Leaving Auckland
I had missed the email that arrived after midnight advising that my 1105 flight to Singapore had been delayed by under an hour. I could have had a bit more sleep instead of waking at 0700.
Kim dropped me at the airport around 0900 and due to the kindness of a friend, I was able to use the premium check-in area and also the express lane through to immigration and security. I was airside about 15 mins after hopping out of the car.
Even with a visit to the Air New Zealand lounge, the three hours at the airport dragged on today, because everything worked too smoothly.
I was pleased to have been upgraded (on a paid basis at staff rate) from an economy seat between people to business but in a seat that was faulty or temperamental with its ability to convert into a bed.
The flight to Singapore on a black B777-300 finally closed up about 90 mins late. The aircraft appears to be stuck on an AKL-SIN-AKL rotation for about a week and that takes about 24h each cycle. That meant that there was no time to recover from yesterday’s delay.
Iraqi airspace situation
This trip will take me to Iraq, a place that is safe to visit, according to reports from many travellers but not western governments.
Unfortunately, over the recent weeks, there had been missile exchanges between Israel and Iran. Iraq’s airspace has been caught in this cross-fire and various airlines have chosen to operate or suspend service to or through Iraq (en route to Europe) as follows:
- Turkish Airlines (which I’m using to enter Iraq), Pegasus and A-jet cancel flights in blocks of about five days ahead.
- Emirates has cancelled for about a month in advance.
- However, Emirates’ sister-airline flydubai is operating normally. Likewise with Air Arabia (both the Sharjah and Abu Dhabi airlines).
- Wizz Air Abu Dhabi (my exit flight from Iraq at the end) had been operating normally but has suspended till early November. Being partly EU-owned, they probably have different risk attitude.
- Qatar Airways had a few days of suspension and has been operating normally for a while.
- Iraqi Airways and Fly Baghdad are operating normally as you’d expect, being based in Iraq.
Incidentally, airlines are not avoiding eastern Iran because most of the worthwhile targets in Iran are in the centre and the west!
About last night
I had been expecting or hoping for Turkish Airlines to cancel or reschedule my flight from Istanbul to Baghdad.
After dinner last night, they finally rescheduled my flight which gave me an opportunity to get a refund.
As I expected them to eventually cancel the rescheduled flight closer to the time, I finally had the chance to rebook on an airline that gave me more certainty.
Iraqi Airways was expensive whereas Fly Baghdad was cheaper when I looked some time ago. But the latter’s website wasn’t returning results and I had the presence of mind of making a Facebook post asking for online agents that handle them. The usual metasearch engines don’t list Fly Baghdad.
An Iraqi website/app called Sindibad was highly recommended to me yesterday morning. It worked like a dream in securing a new flight on Fly Baghdad at about the same price as my original Turkish Airlines one (which had been paid in reward points).
The single piece of advice through Facebook allowed me to resolve the biggest problem I had been facing for a while, i.e. to gain certainty around my entry into Iraq. The resolution couldn’t have come at a better time, only a few hours before bedtime, on the night before I embark on my adventure.