A friend at work had been going through a particularly rough time, and was looking for something to get him out of the office and the house for a while. He had been bugging me about booking a trip for a while, and I finally agreed. We booked a trip to Florida - I used miles for the flight (round trip first was 45K with the get back 20% on top of that!), and when it came to rooms, we booked one at a really low rate, and one about $25 a night higher since they were out of hte cheaper rooms. The more expensive room also was prepaid, which I put on my card for another $530.

We are supposed to be leaving next week, and I find out tonight he never put in a time off request until now, and it was denied. So, he canceled. I have no reason to go down there for that long myself. Now, I am not 100% sure how much the decision to cancel was because of work or he didn't want to go, but that is a separate issue. Right now, I have 90K in miles and $550 bucks invested in this.

So, how much should he owe me? I am figuring I can redeposit the miles, but will have the $150 fee for that. Not too worried about the $10 taxes, but am bothered about the $530 for the hotel. I could still go down by myself, but why waste that money on such a long stay I am not going to want to take? I have better trips to do with my time off. Do I zonk him for the whole hotel stay? Technically that was going to be my room, but the whole point of
staying there was because he wanted to take the trip.

I can see a couple of sides to this, but am pretty much pi$$ed off that he knew we were going away and made plans for a big project that week anyways.

Try hitting him up for 1/2 of everything.

Totally non-refundable hotel? Ouch!! Maybe you can get away with a one-night fee only.

If he told you to book the trip, he ought to pay up for the associated costs since he then canceled on you. So... Whatever the redeposit fee for all the miles used is, and whatever you have to finally pay for the hotel. You will be stuck finding something better to do on your vacation time, no way to make him pay up for that inconvenience.

A friend you were trying to do a favor cancels on you? There shouldn't even be any need for you to ask for anything; he should make you whole by paying any applicable cancellation/redeposit fees and the cost of the non-refundable hotel room.

Totally agree with this one.

Even though you understand non-refundable and what not - I suggest to keep Christopher Elliot's columns busy and you write a letter about it to him.

Contact Judge Judy! She does these cases a lot.

Got another friend you could take?

I find it funny that the more expensive room was the prepaid one.

He would be going through a rough time with me if he did to me what he did to you. Ask him point blank how he is going to reimburse you for all costs.

My guess? Your friendship suddenly ends and he offers and pays nothing.

Same here. To be honest when I booked them I thought they were both going to be prepaid, and was surprised when I got to the end of booking the first room it came up with just a deposit. Next time I will be sure to make sure if I book for someone else they use their own credit card.

I am still unsure how I feel about the whole situation. We both work for the same boss, so a lot of my anger is directed at him, who a) knew we already had a trip booked and b) is the one who decided to turn what should have been a minor issue into a huge deal and then decided to be out himself that week. At teh same time, I know there are ways around this whole mess AND I am not sure how much is my boss actually making the decision to make him stay and how much is his own second thoughts about the trip.

1. be careful with nonrefundable, and when necessary, insurance
2. depending on whether you have to ask, and the response, might reevaluate "relationship"

pal should pay.....perhaps by paypal!......i would want all my out of pocket $...

Check if the cc you paid onto has trip cancellation insurance on it..

Since your friend put you up to the task to book a trip.. I would ask him to make it up in compensation and in kind..

Or you can get a date with someone else and take the trip anyway.