Arriving in Bangkok
The 1630 departure from Istanbul wasn’t conducive for sleep on the 9h10 flight. That’s despite the 0415 wake-up and half a sleeping pill. Somehow, I must have rested enough during the 5h30 between the dinner and breakfast, as it didn’t seem to drag on.
I did get peckish in between the meals and was surprised to see assorted sandwiches, apples and bananas available for the taking in the galley. This isn’t a particularly long flight.
We landed a little before the 0540 scheduled arrival at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport. I have 3h25 connecting time here.
Security to get to the transfer desk located in the departure area was reasonably fast. My standby pass to Kuala Lumpur was swapped for one with a seat number straight away. That was done about 3h before departure, taking away the stress of having to wait till 20 mins before departure at the gate.
Looking back at yesterday
Looking back at how I got away from Istanbul yesterday, I realise that it was only possible to try for two flights simultaneously because I had no checked-in baggage. If I had baggage checked-in for the first flight, I would have had to wait over an hour to retrieve it before I could try for a different airline.
Because I had all my options charted with the timings, loads and prices, and had purchased the tickets for most options already, I wasn’t stressed. I was merely executing a pre-planned sequence of flights to try.
Re-booking
I have a flight from KL to hometown Kuching tomorrow afternoon, and had a hotel booked for the nightstop in KL.
AirAsia had emailed me advising of a 90 min delay due to supposed runway closure in Kuching. They offered me a free flight change.
I took advantage of that while in the lounge, and changed it to the first realistic connection 4h40 after my scheduled landing in KL later today. The previous option with a self-connect at 1h40 was too risky.
This was done through their chatbot which then passed me on to a human livechat. It was surprisingly easy.
I had anticipated this change and had cancelled my hotel in KL while in Istanbul, ahead of the free cancellation deadline.
While I had paid MYR99 for the ticket from KL to Kuching, at the time I made the change, the seat on the flight I had changed to was selling for MYR1199 on a last-minute basis.
Continuing to Kuala Lumpur and Kuching
The Thai Airways 787 left Bangkok on time. A full meal was served on a bigger tray than that used on the longhaul flight. I was very impressed with the meal and the fact that red and white wines plus spirits were being offered with breakfast. While scheduled for 2h10, we were only airborne for about 1h45.
Landing on time at 1215, I went from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2, getting there in good time. I would have made it for the earlier flight to Kuching but it would have been close.
I killed time with a meal and a shower in a landside lounge before heading airside before learning of a 30 min delay to my 1745 flight.
Prior to the delay I would have had 15h flying, 15h30 of transit time and about 3h awake prior to that. I should be shattered when I get to Kuching.
Landing in Kuching, I ordered a car to take me home to the apartment. I was still able to have a pleasant conversation with the driver who works as a musician. He played some of his music to entertain me on the ride.
Arriving at the apartment around 2000, I was still able to change the sheets and mop the floor before taking a well-earned sleep