Terminal 21, Turkish Airlines Hell

 I am so behind with the blog.  It has been a tough week of moving.  We left Grand Bahama and spent a night in Miami before we started our journey to Bangkok. This was pretty uneventful, we ate some terrible food (it is definitely a quantity over quality sort of place), played in the pool, and then made our way to the airport.  Turkish Airlines were great, checked Lola in quickly to go on board in the cabin, checked our million bags, and felt like we were almost there.  Little did we know!  

We arrived in Istanbul with an 8-hour layover.  No big deal, we have done far longer.  But at 2am when we tried to board we were denied boarding by the worst gate agent I have ever seen.  We had all the correct papers and even letters from the Thai Department of Agriculture.  Not only did he deny us, but he did it cruelly and did not help us with any of the next steps. Sebastian was bawling and it was just awful.  The next 48 hours were horrendous.  We could not leave the airport as did not have an import permit to Turkey for Lola.  And even if we did the minute we stepped foot into Turkey Lola would have had to stay three months to get into Thailand.  We could not easily go anywhere as all countries have different requirements for dogs, it is not like you can just go anywhere.  As do the airlines.  So we were stranded.  Turkish Airlines was the worst.  We had all correct, and they kept denying us.  We spent 18 hours in queues, to be spoken to rudely while our toddler and elderly dog slept on a cold floor.  They refused to help in any way and told us to go back from where we came from.  But we couldn't even do that as we had exported Lola from The Bahamas.  Not even a glass of water.

Here comes the power of social media.  After 18 hours in a queue just to be treated like garbage I started making videos.  Facebook and Twitter went crazy, I was so humbled to see my friends around the world start making a huge stink.  Some I had not seen for a decade.  On day three, management hunted us down to put us on the next plane.  They admitted they were wrong and we had everything correct. They put us in a lounge and got us all fed, wined, and washed.  It was a great moment when one of the most horrid women to me the night before had to put us in the First Class lounge.  But then it ended there, they separated us on the plane and had promised to compensate us for the hundreds of dollars we spent trying to eat, keep warm and keep a toddler entertained.  But in the end, we did make it. 

Sebastian was a trooper.  And Lola, poor Lola was far too old for this.  And sick, she had an infection just as we got on the plane and then the poor girl suffered.  I am actually just so angry writing this!

Finally in the lounge, eating.

After we had showered, had boarding passes, and just could not wait to get out of there.  We have badgered Turkish Airlines since and they have been awful.  If you read this, please trust me when I say NEVER EVER fly with them.