Leaving Chisinau
Today I fly from Chisinau to Istanbul and from there, will somehow and hopefully make it to Kuala Lumpur on one of several standby options.
I woke at 0415 and left my room about 30 mins later to check out from the hotel. I managed to get a car on the Yandex app, meaning that I successfully visited Moldova for two days without using any cash.
At the airport around 0515, the small terminal building was surprisingly busy with people and the number of flights leaving. Fortunately, there was hardly a queue for my HiSky flight and after a quick passport check, I was in the long but reasonably fast queue to get airside.
I got through within 35 mins of arriving at the airport, which is OK considering how busy it was. Too much space had been allocated to duty-free shops in the terminal and not enough for processing area and seating.
Knowing that Istanbul airport is crazily expensive (eg. NZD24 for a sandwich; Scandinavian prices in a developing country), I stocked up on a sandwich, a yoghurt drink (to go with my muesli) and a drink. While Moldova airport was expensive by local standard, it wasn’t anywhere near Istanbul pricing.
There was not much spare time but I found the water fountain once I got to the gate area, meaning I need not have spend my good money on a drink at airport prices. All gates here were bus or remote gates, so boarding started a little earlier.
The 0700 flight on HiSky, a Romanian airline, from Chisinau to Istanbul was operated by Heston Airlines from Lithuanian. The crew were from various Mediterranean countries. The A320 was old (judging from the old-style passenger service units overhead) but looked very well refurbished.
Long transit and standby options
Landing at 0840, my first choice was to try the first nonstop service to Kuala Lumpur at 1550 (7h10 min later), followed by the second at 1800. There was a flight through Bangkok in between at 1630 but I would rather not take that if I can help it.
After the 1800 direct flight, I would consider some connecting flights. There is a considerable gap till the third nonstop service at 0140 and thereafter, there are no viable connecting flights.
This meant that after trying the 1800 direct flight, I should consider indirect options such as the ones via Dubai, Doha or Bangkok, in case the 0140 direct service wasn’t viable.
With so much time on my hands, I sat down and reviewed my options, then ate my sandwich. That killed about an hour before I approached the airline desks to do a definitive check for the direct and indirect flight loadings.
- The news wasn’t good for the three direct flights, as they were oversold by 18, 15 and 6 seats. The good news is that I would be the only standby on the first and second one and there would be one other on the third.
- The 1630 option via Bangkok was only oversold by 3 passengers with me being the only standby. That was looking promising.
Theoretically, airlines oversell in the expectation that everyone will get on with maybe a couple of spare seats due to no-shows and missed connections. But I don’t think it’s going to end up that way tonight on the direct flights.
I decided I would somehow simultaneously try for the 1550 direct and 1630 via Bangkok.
- The first airline was able to issue me a standby pass so I could go to the lounge.
- The second arranged for me to get my boarding pass at the gate later (instead of the transfer desk). This would allow me to get from the 1550 option to the 1630 option with minimum walking, backtracking and waiting.
Landside briefly
Around 1100, I headed landside to check on my Istanbulkarts and get a small amount of cash for my proposed visit in November. The Turkish lira keeps dropping so it’s not a good idea to hold too much.
While there was no queue at immigration earlier, there was now a considerable wait. I hadn’t been hungry enough to have my yoghurt drink with my muesli in my tin cup, so I drank finished it in the queue as I knew it couldn’t go back airside later.
It took me over an hour to get out, get some cash, go to the airport metro station (a fair distance away) to check on my Istanbulkarts and return airside. If I had known the metro was so far away, I would have tried the bus station in the lowest floor of the terminal first.
Back airside
Once airside, I went to the lounge for a couple of hours before heading to the gate to try for the 1550 direct flight to Kuala Lumpur, continuing to Sydney. The time for this long transit had gone ridiculously quickly.
Badly overbooked
Getting to the gate about an hour before the flight, there were maybe around 15 commercial passengers talking to the gate staff. I identified myself as a standby staff passenger and was told to wait to be spoken to as a group.
The flight was badly oversold, supposedly due in part to missed connections from an earlier flight. Commercial passengers were being offered EUR600 and accommodation to transfer to tomorrow’s flight. It didn’t appear that they were looking for volunteers but specific people were being bumped. There were plenty of solo passengers so the prospect of me getting on due to families not wanting to be split up wasn’t going to happen.
Normally for this airline, they would give me a confirmed seat when all passengers have boarded, eg. around 20 mins before the departure, ie. 1530. But with this announcement, I knew I could move on to the option via Bangkok straight away at around 1500.
Next option
I walked quickly to the next gate but called at the first airline’s counter to have myself properly offloaded to ensure no complications for my refund. The staff there, while sullen, were particularly helpful in once again checking loads remaining flights for his airline.
He reiterated the fact that my first option still had two seats for now even though I explained that commercial passengers were being turned away.
Arriving in a rather sweaty state at the second gate an hour before the 1630 departure, I waited patiently. I was finally given a boarding pass after the last passenger boarded, around 25 mins before departure.
I was relieved to be flying to Bangkok, knowing that there would be plenty of options to connect to Kuala Lumpur.
Inflight to Bangkok
Onboard the Thai Airways A350, I was two rows behind Door 3L. There was no seat in front of me due to the slide bustle of the door, meaning that I had extra legroom. The headrest says “Fees Apply” but I was lucky to get it for free.
The downside was that I was not allowed to have my little bag close to me throughout the flight and not just for take-off and landing.
The aircraft had been sitting in the Turkish summer heat for several hours and it didn’t cool down till after take-off.
The female cabin crew on this longhaul flight really stood out dressed in long Thai silk attire. Male crew and senior female crew were in modern western gear.