An Alitalian Adventure

I was planning to go to the States to Sherri's wedding. 2 months ago I realised that the obvious solution to my problems caused by the crashing Turkish Lira exchange rate, and the prices of flights around the most expensive weekend of the year to fly to the States was for me not to go. It was a hard decision to make, since I had been planning to go for a year, and I was due to play the violin in the wedding. What made it doubly hard was that it would be the first time our whole family was together in about 15 years. By family I mean my mom, her 2 sisters, and all the kids. I didn't want to miss that. Unfortunately I am. I realised that to spend over $1000 on the plane ticket, and then countless more on hotel, car rental, food etc, was just impossible. Especially with the lira-dollar exchange rate.

Cancelling this trip meant that I now had my first vacation since I came to Turkey. 3 weeks in which to do... what?

Let me add a little note here about budget airlines. Over on the other side of the world, I don't think there are things like RyanAir and EasyJet and that family of transportation. Some of the prices I may quote seem unbelievable, and that's the cool part.... Check out RyanAir.com and EasyJet.com if you don't believe me.

I looked online, and compared the prices of taking a holiday in Turkey, bus, hotel, meals etc, with the price of a trip to Paris to see Violetta. I found that if I combined a trip to Paris with a trip to Spain, I could travel for extremely little. Between a cheap round-trip ticket to Barcelona on Alitalia, and a crazy cheap (i.e. the price of a meal) ticket to Paris from Barcelona, I could spend less than 150 Euros total travelling. Combined with staying with friends (who I was dying to see anyway) and eating in, this trip was well within budget. So I booked it.

On July 5th, I was scheduled to leave Istanbul and fly to Barcelona via Milan on Alitalia. I was right on schedule with my plans to get to the airport, and was sitting on the seabus, when my phone rang. The lady from alitalia on the other end was trying to explain to me that the flight was delayed and I would miss my connection, so I would be going to Barcelona tomorrow, but I should come to the office and get a voucher. I had no idea what she meant. At first I thought I was going abck home to Kadikoy for another night and taking the flight the next day. She then explained that I would stay in Milan overnight and the airline would pay for the hotel and dinner and breakfast, and then I would be on the first flight to Barcelona in the morning. Dude, that was ok. I had originally planned to bunk on the couchat Peyman's flat in Barcelona, so staying in a hotel in Milan was a much better prospect. Especially since Pey was leaving early in the morning and I'd have to leave the house when he left. As long as I was in Girona (an hour north of BCN) for my flight at 8 in the evening to Paris, I'd be fine. So I tried calling Pey, couldn't reach him, and sent him an e-mail to let him know I wasn't coming.

I arrived at the airport, and the line at the ticket counter where I had to go to reorganise my flight plan and deal with the voucher, was long. After about 20 minutes, the lady called for all the Barcelona passengers to come to the front. After looking at the tickets and talking on the phone for a few minutes, she told us that there was a flight with another airline with a connection to Barcelona and that she would schedule us on that flight, so we would be in Barcelona that night. No Milan, actually the connection was in Vienna. Cool, I thought, as I tried to phone Peyman again and settled for sending him a text message. "I sent you an e-mail and voice mail saying that I wasn't coming, plans have changed, now I am. C U 2nite." Or something to that effect. The idea was first I was coming, then I wasn't coming, now I was coming again. For the next 45 minutes, the Alitalia woman reissued all our tickets again (they had been reissued earlier to include a Milan layover). Somewhere in the middle of the typing on the computer, talking on the phone and printing out and ripping up things, she got a phone call. Apparently there was a problem with the Vienna connection and we wouldn't be able to do it after all. More tickets ripped up, more reissuing, and the 7 of us Barcelona passengers stood looking harassed as all the other passengers received their reissued tickets and walked off happily to check in.

We finally got our new tickets (which were the same as the old tickets, not the original ticket, but the Mark II version. This was ticket Mark IV), and went to check in. At check-in, after finding out that in all the reissuing, I had lost my exit row window seat which I had taken the trouble of booking the day before . I then watched my bag go through, looked at the tag, and realised that it was checked to Barcelona. So I asked if I would get it in Milan, she said no. So basically, I was overnighting with no luggage. I asked if it would be possible to arrange for me to pick up my bag in Milan, she said no. It seemed strange to me, because everytime I've had an overnight connection, I've also had to pick up my luggage.... Luckily, my mom taught me well, and my carry on bag contained a change of underwear and toiletries.

We arrived in Milan an hour and half late. Exactly 9 p.m. The same time our flight to Barcelona was due to depart. I skipped the luggage conveyor but went over to baggage services just to make sure I didn't need to pick up my suitcase. It would suck to arrive in Barcelona the next day with no bag, especially since I was leaving for Paris the next evening.

I found 4 of the the other 6 Barcelona travellers at the luggage conveyor picking up their luggage. They said that at check-in, they were told that it was impossible to check it through to Barcelona since there was an overnight layover. That's when I started to get nervous. They had been told the exact opposite of what I had been told.

We went to the ticket counter to get our hotel vouchers. Got to the front of the line and were told to go to the check-in counter. There we met the other 2 stranded Barcelona-bound passengers waiting. THe guy at the counter said that someone else was coming and they should wait. He wasn't doing anything. We realised half an hour later that we were waiting for his shift to end, so someone else could come and deal with us. Not just anyone, but The New Girl. She had no idea what she was doing and was very easily confused. It took her about 45 minutes and 25 phone calls to start issuing us with vouchers for dinner and breakfast and hotel and airport transfers. Mine was finished first so I also asked her to check and make sure my bag was headed in the right direction. This was difficult for her, since while she was on hold for 10 minutes with the baggage people, it was impossible for her to handle the other passengers' vouchers. I told her to forget it and deal with them, since I was holding everyone up. It also came out that the other couple travelling, had been offered the option of collecting their bags in Milan, or sending them through to Barcelona.. Three groups, three different stories. All in all I was the only one out of the 7 of us who had no luggage....

While we waited, France scored a goal in the semi-final match and still we waited. As she was starting on the last voucher, she got a call. She then explained to us that the past hour and a half had basically been a waste of time. The flight to Barcelona had been delayed by 2 hours and was still here in Milan. That's the flight that ticket Mark I had us on. Of course, none of us still had ticket Mark I, and the inept agent we were dealing with now had to cancel 7 ticket Mark IVs, issue 7 ticket Mark Vs and check us and our luggage in to the flight. She informed me that my bag had already been put on the flight. Basically, the 9 p.m. flight was now leaving at 11:30 p.m. and we would arrive in Barcelona at 2 a..m. or something crazy like that. Hold up. I have cancelled my plans in Barcelona, re-made them and cancelled them. Now you're telling me that I have to give up this voucher in my hand which allows me to keep things as they are and rest tonight and fly tomorrow, and instead rush now to get reissued another time (which, in my experience that day, takes about 45 minutes) and arrive in Barcelona in the wee hours of the morning with nowhere to stay, and no public transportation. I told her not to bother with my ticket. I was keeping things how they were. She looked both surprised and relieved. That meant only 6 tickets to reissue. I told her to leave my luggage on the flight and I would see it in Barcelona the next day. I took my voucher and headed for my Italian dinner, and comfy hotel room.

The next morning, I didn't have to check in, because that had been done the night before and I had my borading pass, and no luggage. I got on the plane, and there, in seat 26A, my seat, was someone else with a boarding pass, also for seat 26A. I had to wait for the whole flight to fill up and took the last available seat, luckily also an A window. Our flight left with no delays. I arrived in Barcelona, all prepared mentally to give a description of my bag in Spanish to baggage services, because I knew it wouldn't be there. Thank goodness. I was wrong.

After my Alitalian Adventure, spending a day re-exploring Barcelona was relaxing and fun. I hopped on the shuttle to Girona, and caught my RyanAir flight with much less fuss and confusion. I arrived in Paris at 11 last night and saw Violetta. It was so good to see her again!!! This morning we went to a cafe around the corner for some coffee and a croissant, and now I'm heading out to explore Paris under overcast but comfortable weather....