FlyerTalk Forums - I'm screwed

My flying is almost all for pleasure. But I finally got a real business trip, one which my employer (a college) will pay for. Problem is I already had a trip booked for that weekend that I need to fly out. But this is a bit of a "crisis" issue, so I need to change my flight.

Being a college with limited funds, I can't just go out and purchase tickets - POs have to be approved, you get strict spending limits, and we don't have a travel person - this is totally reimbursed.

So I spent too much time trying to figure out what flights I could change my tickets to, which fare codes would be affordable, filled out my request for the ticket price, plus my $150 fee, plus a little buffer in there. finally got it approved yesterday.

So I go to change my flights and can't do it online. Figured I would call them this afternoon, but in the meantime did a search for what was available to build the best ticket given time and aircraft. Must have spent too much time doing that, because now every flight that day is O'ed out for anything under an H fare code! I have no way to fly out!

The way our budgeting works is you are only allowed up to a certain amount. The ticket costs are already more than what I was approved for, and on top of that I have to pay a change fee. I can't just ask them to reimburse me the change fee - I have to show a receipt and how it connects to this flight. I have no way to do that. So they will only pay me the $425 for a ticket that is going to cost me $150 more than that and then lose my $150 on top of it!

I am screwed!

sorry, just needed to vent.