Learning how airports work hard way pt. 1

-Part 1-

Since the story is long I divided it into 2 parts, link for the second part is at the bottom. What was supposed to be the 22 hour journey from Croatia to Australia, turned into 3 day test. This whole situation would be benign if I was alone with my wife, but with a 5 year old and a 9 month old infant, this was traumatic. I firmly believe that our perception of events in life is a matter of choice. Two people may experience the same event and one may see it as a trauma and second may see it as an opportunity to learn. First person will come out of the event scarred, second will come out grateful for the opportunity to learn. The problems come later when our experiences start to define us. People who perceive all or most events in a negative way, gradually become unhappy, depressed and people who look on the bright side are happy and grateful. This I learned from my life trough my own perspective and it is very simplified since it is not the topic of the article, but I need to share my way of thinking, since how I perceived the events is part of the story.

We arrived to our new Zagreb airport tired. Our flight was to depart 8:10 PM so we spent all day expecting and waiting to go which took a toll on us. For a guy whose farthest travel was to Madrid (Spain) an to Gardaland (Verona, Italy) this jorney to the "Down under" kicked me into hype. We are supposed to fly to Istanbul, have a 2 hour layover, fly to Kuala Lumpur, there have a layover of 2 hours and 40 minutes, than fly to Perth. We did check-in on time, got tickets to Istanbul and Kuala Lumpur (Turkish airlines company) but we did not get tickets to Perth (Malindo air company), we should get them in Istanbul. The flight from Zagreb was late 2 hours and at this point we were not thinking about the fact that we are missing our flight in Istanbul. We were busy trying to calm our son who was very exited, about everything that was going on, and tired at the same time because it was really late for him. I do not remember if our baby girl was sleeping, but I know she cried while we were taking off and while we were landing to the Ataturk airport. We were lucky to land few gates down the gate we needed to board for Kuala Lumpur. We hurried to get to the boarding counter because the plane was supposed to leave in 10 minutes, there was still a man behind the counter who was confused when we tried to board. He kindly explained that the boarding is over and there is no way we can enter the plane, which s still there... In front of our noses... And is still there... And is still not leaving... We now need to go down to the first floor and get all information and new tickets on the passenger transfer counter. At this time in Istanbul is 1 AM, local time in Zagreb is midnight, luckily our baby girl is sleeping, but our boy is very tired and aware of us being upset that he is crying and wants to go back home. On top of that he has so many questions we have no answer to, it is breaking our heart to see him like this, we are really pushing him to the edge with this whole ordeal.

The Ataturk airport is so huge (compared to Zagreb airport, all normal airports are big) that You need 35 minutes to cross from one side to another and that is knowing exactly where You need to go. Every place we were  looking for was hard to find despite the fact signs were well placed and clear. You do need to know where that exact passage or elevator is to get to the place You need to be. When we got to the passenger transfer counter as instructed we were informed that the next flight to Kuala Lumpur is in 24 hours, that we will be staying in a 5 star hotel next to the airport till the flight. Only thing we need to do is get a 24 hour visa few counters down so we can leave the airport and enter the country. That seemed like a very good turn of events and I was thinking positive about the whole situation – we and our kids will get some decent sleep so tomorrow we can continue fresh, maybe even go sight seeing in Istanbul. When I think about it, we are lucky to get that chance! I am thinking all these positive thoughts while I am handing passports to the gentleman on the counter. Every visa is 25€ (if I remember correctly), we can file for reimbursement in 15 days, so far so good. Gentleman is handing the passports back with an explanation that he cannot give us visas because my son's passports is about to expire in 2 months. I felt like someone punched me in the gut, son kept asking me what is going on and why can't we go to a hotel I was talking about a minute ago. He told us to go to passport control 2, we have no idea what is going to happen there and are really really tired, my wife carrying baby girl the whole time, our son barely walking. Of course the passport control 2 is on the other side of the building, why would it be close? As it turned out passport control 2 is rest accommodation for passengers who cannot enter the country, sounds like Turkish airlines were thinking of everything, right? Yeah... No! Now for the plot twist – there is room for my wife and children, but I cannot go in. My wife instantly said “no way we are splitting up”. That feeling of being punched in the gut again mixed with helplessness. While I was on this emotional rollercoaster what additionally stung me was the way lady I was talking to handled the situation. She said “You do not want to? Ok”, she grabbed her cigarettes and started heading for a smoke. The fact she does not care at all was shocking to me so I called her back and asked what are our options and where can we rest. The options were lounges or the airport hotel, we got information where we need to go so we started heading there. I was thinking that it is a good thing we can get a hotel room and grab some rest, everything will be better after we get some sleep and was battling not to think how this whole journey was a stupid idea and why would we ever torture our children like this.

The lady told us to go to security control, than to second floor where lounges and hotels are. As we are looking for security control on signs I am looking around and see people sleeping on the floor. There are no benches on this floor, no bars, vending machines, we are so tired that it is hard to think clearly. Later on I wondered if we were rested would we look for security control so long since we were unable to find it for at least an hour. We asked a few workers on the airport and all directed us to security control, we walked whole length of an airport for 2 times trying to find it and as I was ready to give up, my wife went and asked to ask for the final time where security control is. When they saw a woman with a baby they were very helpful and detailed in explanation – I wonder why we did not use the “mother with a child” benefit earlier. There was a passage called “passenger transfer” and at it's end was, you guessed it right, security control. The reason why all the airport staff was unable to say passenger transfer eludes me to this day as is the fact I was not able to connect the 2 and 2 together while we were passing next to that passage numerous times. I am sure if we were more experienced plane travelers we would not be in this situation, we would catch on what they were saying. We had no issues passing the security control and we got to the second floor. When we got here I was more aware of the reason why we felt so bad, scared  and depressed on the first floor. There were people here, shops, we were able to drink and eat, make food for the baby – what a sense freedom. The moment me and wife started calming down and explained to our little boy that we are close to a hotel room and that he will be able to sleep he calmed down as well. Of course the hotel was on the other side of the building, for those who did not count this was the third time we walked from one side to another... Price for the double bed room 6-9 hours was 227€ which is very expensive for our standards. Unfortunately this was one of those situations when You do not ask how much something costs, You just pay. The room was clean and tidy, it had a water cooker – the most important thing after the bed. It is 3:30 in Istanbul and for the first day of travel, I think we went trough enough...

After the kids had their sleep and were rested, we all felt better even though I had slept only around 4 hours and wife did not sleep at all, baby would wake the moment she tried to put her down so she carried her all night. Me and son took a warm shower and we all sat together to agree on what to do and where to go next. My wife noticed that the tickets we got from Kuala Lumpur to Perth were no good, they were dated yesterday, not today. We decided to go and have some breakfast first – on the other side of the building (why would anyone place a food court opposite to a hotel I- have no idea)... The food was really tasty and not that expensive, I had coffee and refreshed we were ready for a new day of excitements. First we went to information counter, than we went to Turkish airlines counter where we found out that we have to go to the same place we were yesterday to get correct tickets. We found a bench where it was not so crowded so they can sit and rest till I go and clear up the tickets mess. 2 hours later I still have wrong tickets with an explanation that I should find Turkish airlines passenger transfer counter in Kuala Lumpur and they will print out boarding passes.
Hello and welcome to my first post. I wanted to start writing for quite a while now and this seemed as a perfect event to start with. What was supposed to be the 22 hour journey from Croatia to Australia, turned into 3 day journey and I want to share our experience and what we were thinking at the time so that it may help someone else to avoid such events or make the best of them. This whole situation would be benign if I was alone with my wife, but with a 5 year old and a 9 month old infant, this was traumatic. I firmly believe that our perception of events in life is a matter of choice. Two people may experience the same event and one may see it as a trauma and second may see it as an opportunity to learn. First person will come out of the event scarred, second will come out grateful for the opportunity to learn. The problems come later when our experiences start to define us. People who perceive all or most events in a negative way, gradually become unhappy, depressed and people who look on the bright side are happy and grateful. This I learned from my life trough my own perspective and it is very simplified since it is not the topic of the article, but I need to share my way of thinking, since how I perceived the events is part of the story.

We arrived to our new Zagreb airport tired. Our flight was to depart 8:10 PM so we spent all day expecting and waiting to go which took a toll on us. For a guy whose farthest travel was to Madrid (Spain) an to Gardaland (Verona, Italy) this jorney to the "Down under" kicked me into hype. We are supposed to fly to Istanbul, have a 2 hour layover, fly to Kuala Lumpur, there have a layover of 2 hours and 40 minutes, than fly to Perth. We did check-in on time, got tickets to Istanbul and Kuala Lumpur (Turkish airlines company) but we did not get tickets to Perth (Malindo air company), we should get them in Istanbul. The flight from Zagreb was late 2 hours and at this point we were not thinking about the fact that we are missing our flight in Istanbul. We were busy trying to calm our son who was very exited, about everything that was going on, and tired at the same time because it was really late for him. I do not remember if our baby girl was sleeping, but I know she cried while we were taking off and while we were landing to the Ataturk airport. We were lucky to land few gates down the gate we needed to board for Kuala Lumpur. We hurried to get to the boarding counter because the plane was supposed to leave in 10 minutes, there was still a man behind the counter who was confused when we tried to board. He kindly explained that the boarding is over and there is no way we can enter the plane, which s still there... In front of our noses... And is still there... And is still not leaving... We now need to go down to the first floor and get all information and new tickets on the passenger transfer counter. At this time in Istanbul is 1 AM, local time in Zagreb is midnight, luckily our baby girl is sleeping, but our boy is very tired and aware of us being upset that he is crying and wants to go back home. On top of that he has so many questions we have no answer to, it is breaking our heart to see him like this, we are really pushing him to the edge with this whole ordeal.

The Ataturk airport is so huge (compared to Zagreb airport, all normal airports are big) that You need 35 minutes to cross from one side to another and that is knowing exactly where You need to go. Every place we were  looking for was hard to find despite the fact signs were well placed and clear. You do need to know where that exact passage or elevator is to get to the place You need to be. When we got to the passenger transfer counter as instructed we were informed that the next flight to Kuala Lumpur is in 24 hours, that we will be staying in a 5 star hotel next to the airport till the flight. Only thing we need to do is get a 24 hour visa few counters down so we can leave the airport and enter the country. That seemed like a very good turn of events and I was thinking positive about the whole situation – we and our kids will get some decent sleep so tomorrow we can continue fresh, maybe even go sight seeing in Istanbul. When I think about it, we are lucky to get that chance! I am thinking all these positive thoughts while I am handing passports to the gentleman on the counter. Every visa is 25€ (if I remember correctly), we can file for reimbursement in 15 days, so far so good. Gentleman is handing the passports back with an explanation that he cannot give us visas because my son's passports is about to expire in 2 months. I felt like someone punched me in the gut, son kept asking me what is going on and why can't we go to a hotel I was talking about a minute ago. He told us to go to passport control 2, we have no idea what is going to happen there and are really really tired, my wife carrying baby girl the whole time, our son barely walking. Of course the passport control 2 is on the other side of the building, why would it be close? As it turned out passport control 2 is rest accommodation for passengers who cannot enter the country, sounds like Turkish airlines were thinking of everything, right? Yeah... No! Now for the plot twist – there is room for my wife and children, but I cannot go in. My wife instantly said “no way we are splitting up”. That feeling of being punched in the gut again mixed with helplessness. While I was on this emotional rollercoaster what additionally stung me was the way lady I was talking to handled the situation. She said “You do not want to? Ok”, she grabbed her cigarettes and started heading for a smoke. The fact she does not care at all was shocking to me so I called her back and asked what are our options and where can we rest. The options were lounges or the airport hotel, we got information where we need to go so we started heading there. I was thinking that it is a good thing we can get a hotel room and grab some rest, everything will be better after we get some sleep and was battling not to think how this whole journey was a stupid idea and why would we ever torture our children like this.

The lady told us to go to security control, than to second floor where lounges and hotels are. As we are looking for security control on signs I am looking around and see people sleeping on the floor. There are no benches on this floor, no bars, vending machines, we are so tired that it is hard to think clearly. Later on I wondered if we were rested would we look for security control so long since we were unable to find it for at least an hour. We asked a few workers on the airport and all directed us to security control, we walked whole length of an airport for 2 times trying to find it and as I was ready to give up, my wife went and asked to ask for the final time where security control is. When they saw a woman with a baby they were very helpful and detailed in explanation – I wonder why we did not use the “mother with a child” benefit earlier. There was a passage called “passenger transfer” and at it's end was, you guessed it right, security control. The reason why all the airport staff was unable to say passenger transfer eludes me to this day as is the fact I was not able to connect the two and two together while we were passing next to that passage numerous times. I am sure if we were more experienced plane travelers we would not be in this situation, we would catch on what they were saying. We had no issues passing the security control and we got to the second floor. When we got here I was more aware of the reason why we felt so bad, scared  and depressed on the first floor. There were people here, shops, we were able to drink and eat, make food for the baby – what a sense freedom. The moment me and wife started calming down and explained to our little boy that we are close to a hotel room and that he will be able to sleep he calmed down as well. Of course the hotel was on the other side of the building, for those who did not count this was the third time we walked from one side to another... Price for the double bed room 6-9 hours was 227€ which is very expensive for our standards. Unfortunately this was one of those situations when You do not ask how much something costs, You just pay. The room was clean and tidy, it had a water cooker – the most important thing after the bed. It is 3:30 in Istanbul and for the first day of travel, I think we went through enough...

-Part 2-