I'm going to give a brief summary of what I've experienced in the past week.

I met an HB 8 with a daytime pickup and got her number about 3 weeks ago. I call her the next day and we set up a lunch date, she then flakes an hour before and tell me she has a stomach bug, okay could be true. Hope you feel better etc.

She texts me back a few days later for another meeting, we meet for a few drinks at a bar. It goes well, we have a lot in common and she is having fun, but before I discovered this subreddit I'm still an AFC and I don't use the KINO escalation ladder (mistake #1). She tells me she wants to hang out again when we leave, we hug and don't kiss (mistake #2). I text her after the date telling her I enjoyed it, she gives an okay response but not super enthusiastic one.

I call her the next day and we talk briefly, I ask her out for the next weekend she says she might be going out of town to see her family so she'd let me know. Uh oh, she's showing signs of flakiness. Later she texts me and says she's going to be flying out, I respond in an AFC manner and tell her to have fun seeing her family.

Afterwards I text her and ask her to hang out the upcoming weekend, she says doing what and I tell her to visit a local art gallery (she said she loved art during the first date) she agrees but I sense indecisiveness and flakiness on her part. Indeed the night before the date she texts me and tells me that her work has called her in for the next day (Sunday) and that she wouldn't be able to make it. She doesn't provide an alternate date. Game over. I didn't respond but I doubt ignoring her will yield anything.

So I'm sure a lot of you have gone through something similar either during your AFC days or even as an upcoming PUA.

The main mistakes I felt were: 1) Didn't build enough comfort and rapport during the first date. It was an AFC interview which means she probably thought I was nice/cute but didn't feel anything extra. 2) No Kino escalation. This is related to point number 1, women feel more comfortable when you develop a touch in a relationship and will be more likely to go out with you again. 3) Trying to pursue someone in the first place who was showing flaky tendencies from the start.

This is my self analysis, I am still new to this subreddit so I ask for general advice on how to improve points 1-3 and how to improve my game WHEN ON FIRST DATES rather than during the pick up phase, or even tactics that work with both. Any other mistakes you noticed that I didn't bring up?

TLDR: Need advice on how to improve comfort and rapport during first dates to reduce flakiness.