After a busy day, we were ready to go to the airport. I mentioned in an earlier post all of the things I had to pack. Among our four checked bags, I carefully divided things in case of any delay. I had a change of underwear and socks for each of us in each bag. Each bag also had at least one complete outfit for each of us. We've had good luck with our baggage, but I don't take chances, especially on our long trips. I make sure that my blue shoes are in the same bag as any blue dresses and that the bag with my black shoes includes my black dresses. I might be just a bit particular about how I pack.
On our last trip to the UAE (to Dubai, that time), I had taken my game laptop as a carry on item. I had packed it an over the shoulder bag that frustrated me for the entire trip. This time, I decided I would put that heavy laptop into a rolling bag that I would carry on. I have a new Travelpro suitcase that is carry on size and has four wheel spinners. I was looking forward to giving this bag a try.
Due to the unfortunate scheduling of my cycle, I also packed two complete changes of clothes in the carry on bag, just as a precaution. As I was divvying up our clothes among the bags, I pulled out a change of clothes for Craig as well and tucked it into my rolling bag. With our toiletries, prescription medications, and clothing, the laptop in just fit in the suitcase. I put the laptop on top, of course, as I expected to pull it out as we went through security.
We set off for the airport with four bags to be checked, one carry on suitcase, and two backpacks.
As we checked in, I watched the scale with each of our checked bags carefully. The day before, when I'd seen my niece off, we had to repack her bags so that the larger bag was not overweight. Fortunately, I had anticipated this and packed her motorcycle jacket on top of the larger bag. Transferring that over fixed the weight issue, even if it did make the smaller bag difficult to close. Traveling business class or with Craig's frequent flier status, we can occasionally get away with bags that are just over the weight limit. But due to the efficiency of my packing, weight is always a concern with checked bags. We were traveling with our biggest bag (the greatest danger of being overweight, but I'd packed the Triscuits and CheeseIts for the team in that bag to mitigate this problem), our two medium sized bags (I have a hard-sided Tumi and Craig has the new hard-sided TravelPro I bought him for Christmas), and Craig's carry-on sized Tumi. One of our medium sized bags was closest to the weight limit, but I can't remember which.
We were flying Turkish Air for the first time. And for the first time in either of our experiences, they also wanted to weigh our carry on bags. I had seen signs about this in the queue, but hadn't really considered the matter. As business class travelers, we could each take two carry on bags and one personal item, each item limited to 8 kg. Unlike the 50 pound weight limit for checked bags, I have no reference for an 8 kg bag.
We dropped our two backpacks and the rolling bag onto the scale together - 30 kg. But then they wanted to weight the rolling bag alone - over 14 kg. The lady suggested we check the bag. With my laptop in it, I couldn't check the bag. Not to mention that I'd packed our prescriptions in the rolling bag instead of our backpacks.
Craig asked if the weight limit applied even to business class. She informed us that she might let us get away with a kg or two, but not six. I said that the problem was just my laptop. The lady again suggested we check the bag. I asked her to weigh the bag after I removed the laptop.
I pulled out just the laptop, in a neoprene sleeve. The enormous charging brick was packed deeper in the bag, so I left it in the bag. We zipped the bag back up and set it on the scale. The woman actually gasped at the change in weight. The bag weighed just over 8 kg without the laptop. She tagged the bag as a carry on and we set off with me holding the laptop under my arm. Just out of sight, we opened the rolling bag and tucked my laptop back inside. The whole point of taking that bag was to avoid carrying my 5+ kg laptop for the entire trip!
We made our way through security. Juggling two laptops and all the toiletries with my two bags was a bit of a struggle, but I managed because I had packed everything to be easily removed. It was Craig's bag that got held up, because he didn't remove his iPad with his laptop. Every security line seems to have a different requirement on this. Sometimes an iPad or Kindle will send your bag back. On other occasions, the officers will yell at you for removing them from your bag. My Kindle went through but his iPad did not.
After putting our things back together, we went to the lounge. Our flight was delayed by 20 minutes, so we had plenty of time for snacks. We were also accosted not once, but twice (by the same woman), to use the wall outlet I was sitting beside to charge her phone. From our seats, we could see at least three other unused wall outlets, all without other people sitting near them!
Eventually, we went to the gate for the most unintuitive boarding process I had yet experienced. But we managed to get boarded and settled in for the flight.
Looking back at my TripIt, it looks like we ended up taking off 59 minutes late. I didn't keep track, myself. We had a tight layover in Istanbul, just 70 minutes. But we expected that we would make up some time during the 13 hour flight. The outstanding question was, of course, would our checked bags make the transfer?
As it turns out, that was the least of our problems. TripIt says we landed 51 minutes late in Istanbul. But I can tell you, because I was texting my niece, that we touched down 22 minutes before our connecting flight was scheduled to depart. Upon landing, we taxied not to a gate, but someplace on the runway where we boarded a bus. By the time we tumbled off the bus into the terminal, our connecting flight no longer showed on the flight boards.
After a great deal of searching and two stops for directions, we found a line that appeared to be customer service for Turkish Airlines. But the employees there started disappearing. I saw a sign noting that this was customer service for economy and I remembered that Turkish Airlines has a much lauded lounge in the Istanbul airport. I suggested that we might make our way there instead.
This was a bit easier to find, though the wayfinding the airport did pose a few challenges. Inside the lounge, we found ourselves in a long line of similarly displaced travelers. After a great deal of discussion, we were rescheduled on the same flight for the following day and directed downstairs to the hotel desk for a hotel voucher. We were about to spend 24 hours in Istanbul!
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