Here's a thing I learnt

I did not know until Wednesday this week that your return flight gets cancelled if you don't take the outward flight. No, really, that's a thing.

I was on a trip to Parliament, all expenses paid, thank you very much and decided to make the most of it, I'd go a day earlier than their flight (which I had no say about). 'Fine', I thought, 'I'll just get their return flight'.

That was until I went to check in. My friend (let's call him Stephen) on the course was on the same flight and had no problems checking in online. Only at his insistence did I call up the travel people to find out the problem.

So a few short hours before my flight leaves and standing in central lobby of the Houses of Parliament with James Brokenshire not too far away I make the call and discover this airline rule. Then the lady from the travel people gives me the kicker: I can be reinstated on the flight for £350. Yes, a single flight to Belfast was going to cost as much as the single flight I took to America this past summer.

I mustered all the calm from my body to say 'Hmm, ok, leave it with me and I'll get back to you'.

Thoughts of, you know, general panic ran through my mind. I wanted to cry. I was definitely not going to be paying £350 to be on that flight, but I was definitely supposed to be teaching tomorrow. What. Was. I. Going. To. Do?

All hail the smart phone. I looked up Ryanair and EasyJet flights and bit the bullet and booked myself a new flight to Belfast. If I had panicked I wouldn't have made the flight I did. If I didn't have some knowledge of London airports (the term used generously by budget airlines) then I wouldn't have known if I could make the newly booked flight from London Luton. If I hadn't had Stephen pushing me to phone up, I would have been in Heathrow with no choice but to pay the £350 to get home.

Thinking back on it, I maybe should have approached James Brokenshire for help, but he's probably got troubles enough on his own.