Alright, serious rant here.

About a month 1/2 ago I told my friend Jenny, who is teaching in Granada, Spain, that I'd like to come visit her. We have traveled a lot together-- last year I went to visit her in Spain and a couple years before that we went to Paris and Milan together. When I told her I wanted to visit she was all excited and our plans worked out perfectly-- I got a GREAT flight deal when she is on her vacation and we are going to Barcelona.

Fast forward to about a month? or 3-ish weeks ago when talking about where to stay. We both decided a hostel would be perfectly acceptable, but I said I at least wanted a private one that provided bedding, etc. She mentioned not wanting to spend much money. This raised some red flags in my mind, since she had money issues on our paris/milan trip (aka she was broke and I wasn't-- causes issues!) but didn't think much of it because she is working full time now and isn't a student like before. I casually mentioned maybe renting an apt. since they are cheap, less expensive than a hotel but nicer than a hostel at nearly the same price. She never returns my email.
A week or so goes by and I decide to email her again. She responds to me the next day saying a lot of things, but bottom line that she has a VERY limited budget and although working her ass off to save money, had, at that time, NINE [yes, friggin nine] euros in her bank account. NINE. I flip out and send her an email basically saying "sorry to be your mother but why would you even THINK of going on a two-week vacation when you are friggin BROKE?!?!" So, so livid.
I entertain the idea of transfering my ticket, or even canceling. I call Iberia and they inform me it cannot be cancelled [I assumed that] and it is non-transferable. You can change the dates, but it costs $150 bucks. Crappy, but doable.
I email this all to Jenny, and she is actually HURT that I would think about canceling the trip *rolls eyes*. She says "I'm working my ass off for this trip" and doesn't really seem to understand how her extremely limited budget affects me. We decide to have a chat over AIM this past sunday. It goes pretty well and we find some resolution:
We decide to tentatively change dates to May28th-June 4th.
I called Iberia 4 times yesterday and every time the call was dropped. I called two today, dropped. I tried a third time and this time I tell the man specifically the dates i'm thinking of changing and he comes back from hold and says "I'm sorry you cannot change the dates of this ticket, because it was the special deal--blah blah blah" I'm pissed, and ask him if he's sure, because just last week someone told me differently. He says he's 100% sure. I am in the middle of asking a question and the call either drops again or he has hung up. UGH. Not to mention it was kind of hard to understand his thick Spanish accent.
I checked my ticket-- it's in spanish, a PAIN...but I feel confident that is says "non tranfer, no cancel, change permisable with restrictions". I tried to call Iberia AGAIN and the call drops again. GR.
I had asked Jenny yesterday to call for me, but I have yet to receive an email from her -- it's annoying having to send out emails to her only to have her respond days and days later.

So that's where I am now...totally stuck. I am so so so pissed at Jenny for not even budgeting the trip out until I prompted her to...what was she thinking? Who DOES that? When, if ever, was she going to tell me she didn't have enough money??? (she would have had 700euros for TWO weeks, for everything-- stay, food, etc.)

I'm so resentful right now that I have to do all this hoop jumping and spending extra money just for her mistakes. I wish so bad that I could just cancel the ticket and get on with life; whats more, I keep thinking that money could have paid for so many other fun things. Overall I'm mad, but I feel a bit like a snot, because when I go away I don't want to constantly be checking prices, and forgoing experiences and fun just because of someone else...everyone tells me that is totally normal and it's her fault, but I still feel like a jerk.

I'm so exasperated...All I can say is- Grrr!

so any progress on the trip arrangements?

Does your friend have anybody (not you!) who could loan her the money?

Hmm, Jenny was going to call today. When she called before last week she got the same "yes you can change dates, but it will cost money". I think the man I spoke with yesterday didn't know what he was talking about [I hope!!].

She is already borrowing $400 from her mom. She didn't even want to do that- she's pretty stubborn.

We'll see!

That does suck..some people just don't think how their actions affect others...thats a bummer man, I hope you can figure something out