My Friend’s Worst Flight Ever Taught Me to Better Plan My Own Trips
He got stuck at an airport, and I remind myself that it could have happened to me
I thought my worst flight ever was San Francisco—New York—Moscow. Back in 2016, I failed to sleep on board and didn’t have a long enough layover to sleep at JFK. So, after 25 hours of sleep deprivation, I looked and felt like a zombie. I remember that random people helped me carry my bags because I must have looked so tired and desperate after that journey.
As bad as the flight seemed to me at the time, it was nothing compared to what my friend experienced last week. He was unable to board his second flight because he lacked a transit visa. So he got stuck at Istanbul Airport a few days ago.
“Wait a second. You just check visa requirements beforehand.” You might say.
My friend’s initial itinerary was Tbilisi-Istanbul-Madrid-Quito. When he bought this ticket, Spain didn’t require a transit visa.
While desperately searching for his potential new routes, I learned what I would not do the next time I had a complicated route.
Avoiding transportation hubs
My friend decided to travel from one small location (Tbilisi) to another (Quito), which means he had almost no flexibility in terms of dates and flights. When I was planning my trip from Tbilisi to Southeast Asia, my first stop was Bangkok, the closest Asian hub. It would have been more difficult and expensive to fly to Hanoi or Kuala Lumpur right away.
For my friend’s new flight, I chose the closest hub (Istanbul or Doha) to another in South America (Bogotá or São Paulo). I used a service called Flight Connections to find possible direct flights from one hub to another:
Doha > São Paulo
Istanbul > Bogotá
Using flight aggregators to find flights
I have noticed that aggregators frequently offer me more expensive options because they do not have enough data on local airlines. Everything local seems better to me. When given the choice, I prefer local cafes, markets, and airlines. I discovered Uzbekistan Airlines, which flies directly to Central Asia, Korea, China, and Malaysia, for example. I would travel around Latin America on local airlines such as Avianca, just as I did in Central Asia.
Not giving yourself time
My friend decided not to take time off work for this flight, nor did he plan any rest in between. I know I would not do it for myself.
I broke up my flight from Australia back to Georgia so I could get some rest in Kuala Lumpur. So I offered my friend to take a break from the trip and spend some time in Brasil before flying to Ecuador.
Being unable to keep in touch with your loved ones
We did not realize our friend was stuck until later that night. Since he was stuck in customs, there probably was no wifi, so he could not even call his friends to complain.
I start whining to my family and friends when I get stuck somewhere. It is the only thing I can do at the moment. I consider it therapy, and I try to use e-sims whenever possible. Not sponsoring any of the services, but it’s important to rely on something other than the wifi at the airport.
Thinking you don’t have a choice
Every cloud has a silver lining. There are multiple options in every situation. Even though my friend thought he was stuck, I believed he had a choice. He could have stayed in Istanbul to catch his breath. He may have decided to return to Georgia for a while. Or planned his next move to São Paulo.
Since Bogota flights were fully booked for the following weeks, we ended up booking him a ticket from Doha to São Paulo. My friends from the Christian church took care of him there.
I no longer see this as a disaster but as an adventure.
And what was your worst flight?
I just got back from quokkas:
But Australia didn’t treat me the way I expected…
