The overnight flight is fairly full so the Coronavirus fears are not deterring flying yet.  Spain only has 401 active cases thus far so no one on the flight knows yet that they are flying into what will be one the epicenters in Europe.

We collect our bags and need to re-check in for the flight from Madrid to Istanbul.  We sort out that we need to take a bus to another terminal.  We board the bus and watch as the airport disappears in the distance.  The bus keeps going and going and going.  Fifteen minutes later, we’re thinking that there is no way we this is part of the same airport and we must have gotten on the wrong bus into downtown.  But no, we finally arrive at the terminal.

When Kyle booked the flights, the original schedule had us landing in Madrid at 10am and flying out of Madrid to Istanbul at 2pm. Sometimes, Kyle finds mega-discounted tickets via Skyscanner on these smaller 3rd party booking websites. In this case, the ticket was much cheaper through MyTrip.com than going direct. 

About a week ago, Turkish Airlines changed the flight time from departing Madrid at 2pm to departing Madrid at 12pm.  “No problem,” Kyle thinks, “we’ve made international connections with a lot less time than that.”  Then, 3 days before the flight, Kyle gets an e-mail from MyTrip.com saying that we’ve all been rebooked on the Turkish Airlines flight leaving Madrid and 6:30pm.  That’s it.  No explanation.  

The problem is that we land in Istanbul right smack in the dead of night at 1:45am.  Since Kyle will be flying without Leanne, he is not too keen on arriving at 2am and finding way to an Airbnb and in addition, the owner needs to meet us to let us in the Airbnb and we’re pretty sure he’s not going to be too keen on doing that 3am in the morning.

After waiting on hold for an hour with MyTrip.com, Kyle gets through to a rep who says that the flight has been cancelled so we’ve been re-booked on the 6:15pm flight.  Kyle is sitting at his laptop on Turkish Airlines website which is still showing the flight. “Nope,” the agent insists, “our system is not showing that flight.”

Undeterred, Kyle calls Turkish Airlines who low and behold, confirms that the flight is scheduled as normal.  After further discussion about what happened, the agent says that when the flight was moved to 12pm departure, the booking agent must have decided 2 hours wasn’t enough time and switched me to the 6:15pm departure.  The problem is that they are only allowed one switch and so we are stuck on this flight.  “Shouldn’t they have checked with me to see if I was willing to take the risk that 2 hours was enough time?” I ask her.  “You’ll have to take that up with them, sir,” she responds.

So now, another hour and half on hold, I get through to the MyTrip.com customer service rep. He tries to say the same “the flight’s been cancelled” but this time I inform him about my conversation with Turkish Airlines.  He becomes very curt and says, “we’ll if that’s the case, there is nothing I can do about it.”  “Well, then I’d like to speak with your supervisor,” I reply.  Click. Seriously?  The guy just hung up on me?  After waiting on hold for an hour and a half?

It’s pretty clear that I’m going to be screwed by MyAss.com, I mean MyTrip.com.  Since getting in at 2am and sleeping in the airport until we can get in the Airbnb is still not an option, Kyle turns to plan B which involves buying new tickets from Madrid to Istanbul on a different airline that gets in at a reasonable time. 

Having done that, we now have tickets on the 1:35pm flight on Pegasus Airlines (yeah, I haven’t heard of them either but not like I had a lot of choice) and the 6:15pm flight on Turkish Airlines.

We arrive at the terminal at 11am in what would have been plenty of time for the original 12pm Turkish Airline flight so Kyle sees he we can get the flight switched back from 6:15pm and 12:00pm departure.  “Yes, we can do this,” the ticketing agent informs Kyle.  “Score!” Kyle thins. “For a change fee and the fare differential,” the agent continues.  “Well, how much is that?” “Two thousand five hundred dollars.”  “No thank you.”  Definitely not worth $2,500 to get there an hour and half earlier. 

So Pegasus Airlines it is.  Kyle is just hoping they this isn’t the training airline that rookie pilots practice their take-offs and landings before graduating to a real airline.  As we’re checking in, the agent asks, “Have you been to China, Italy, South Korea, Singapore or Thailand in the last 14 days?” “No,” Kyle responds, “but hypothetically, what would happen if I had been?” “We wouldn’t let you board the flight.” 

This is the first first-hand indication that the Huebner World Tour (of HWT for short) could be in for some rough waters ahead.  At this point, S Korea has 6.5K reported case and Italy has 4.6K reported cases but Singapore and Thailand only had a handful of cases. This indicates that any country we go to, even without a lot of cases, could be thrown on the blocked country list when you go to the next country.

We grab lunch ensuring to wipe every surface in sight with disinfectant wipes and nearly drown ourselves with hand sanitizer.  We board the flight which is also quite full and are off.  The flight is uneventful, that is, unless we contracted the Coronavirus without knowing it.  

We land in Istanbul’s SAW airport. Decent size line for passport control but nowhere near as bad as some of the South American airports such as Buenos Aires and Lima.  The passport control line which snakes around back and forth is definitely not “social distancing” compliant but then again, social distancing has not become all the rage quite yet.  The line that goes side to side exposures you not only to people in front and behind you but also to people on both sides of you.

The Airbnb owner has arranged for a transport for Kyle.  After we collect our bags, we go out and meet up with the driver.  Only, it’s not the driver, it’s the coordinator dude.  Kyle asks to go find an ATM and is told no, that he can get it at the hotel.  The coordinator is apparently looking for other people even though we are supposed to have our own vehicle.  It’s an hour drive so Kyle heads to the bathroom.  As he’s coming back, the kids run up to him to inform him that the coordinator dude left them. “Did you tell him I was in the bathroom?” Kyle asks.  “Yeah, but he had other people with him and didn’t seem to care.”

So we all take off in a sprint in the direction he left.  We burst out of the airport and see the evil coordinator dude in the distance.  After finally catching up to him, Kyle says, “given we arranged for a private transport, do you think I could be afforded the luxury of going to the bathroom before an hour drive?”  The dude just shrugs and turns around. Geez!

An hour later, we pull up to the Airbnb at about 9:30pm.  A friend of the owner is there to check us in. The Airbnb is reasonable, not the best, not the worst.  We got it mostly for the location near the Blue Mosque. Istanbul is an absolutely gigantic city so location matters.

We are exhausted but starving so we are forced out in search of food.  We want close and we want quick and the winner is…Burger King.  Yet again.  Authentic Turkish food will have to wait another day.