Don Curry stranded in Istanbul

Don Curry has had to deal with many problems and surprises during his air travels. Especially in recent years, it has become increasingly clear that more and more airlines are following the example of Deutsche Bahn and have long abandoned the ideal of fixed flight times. Punctuality is so yesterday...

During his trip to India, his feeder flight was completely canceled and he was spontaneously booked on a flight to London, where he then had to wait for nearly 12 hours for the connecting flight to India at Heathrow Airport. But things can still get worse!

Actually, this time the travel planning seemed to be most accommodating. All flights would be operated exclusively by Turkish Airlines, which should guarantee a perfect connection. Although Don Curry was initially surprised by the complete cancellation of the original return flight a few weeks ago, he was offered an equivalent flight that even gave him four more travel days. When he requested a shuttle service from the airport to his first hotel, the manager agreed only one minute later. When he asked the car rental company if the rental car could be delivered directly to the hotel, the positive answer came after only three minutes. This trip seemed to want to be particularly trouble-free.

But then the irritations began. The first one came up when Don Curry called the valet service 30 minutes before arriving at Hamburg Airport to announce his imminent arrival. He was told not to drive directly to the airport, but to an address nearby. Don Curry thought, wait a minute, why did the convenient valet service suddenly become a regular shuttle service? At the specified address, there was actually a shuttle bus with a driver waiting, who would now take him to the airport. But there was another driver there as well, who would now take his car to the actual parking lot. So it was a strange combination of valet and shuttle service. The shuttle driver then explained to Don Curry that Hamburg Airport had imposed a high monthly fee on all valet companies a few weeks ago. Therefore, this service no longer existed in its usual form or was available at extremely high rates. Don Curry didn't really care. The main thing was that his car was somewhere safe and that he would arrive at the airport on time.

At least the latter was definitely successful. Don Curry could have saved yesterday's online check-in, as Turkish Airlines does not offer automatic baggage drop-off in Hamburg. So he had to go to the counter and after a short wait, received a standard boarding pass, while his online boarding pass from yesterday was confiscated. He also learned here that the flight to Istanbul would be delayed by 25 minutes. No problem, thought Don Curry, after all, I have 90 minutes layover in Istanbul. That should still be enough.

The next irritation came at the security checkpoint. Don Curry is used to getting through all the checks almost without any problems. But this time, the security scanner sorted out his backpack three times as highly dangerous: suspicion of explosives! Each time, this suspicion was based on a travel guide, as these thick books contain so much biomass (paper) that the sensitive scanner mistakes them for organic explosives. Fortunately, the security staff seemed to be having a really good day and could joke with Don Curry about the absurd behavior of the technology. In the end, the boss herself suggested to generally ban the carrying of books, especially travel guides, on flights. In the end, all three travel guides in the backpack were subjected to special treatment and were no longer objected to by the scanner. Don Curry refrained from mentioning that he had several more travel guides in his checked-in suitcase.

At least the lengthy security check significantly shortened the wait time for the delayed departure. But there was still no shortage of waiting time. Because boarding did not even begin at the time that was actually indicated as the delayed departure time. Suddenly it was announced that there would be a 60-minute delay! The buffer time in Istanbul slowly melted away. Finally, the aircraft arrived, boarding began - the departure was now scheduled to take place after a total delay of 80 minutes. Now Don Curry could only hope that the flight to Tbilisi also felt obliged to adhere to the modern trend of relaxed time management. Boarding went surprisingly quickly, but then the plane stood on the tarmac for another 20 minutes before it got a slot to take off.

The pilot even made up for some of the lost time, but the plane from Hamburg landed exactly at the minute when the plane to Tbilisi was supposed to take off. Did it really happen? Don Curry lost more time because the landed aircraft could not dock directly at a gate, but the passengers had to be transported by bus in between. Finally, when Don Curry arrived at Istanbul Airport, he learned that the flight to Tbilisi had indeed already taken off. Too late! What now?

He wouldn't be the only passenger in this situation. He quickly found the Turkish Airlines Care Desk, where he once again had to join a queue. Hardly was it his turn, he was rebooked on the next flight to Tbilisi: at 6:40 a.m.! As compensation, the stressed airline employee handed him a voucher for a fast food restaurant at the airport. Don Curry asked about accommodation options? - That was his problem. He asked for compensation for the costs of the unnecessarily booked hotel room in Tbilisi. - He was given a copy with contact details and was told to take care of it himself.

Frustated, Don Curry left the Care Desk and that employee, who seemed frustrated herself because she had to keep frustrating passengers even more. He definitely didn't want her job.

He now had six hours to slowly let off some steam. He extensively explored this huge airport, passing by dozens of duty-free shops, restaurants, fast food outlets, handicraft stores, etc. He walked a total of 5 km through the airport halls during the night. He even discovered an area where a number of comfortable loungers were set up under artificial trees, so that he could lie down in between. But with the constant announcements and the loud conversations of some other temporary airport residents, sleep was out of the question.

Don Curry was stranded. What a start to this trip! How would it continue? Were there more complications to come? But Don Curry was already too tired to really give in to such questions...