Hopefully my recent travel mistake is about to conclude.
We (family Scarlett) are sitting in the TK Lounge Istanbul awaiting our flight out at 0200. It was supposed to have occurred three days ago...
After enjoying the sights and sounds of Cyprus, northern Cyprus and Turkey, we'd completed what was likely the riskiest part of the trip and had crossed back from Turkish occupied northern Cyprus into the country proper. I'd been a little 'calculating' might be the best word in nesting a trip to Turkey into the Cyprus time. We'd crossed into the north with no issues (no passport stamps) and then flew out of the airport in the north (Ercan - ECN), direct to Turkey and had spent some time along the southern med coast. On arrival back at ECN, the immigration officer did stamp our passports as entering the 'Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus', which I knew could be a problem when heading back south. As it was, no issues with this particular quirk of travel in Cyprus.
So, we flew back out of Cyprus (LCA) to ATH and because we were heading for Indonesia, still had to prove covid negative to be allowed to recheck in at ATH (separate tickets - we flew A3 LCA-ATH (Y) and were connecting to TK for ATH-IST-CGK in J) I'd checked Timatic and will swear before any court, that I checked and rechecked the requirements and they said neg PCR within 48hrs of commencing travel, or neg Rapid Test within 24hrs. So at ATH three hours before the TK flight we went and got rapid tests done and all negative. Checked in with the TK desk no problems, showing our vax and recently completed tests. Bags checked all the way through and two boarding passes in hand for the two legs. ATH-IST was fine for the quick one hour leg and then we had about seven hours in the IST lounge in transit. At the appointed boarding time we made our way through the massive IST to our gate to much shouting and apparent chaos. After five minutes in the imaginatively titled 'line' we get, "Do you have your vax certificates and PCR results", asked the ground services agent as we reached the scanner. I handed over the vax sheets and the screenshots of the rapid test results and told her they were rapid tests (MISTAKE ONE). That's where the problem started as we apparently needed PCR as the only acceptable test. I protested that I'd checked this on Timatic, but on her screen it did indeed say PCR only (MISTAKE TWO).
As there were standby pax I'd suggest our seats were probably already being reassigned at that point. The result was denied boarding, which was great fun at 0200 with a child in tow. Gate staff are contractors and couldn't help with anything other than that we weren't getting on the plane. So, we trudged forlornly back up to the TK J lounge and with heart in mouth asked the staff there what we could do, thinking that at worst I'd be up for three new short notice tickets to get home. However, I certainly wasn't shy about mentioning that TK had checked us in at ATH after reviewing all the necessary documents. We were on discount J tix so I'm not sure what they entered into their system but the lounge staff said they'd rebook us, no problem. Flights to Indonesia from IST (both to CGK and DPS) were full for the next two days, so we were to have an enforced three day stay in Istanbul. They wouldn't rebook via SIN, KUL or BKK. They also wouldn't cover a hotel for the stay as it was longer than 24hrs and at that point I wasn't going to argue. So we had a quick look at 'airport' hotels using the lounge wifi and booked something nearby (MISTAKE THREE) in Arnavutkoy.
Next was collecting our offloaded bags, which meant enduring more chaos in the TK baggage services office (much shouting, no lines, many unhappy pax missing bags) before eventually someone called someone else out the back and eventually a staff member turned up and led us to our bags at the other end of the hall in a side room. This took over an hour. Taxi to hotel, check in, quick shower and heads hit the pillow at 0500 after 23 hours of travel. We slept to midday and then had to reorganise our lives back at home to cope with the delay.
The upside, yesterday we did a full day tour of Istanbul and saw all the main tourist sites, and at other times we walked around the local area, ate doner kebabs from local shops (~AUD2 each and tasty!) got a haircut (AUD4) and saw a bit of real life Turkey. (not overly dissimilar to Indonesia really, with the interesting interpretations of road rules, rubbish thrown everywhere, mostly plastic, and again that word chaos, but organised chaos!). The hotel was fine, but was a local hotel catering probably to overnight airport-transit guests only.
The downsides: had to use extra time off, extra cost for hotel, taxis, meals and plenty of unnecessary stress.
How should I have fixed the mistakes:
1. Kept my damn mouth shut! I reckon after process probably about a hundred other boarding pax, if I'd just given her the covid vax papers and shown her the test results on my phone, highlighting all negative, she might well have missed the Rapid test wording as I guess the ATH check in desk did?
2. Not sure how I fix this as I was CERTAIN I had everything correct and I knew I'd checked it and rechecked it. But it was my mistake and it nearly cost us new flight tickets.
3. Should have booked somewhere closer to the better tourist action. Hotels close to the airport are fine for a quick layover, but are more problematic for filling in three days. We had a couple of shops close, but the town centre was a 25-30 minute walk away.
Oh, and the extra dirk in the ribs... yesterday about three hours after we got PCR tested for this second attempt to fly out, the Indonesian Govt scrapped entry testing requirements (and not bloody before time too - for a country of 300 million people they have been averaging 250-300 positive cases a day - but still had entry testing requirements AND still had outdoor mask mandates!) So, we're all PCR negative, but it wasn't checked at check-in, so another wasted EUR60.
Boarding time...again. Fingers crossed.
