Gateway to my next adventure

Flying out of Suvarnabhumi

My flight to Istanbul was scheduled for 0925.  Istanbul is the gateway to my next adventure in Iraqi Kurdistan and then Sharm el Sheikh.  I woke at 0545 and left the hotel at 0630 for Suvarnabhumi Airport.  I had pessimistically allowed an hour’s ride on Grab to get to the airport, knowing full well that it wouldn’t be necessary early on a Saturday morning.  Sure enough, I was at the airport at 0700.

Check-in was quick because I was able to use the dedicated online check-in desk to get my boarding pass; no mobile  or kiosk-printed pass was possible. The check-in agent carefully checked that I met the visa requirements for my entire itinerary  of four sectors, rather than just today’s and the next sector .

Going through security was reasonably quick but came the bottleneck.  We were held back at the security station because the immigration area downstairs was already full.  When we eventually descended the escalator, there was a long snaking queue.

I finally cleared immigration about 50 mins after being dropped off.  Probably 30 mins of that was in the immigration queue.  Some automation is probably overdue as all counters appeared to be in use already.

Despite its size, walking distances at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi  airport aren’t too bad.  I managed to fit in 20 mins at a lounge before boarding 50 mins prior to my flight.  Boarding must have started quite early because they were already boarding the forward cabin when I got there; perfect timing.

Onboard Turkish Airlines to Istanbul

We waited for stragglers before closing up and departing 10 mins early.  Seated near the engine with a spare seat (I moved few rows back), it was quite quiet but not eerily quiet like the TAP Air Portugal A330 NEO in a similar location.

The flight was full-ish, nearly completely with Thais.  Perhaps many are going on holiday in Turkey or anywhere in Europe, as Istanbul is the perfect doorstep to the continent.  There’s probably a few workers headed in the same direction too.

The food on Turkish Airlines was good.  The first meal was a no-choice breakfast of omelette sans the usual fake chicken sausage.  A lavish bar service with lots of spirits, coffee and tea followed breakfast.  In particular I love their homemade limonata which had the perfect balance between sweet, sour and mint.  Being Malaysian, I’d add a dash of salt!

The individual water bottles (and more coffee/tea) after breakfast was a nice touch after breakfast but not the best environmental-wise  It allowed the crew to have the lights off and window-shades down and disappear into the galleys for most of the flight.

I hardly used the inflight entertainment during the daylight flight but planned, read and wrote.  Due to the time-of-day, I was hungry only a couple of hours after breakfast because it coincided with lunchtime in Bangkok.

Dinner was served about 2h before landing.  After approximately 9h45 flying through the Bay of Bengal, India, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey we landed at Istanbul’s new airport about 30 mins early.

Arriving at Istanbul’s new airport

We touched down at 1515 and with a long taxi, we were at the gate about 20 mins later.  It was a long walk from the gate to immigration where there was no queue.  Another hike from there via baggage claim (where I had nothing) to the customs exit.  I think I was out of arrival hall a little over 30 minutes after touchdown, maybe over 10 mins from disembarkation.  Not bad for a mega airport.

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It was another hike to the end of the airport for the ATMs.  I had to try various ATMs to find one that didn’t charge a hefty flat fee of around USD5-9 or 3%! Third time lucky!

Moving down two floors to the transport level, I found the bus to the city easily.  But several Istanbulkart machines didn’t work for my top-up attempts on my two cards.  I used a new-style machine and that worked immediately.

The bus was super-comfy with seats better than on most aircraft, except for its width.  We left an hour after touchdown and got to my stop in Eminonu about 50 mins later.  Officially, it was mean to take 100 mins.  We did the bulk of the journey in about 30 mins on motorway and the last 20 mins  was spent meandering through the streets on the opposite side of the Golden Horn before crossing across to Eminonu.

I chose to disembark at Eminonu rather than Sultanahmet as the Glamour Hotel was in between the two stops.  It was a crowded but enjoyable 10 min walk to the hotel.  I noticed that for a while I made better progress on foot than the bus.

After a rest, I grabbed a light supper of a durum sandwich and a freshly-squeezed juice before retiring at 2100.

My ticket to Istanbul, Iraq and Egypt

This part of my trip was planned for travel to Iraqi Kurdistan and also Sharm el Sheikh for diving.  Finding the perfect airfare to include both places proved to be a challenge, and optimising it for a factors afterwards added to that challenge.  Here’s a run-down:

• Not many airlines fly to Iraqi Kurdistan and also Sharm el Sheikh (SSH). My ideal would be an airline that flew into both Erbil (EBL) and Sulaymaniyah (ISU) in Iraqi Kurdistan so I could create an open-jaw (fly into one city and out of the other to avoid back-tracking).
• I priced fares to EBL & ISU open-jaw, plus a side trip to SSH.  Then reversing the open-jaw as ISU & EBL, plus a side trip to SSH.  Then a fare to SSH plus a side trip to EBL & ISU.  Then a fare to SSH and a side trip to ISU & EBL.  That’s four options!
• Fares were generally high even though I looked at departures from Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok.  So the four options were then multiplied by the three options of departure points, making 12 pricing options!
• Then came the flight timings.  The shorthaul flights were largely at horrible times through the night, making one homeless before the night flight and then afterwards.  Also, I didn’t want a late night arrival into Iraq.
• At the end of the various comparisons, my best option was to fly from Bangkok through Istanbul to SSH and returning to Kuala Lumpur then add a side trip on Atlas Global to EBL and out of ISU.    The main fare was around USD740 and the side trip USD210, totalling USD950.  If had I chosen ISU/EBL as the destination and SSH as the side trip, or sequenced the open-jaw as ISU then EBL, the total would have risen to as much as USD1660.
• I was pleased with having to set SSH as the main ticket.  It meant that the Iraqi portion was a separate ticket; a separate module of my entire trip which could be dropped out of the picture if the security situation changed.  After all, I was making bookings many months ahead.  I could easily replace Iraq with a side-trip to Europe or within Turkey.
• I had also considered the various connecting cities, as to whether the flights would connect or whether I’d have to stay up to three times.  My final solution meant three stays in Istanbul.  Not the best, but it’s a city I love even though it won’t be new and exciting anyore.
• As it turned out later, one of the flights on Atlas Global was later rescheduled to an awful time.  I was entitle to a refund and managed to snap up award tickets on Turkish to replace the flights into EBL and out of ISU.
• Some people think I think too much.  But why pay unnecessarily?  Or have unnecessary sleepless nights, long days, unnecessary stopovers or commutes to/from the airport?