TK1984 LHR-IST 20 NOV 11 (ECONOMY)
Posted: 23 Nov 2011, 19:45TK1984
LHR-IST
22:30 Scheduled departure
A321-300
I arrived at LHR T3 at around 19:00 after taking the bus from Kingston which was only about 30-40 minutes. I was early enough that checkin hadn't started yet, but there was already a queue. At around 19:20, the checkin agents disappeared and at 19:45 or so, an agent came out to tell us the flight would be delayed 1.5-2 hours because of fog at LHR. She said once the inbound plane from IST took off, they would start check in.
I was quite worried, as I had a 7AM connection in Istanbul the next morning, so a two hour delay meant about 45 minutes to make my connection. But, about 10 minutes later checkin began, and I waited only another few minutes to be seen. My bag was just underweight, thankfully but I was asked about my visa....Here was where I was really worried. My visa was to be obtained upon arrival in Benghazi, not normal as usually you have to get one from your local embassy. However the embassy in London was being annoying, so my fixer (basically a local who helps journalists) told me he could get one directly from the NTC, so I sent him the paperwork. Now all the paperwork needed was a letter from my photo agency, a copy of my passport, and a copy of my press card. After about a month of haggling and going back and forth, three hours before I left for the airport, I received my visa.
Now this wasn't a normal visa in any sense, it was a photocopy of my passport with "Permitted to enter Libya" and "Journalist - Single Entry" written on it. I've posted it below so you can see how ridiculous it was! This was all the proof I had to give to the airline, or passport control upon arrival.... I explained the situation to the very nice lady at bag drop who checked a few things and then said it was all ok. I was given my boarding pass and off I went.
My Visa!! (Seriously!)
I headed to security and was through in about 10 or 15 minutes, but not until my bag was scanned two or three times. The special coatings on high end camera lenses block x-rays, so my bag usually has to go through multiple times. I was asked what I had in my bag and I replied cameras and two ballistic plates, which got an "oh!" but they didn't ask why I had them, they just let it slide...
I went to Pret and bought a sandwich and then waited...and waited....and waited. I spoke to an Iraqi electronic engineer for a bit who was in London for a conference and was on his way home. I asked him nicely if he could translate the arabic on written on my passport copy, and he said it says what it should say. (Thank God!!)
Finally, after much waiting, the inbound plane arrived at 23:09, 39minutes after we were scheduled to leave the gate! The board said, please wait for eternity. Finally, at 23:30 or so, the gate, 5A went up on the board. The flight was packed and as my boarding card was scanned I asked about the possibility of making the connection and they said I **should....**
Once we were on the plane, an announcement was made that we would be delayed another 10 minutes while we waited for more baggage to be loaded. By this point we were getting worried as it was approaching 1AM, and we were hoping it wouldn't be cancelled. It was a big sigh of relief when we pushed back at 01:00. We went wheels up at 01:10 and were the last flight out for the night.
Shortly after takeoff a menu and headphones were handed out. I chose the "Kebab" which wasn't really a kebab at all, but I have to say, the food on Turkish is the best food I have ever had in economy on ANY airline. Hands down. No questions asked. The salmon, though small, was very fresh and flavourful, and the rice was nicely cooked - not dry at all. I would say the meal was almost restaurant quality. It was served in these hard plastic dishes which weren't cheap feeling, and had the appearance of porcelain. The cutlery was also metal, albeit slightly cheap metal, but metal nonetheless.
The Dinner Menu
After dinner, I fell asleep for a bit and woke up about 30 minutes before landing to a great sunrise over Istanbul. We touched down at 06:30 and I was off the plane at 06:35, at which point I sprinted though the airport. Annoyingly, transfers is not airside, so you need to go through security again. And of course, because I had cameras and two hard ballistic plates for my body armour, my bag got searched (though oddly enough, no one asked about the body armour)
It was just a cursory search and I sprinted the 10m from security to my gate. Now you'll have to read the next TR to see if I made my connection and what happens next!!!
