Recently, I booked my tickets to go home for Christmas to visit my family. I was SO proud of myself–I found a Delta flight nonstop from Manchester, NH to LaGuardia that got me back to NYC before dinner for only $120. Score, especially during the holiday season!

Alas, my great find wasn’t meant to be. Follow the jump to find out what happened.

This is why my trip looked like to begin with:

Ah, simpler times, when GoJet was more than just…NoJet. Over the weekend I got the dreaded Saturday Switcharoo E-Mail from Delta. I was DISPLEASED:

Um, that’s a no. NO NO NO. I am not going all the way to Detroit to come back to the East Coast. No offence to Detroit, but that’s just a LITTLE BIT out of the way. According to gcmap.com, the new routing was 470% longer, and just over 4 hours longer.

I knew I had to cancel this flight. I love to fly, and I knew this would be crazy and long and generally terrible. I was all prepared to do battle with Delta, but I called up their customer service line, waited for about 5 minutes, and eventually spoke to a really nice woman who agreed that my new trip was, ahem, not ideal, and offered me a full refund, no questions asked. YES MA’AM works for me! I was worried that there would be a penalty for cancelling, but I received a full refund on my credit card a few days later.

Then, I went to Amtrak and booked a coach seat on the Northeast Regional for $49 and a bus ticket from Concord to Boston for $16.

New cost:  $65

Old cost:  $120

Savings:  $55

So yes, my trip is a little longer, but I saved money (almost half!), and that’s the point of this blog–right? Thanks again, Delta for being so understanding!