For me, it depends on whether the sunk cost is a discretionary or necessary thing, and how my budget would be affected — if you absolutely needed to go to the UK, you either use your ticket today or it costs you twice as much to go on a different date. So instead of being a $900 stay versus $900 go decision, it ends up being a $900 go today versus $1,800 go tomorrow. If that’s a budget-breaker you have to go today.

JD, two remarks regarding BA… BA charges fuel surcharges and taxes in award tickets. This will be several hundred dollars no matter whether you fly First or fourth class (coach). That makes coach redemptions less interesting.

Second, there are some major changes coming this November that might drastically devalue your miles unless you use them to book tickets to Europe. Details are not yet published, but for tickets to South America or Asia you might have too book early.

In a hypothetical world that was the only reason for canceling, the best response might be to seek ways to reassure her/make her more comfortable with the idea, not cancel the trip.

$500 is more than half the price of the ticket, so you were better off “self insuring” (given that there was less than 50% chance of cancellation.)

My town is less than 15miles from Ealing, which had some bad stuff go down. We also have a large population of the kind of people being blamed for the riots. Total damage? Starbucks had a brick thrown at the window.

Travel is about adventure, and I think you’ve got the right attitude

$900 is pocket change for an AA+ list blogger such as yourself.

p/s Great article on sunk cost, JD, and excellent responses on the said topic well by GRS readers.

Granted, if all went well, you could shop around and get the best deal back, perhaps being flexible with departure dates.

But if you go under uncertain circumstances and then end up having to return hastily due to a pre-existing problem flaring up, you would then have to fork out whatever they were asking for a return flight (because of the urgency), so you’d be out of pocket at least another $1000 (or have to throw money at a problem to avoid having to come back home to sort it out). And who’s to say that wouldn’t happen within a few days of your arrival? In which case you’d have “sunk” over $2000, and not seen London/Europe to boot!

Hope things smooth out quickly

I don’t know what the best-selling book on the continent is at the moment, but we’ll let it be Chris Guillebeau’s book next spring. I’ll settle for second best-selling. Or maybe if we’re there for more than a day, he can have the best-selling book one day, and I can have it the next.

In the same situation I could see myself making the opposite (and in my opinion wrong) decision. Being miserable and worried about your family wouldn’t have put any value back into that sunk cost.

Good post, something for me to think about.

I couldn’t tell if he meant the Bible or if this was an inside joke or if there really is an unbeatable bestseller on Antarctica, lol, idk like Livingston’s journals or something.

JD, from that sentence I got:

1) It was important to YOU even if not to others, and

2) in the past, you (and the many readers who didn’t join in our discussion in the comments) may not have thought much about discussing your wife’s feelings, but now you have.

Personally, I felt proud of you for mentioning it, and I think the commenters above need to TAKE A BREATH.

JD, you can also think of “gustar” as “to please.” So “me gustan manzanas” becomes “apples please me.” It’s the same sentence construction.

It’s similar in Japanese, so knowing that has helped me here!! (where “suki” = “pleasing,” for those interested)

And you probably would have been distracted and not fully enjoying it the whole time you were there.