No, you lost $2,500 6 years ago, when you took the risk of a self-transfer with less than a 4 hour layover. The thing about self-transfers is, if you are going cheap flight to expensive flight like you did, you need to give yourself more time. In the past year I have done two self transfers, one I gave myself an overnight layover (I had friends in the town of my layover, with the second flight being a TransAtlantic flight, I knew it would be quite expensive to rebook at the last minute), the second I gave myself a 6 hour layover. I realized with both, I was taking a risk to save money, because if something went horribly wrong with the first flight, I’d lose money. It was my risk. I never schedule a self transfer with less than 6 hours, unless the second flight is so cheap, I can easily afford to rebook, or could easily take a bus or a train the same or following day.