So I have completed two different job corps centers. One was back in 2011 and got out of carpentry after 9 months, then I went again in 2015-2016 for welding and completed in a year. My question is, for the first center, I was more-or-less a local to the area so travel costs weren't a thing for me. But the second campus was in a different state so I had to get a flight home for like Christmas break if I wanted to go home.

This wasn't a big deal for me but what was weird for me was that they had bought a plane ticket for me, without letting me know what the route was, that cost like 2k in expenses. The trip literally took me from Wyoming to California and then back to Utah and finally to Montana (my home state). It was a full day of flying and layovers and a bunch of nonsense just to get me home on a flight. After I had returned, they told me I had to use my paychecks from working to pay the center back the 2k for the plane ticket.

Later I found out I could have probably gotten a bus ticket for like $150 at the time. And I would have at spent less time traveling to my home.

Has this ever happened to anyone else? Where they make you take a particular, and rather poorly planned trip, back home for a break. Only to have you pay them back for the money they spent on you?