So I arrived in Istanbul safe and sound and I thought I would keep with tradition and tell you about my flight with my first post. I wrote this up on the flight actually because, as you will learn, I did not get much sleep at all. I really do try not to dwell on the negative, but I already can tell that's how this one will read because just the fact that I want to share all this is enough to demonstrate that a number of things were not going in my favor. However, I also think that writing this down will help me follow my own advice from now on. Perhaps like with writing down your goals, if you write down your own advice, you will be much, much more likely to follow it in the future. Too bad this flight with Delta was already booked before I had re-learned the wonders of flying with an international airline (2007's and 2011's experiences with Virgin and Avianca were too distant and isolated that I wasn't quite connecting the dots I suppose.)
So yes, basically this flight was about as far away on the spectrum from my four previous flights with Air New Zealand (ANZ). Day and night experiences. I think I'll just bullet point this one:
-the flight began with bad news that despite pushing from the gate on time we had about an hours wait to take off...gotta love JFK
-somehow the smell of jet fuel permeated the cabin air for about 10 of those minutes sitting and waiting
-my seat mate couldn't even wait til the seatbelt sign went off once we were up in the air to use the restroom. This was writing on the wall I guess for the rest of the flight and I just didn't realize it. There was really no hope for sleeping from the start.
-the plane didn't have individual TV screens for my own movie selections and the larger shared screens showed the exact same 2 movies I had just picked out to watch (out of dozens of movies) on my last ANZ flight. (I don't believe in bad luck, but that was uncanny)
-two words: screaming children
-three words: No free alcohol to put me out
-everyone was talking, yapping, chattering at normal decibel volumes. Comparatively, Kiwis knew when to be quiet on an overnight flight. And when the sun came up at 6 or 7am over Spain which was "our midnight" people started to open their windows and lit up the cabin like you didn't realize was possible and did I mention I got no sleep?
-no adjustable head rest...none at all, no wings on the head rest, and certainly not a headrest that moves lower for us petitely-sized passengers. This was not the flight to pick an aisle seat on. Boy do I miss the window for leaning against now!!
-horrendous food such that now I think I understand what a "vegetarian's worst nightmare" is. My dinner tray must have been under 400 calories even counting the half pat of butter included. There was no dessert. The roll was about as tough, dry, and bland as you can get. My hot entree was actually only frozen vegetables (the peas, carrots, lima beans mix) and about 3 tablespoons of unseasoned, super mushy orzo. And my salad was truly only about 15, maybe 20, pieces of lettuce. Thank goodness I carry Clif bars.
-I wasn't even able to read to try to invite sleep as both reading lights over my seat and my neighbor's were broken
-my seat came with a broken tray table...do I just have bad karma??
-and it just makes me think they gave their oldest planes to their international routes which I think is the opposite of best practices. And I couldn't help but feel sorry for those in first class on this flight who likely paid 3 times the price. I rarely fly a Delta flight large enough to have a true first class cabin but even I was appalled at what they considered first class accommodations after seeing ANZ's. The seats were actually identical to mine in economy, but just with 2.5 feet of legroom to my 1 foot.
-and then lastly, somehow only a 60 minute delay became a 90 minute late arrival into Istanbul as I understand they changed the flight route where instead of flying north, the pilot said we flew south and couldn't make up the time...he even called it a very strange route they were sending us on. When I have such a short time in one city I don't like starting out by losing time. I'm glad trains run on schedule throughout Europe!
Clearly, the majority of these things are out of the crews', pilots', and some even out of Delta's hands (just my opposite-of-dumb-luck), but I can't help but think Air New Zealand should start flying some US to Europe routes.
But I think I forgot to mention that this was a free flight with miles so I will stop my criticizing now :)
And just 2 interesting things to mention:
1. Turkey doesn't require any cards to be filled out declaring anything at customs or inquiring about my purpose in the country which I don't think I've ever seen before. I am still pretty sure that they must still have a customs or passport control at the airport though. That would be way too lax.
2. The shared TV screens overhead displayed throughout the night the direction of Mecca and its distance from us in Saudi Arabia. I however did not see anyone get in the aisle to pray though.
Ok, well my flight lands in just a bit and Istanbul beckons!!
Xxoo!
Annie
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