Weird. An international first class ticket is extremely easy to change, likely at no additional cost - so he'd lose approximately 0$ out of those 10k. It's a phone call, and if you're a 19yr old whose family can afford it, most likely it isn't even you having to make that phone call.
I'm guessing he didn't want to tell his family he messed up, his professor was unavailable for the rest of the summer, and he might get a low grade in the class for missing the final project. He had been given 2 months to schedule this final review.
