Above: Mdina soon after take-off.
Getting to Istanbul
Today we begin our big trip back after over five weeks of summer. I’m bound for hometown Kuching whereas Kim will plunge into the depths of winter in Auckland.
We set the alarm for 0600 but I had woken at 0500 anyway. Getting a rideshare to the airport at 0700 was easy enough and we got to Turkish Airlines’ counter at Malta airport about 20 mins before it opened for our 1035 departure.
With no major queueing so far for this trip for any border formalities, we were pleased to keep that record and got through security very quickly. After more than an hour in the lounge, we proceeded through immigration to the extra-Schengen area of the airport which basically had flights to Istanbul, Dubai and the UK.
After boarding our B737-900 by bus, we closed up and departed 5 mins late. On the flight of 2h25, a delicious hot meal (with no choice) was served by the crew of 4 only. Other airlines have more crew on even the smaller B737-800 but I guess Turkish don’t pack in their planes like sardines. The legroom on this flight was very generous.
Touching down about 10 mins before scheduled arrival, we had a 30 min taxi to our gate where we had a new experience. Instead of walking with all other passengers to the transit security screening area (near the passport control), transit passengers were asked to show their boarding passes near the airbridge area and then siphoned off to through boarding doors of the departure gate into the departure level.
That saved us possibly 30 mins of walking, queueing and screening. I’ve never had international-to international transfers without re-screening but I’ve read that some countries have aligned their screening standards and do not re-screen. Great to have more convenience rather than more new requirements!
Overbooking mistake
After over an hour in the lounge we headed to our boarding gate and by luck were first in the queue for our boarding zone for our 1715 flight to Singapore. Like the lounge, it was very sweaty without adequate ventilation in summer.
An announcement was made (not through the PA) that the flight had been overbooked (I had known it was full). The airline was giving EUR600 to each person plus hotel vouchers to get at 0200.
With commitments to deal with, we dismissed the offer. I need to get back to Kuching to prepare the apartment for five family members from the UK. I didn’t fancy losing my Singapore hotel rest and my next day’s flight to Kuching.
It wasn’t until when we had seated ourselves on the plane that I realised we would only be about 10h late. I would still get my hotel rest in Singapore and make it to Kuching on my original booking.
As we were in the front of the queue, we didn’t feel like leaving the queue to find details of the offer. And it was sweaty and we couldn’t think straight.
Damn! EUR600 would buy me a very nice new phone! It would also buy me some very nice hotel nights in Kuching as I have to move out of my apartment for my guests.
Lessons learnt:
- Whenever flying commercial firm tickets, always take a look at the loading.
- If the flights appear to be closed for sale, prepare a decision for accepting an offload offer.
- Allow buffer time when flying on commercial firm tickets. However, we normally build in buffers when flying standby and adding buffers when flying firm kinda defeats the purpose.
Talking to some people who took up the offer from the previous flight, things didn’t go so well. A Canadian party of six didn’t realise that they needed visas to enter the country. That would cost USD75 per head even though they had just collected EUR600 each. I’m also not sure how much time the airport shuttle would have taken.
Nearly the flight from hell
Seated at the back of the A350, it was warm. Boarding took forever with many people not taking their seats. Families had been split up as the flight was so full and there had been last minute offloads in preference of people offloaded from earlier flights.
In all, we left 30 mins late. Even after the quiet take-off, it continued to be hot and there were a couple of crying babies in the area. Strangely the legroom on this longhaul aircraft was less than on the previous shorthaul one.
The meals didn’t live up to the high standards set by this airline normally. The rice was over-heated and dry in the chicken dish. The other choice was vegetarian and likewise with the no-choice second meal.
With a relatively early departure from Istanbul on this night flight, I had trouble sleeping even with a pill. I badly wanted to have a good rest as I had suddenly developed a sore throat while queueing to boarding in Malta and it was getting slightly worse.
If we hadn’t been assigned two aisle seats, this would have been the flight from hell. As we were on relatively cheap tickets, the seat selection was a steep EUR13 for the short flight and EUR28 for this one!