A company I was interested in just flew me out for an interview. It was on the other side of the country so they paid for my flight and hotel. Unfortunately, the interview went disastrously. I blew every question and I could tell that they didn't like me personally.

When I got to the airport for my return flight, I was unable to get my boarding pass. The agent told me that my ticket was cancelled by the buyer for a partial refund. Despite my persistence, they assured me that there wasn't a mistake.

I called the company to tell them there was a mix-up, but they just told me they decided they would "going in a different direction". I told them I was fine that I didn't get the job, but I didn't have a flight home. They just repeated the same "going in a different direction" phrase and told me they couldn't help me. After calling back 3 or 4 times, they told me to stop harassing them.

I'm completely broke due to poor financial decisions (that's a different story), so I can't afford a last minute plane ticket. It doesn't help that this is a small airport, so ticket prices are high. So basically I've been stuck at the airport for the past 3 days. Yesterday, my credit card started being declined, so I've had to eat scraps from other customers.

Fortunately, I do have an existing job (albeit awful job) when I get home. And I finally got a friend of a friend to agree to pick me up and drive me to a Greyhound bus station in another town. So while I'm sitting in the airport waiting for him with a lot of time to think, I wanted to ask a few questions that have been spinning around my mind:

• Seriously, what the heck? Is this normal for an employer to do?
• A specific legal question about recourse against this employer has been asked on Law SE
• The more I think about, the more I'm thinking I must have said something offensive to somebody in an interview. Is there any way to ask them what I said (so that I can avoid this mistake in the future)?

A company I was interested in just flew me out for an interview. It was on the other side of the country, so they paid for my flight and hotel. Unfortunately, the interview went disastrously. I blew every question, and I could tell that they didn't like me personally.

When I got to the airport for my return flight, I could not get my boarding pass. The agent told me that the buyer cancelled my ticket for a partial refund. Despite my persistence, they assured me that there wasn't a mistake.

I called the company to tell them there was a mix-up, but they just told me they decided they were "going in a different direction". I told them it was fine that I didn't get the job, but I didn't have a flight home. They repeated the same "going in a different direction" phrase and told me they couldn't help me. After calling back 3 or 4 times, they told me to stop harassing them.

I'm completely broke due to poor financial decisions (that's a different story), so I can't afford a last-minute plane ticket. It doesn't help that this is a small airport, so ticket prices are high. So basically, I've been stuck at the airport for the past three days. Yesterday, my credit card started being declined, so I've had to eat scraps from other customers.

Fortunately, I do have an existing (albeit awful) job when I get home. And I finally got a friend of a friend to agree to pick me up and drive me to a Greyhound bus station in another town. So while I'm sitting in the airport waiting for him, with a lot of time to think, I want to ask a few questions that have been spinning around my mind:

• Seriously, what the heck? Is this normal for an employer to do?
• The more I think about, the more I'm thinking I must have said something offensive to somebody in an interview. Is there any way to ask them what I said (so that I can avoid this mistake in the future)?

A specific legal question about recourse against this employer has been asked on Law SE.