So I'm in a bit of a jam.
I was invited to an interview/recruitment weekend with School A, but I am scheduled to attend their "alternate" weekend date because of a conflict. I have already called their travel agency and booked plane tickets (so I presume the university has already paid for my flights).
However, School B just contacted me and invited me to their recruitment weekend which is at the same time as when I am scheduled to visit School A.
I would rather go visit School B, because it's in a location I've always wanted to visit (yay for free travel!) and because they have a lot more faculty that I would be interested in working with. Also, I fear that School A's alternate weekend won't give me the full recruitment experience, and that because I'm not attending the regular weekend I will have lowered my chances of acceptance anyway.
I've asked School B if they have an alternate weekend, but I suspect that they don't. Would I completely tank my chances of acceptance at School A if I cancelled my trip? If I'd paid for the tickets myself I wouldn't feel so bad about doing that, but because they have already put down the money I would feel really horrible if they ended up not being able to get a refund.
TL;DR I'd really rather attend the proper interview weekend for School B than attend the alternate weekend for School A, but School A has already paid for my plane tickets. I'd like to ideally be accepted to both schools (though this isn't imperative, as I've already got an offer from a really exciting program somewhere totally different, but I want to keep all my options open).
Also, I don't know if this is relevant, but I've already had a half-hour phone call with two profs at School B which I assume went well (because I got the weekend invitation less than 24 hours later).
Help?