We were all scheduled to fly from Athens back to Istanbul where the Flynns and Kozleskis were slated to fly back to Seattle while Yvonne and I had to fly to Vancouver as there were no business class seats left on the Seattle flight.  No problem, we simply planned to spend the night at the Vancouver airport and fly home the next day. When we arrived at the Athens airport we saw our flight to Istanbul was being delayed 1.5 hours, not a problem for us but cutting it close for the other couples. However, we later learned that the flight was going to be delayed 3.5 hours, enough for the Flynns and Kozleskis to definitely miss their connection and putting us in jeopardy.  I assumed we would not make our flight and started looking at options. There were no business class seats available to either Vancouver or Seattle for several days. Would we be willing to degrade? Would I get a refund?  I even looked at options to simply fly back business class to anywhere in the US and buy coach class tickets to get home from there. I chose to wait until we arrived in Istanbul to make whatever change I needed to make.

Surprisingly by the time we reached Istanbul we found that our flight from Istanbul to Vancouver had also been delayed and was scheduled to leave in 25 miuntes! Can we make it? Istanbul airport is huge but we walked “quickly” to the new departure gate only to arrive and be told the gate had just closed. Bummer! Then something magical happened. The agent looked at our tickets and chatted with the people at the desk who then said we could board! Why? I think it was because we had business class seats; I have no other answer. Moral: maybe spending extra to fly business class can be worth it!

We made the flight but, as expected, our luggage did not. This is the first time in over a decade that our lugggage has not been there when we arrived. I figured it was going to be a real hassle filing the necessary paperwork to get our luggage back. Surprisingly it was not. A very efficient agent knew our luggage was in Istanbul but the next Turkish flight to Vancouver was not until Tuesday. When she learned we lived in Seattle she said she would try to reroute our luggage to Seattle which would be great. I left the luggage claim feeling better about everything, but still somewhat skeptical about seeing our luggage in any timely way.

I had already canceled our hotel in Vancouver as I had thought we were not going to be there as scheduled, so here we were with no hotel reservations. It was nice to see that there is a Fairmont hotel right at the airport you do not even need to leave the terminal. We stayed there and they provided the few toiletries we needed for the evening.

Our flight home from Vancouver on Sunday was uneventful. On Tuesday we received a text that our luggage had safely arrived- in Vancouver! Turkish immediately sent it to Seattle and I give them credit as we received texts from both the airline about the status and from the driver about when they would be delivered to our home, which they were, safe and sound on Thursday, October 30. All is well.

We did not know what happened to our travel companions until after we all had returned to Seattle. As it turned out the Flynns had to spend two nights in Istanbul without their luggage before flying home on Monday, but accompanied by their luggage. The Kozleskis, on the other hand, had to fly from Istanbul to Washington Dulles where they had a 3 hour layover  before arriving late at night in Seattle where they chose to spend the night so they could arrange for their luggage before coming home. The return flights for all of us were the proverbial “trip from hell”! But at least we all made it home safely with lots of stories to tell.

Steps for the day: 5315 which was surprising!

Epilogue:

– Road Scholar does an amazing job. We continue to enjoy taking trips with them. The groups are small, the leaders are excellent, the fellow travelers are experienced travelers, and you really learn a lot.

– Greece is an amazing country with a mind blowing history. It was almost overwhelming and there is still so much I did not learn about it. It is a country well worth visiting- more than once.

Parting note: Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the things you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. — Mark Twain