to show that you never know what will happen, if you ask nicely, and treat people with a level of dignity and respect (especially when you know you are the one in the wrong).
The rest of the money is a battle I have yet to fight, with my other daughter’s university, and their billing department. I got billed for a course that had been paid for by a Grant my daughter had received, thus I hope the University now should have a credit of over $600 on my daughter’s account, but I have yet to start the discussion about that issue.
Glad the airlines gave you a credit for the extra ticket. I didn’t know about porter airlines until now.
Goodluck with the university.