Lightning Strikes Twice - or - The Silver Lining

Yes, well, lightning did strike twice. We got loaded on to our plane to JFK and were getting all settled in to our wonderful business class accommodations, picking out our meal (I chose Beef Tenderloin), stretching out in our large reclining seats with even enough leg room for the 6'11" basketball player that was sitting next to me... and they had to cancel our flight due to some mechanical problem. YIKES! Not again!

So after a very obnoxious melee trying to get everyone processed to their hotels for the night (and a total of 13 hours at the airport for us), we were taken to the Polat Hotel - a very high class tower on the shore of the Sea of Marmara, where we got a free night's stay, lunch, dinner and breakfast. Proving that it is MUCH better to be in business class! (Better than the time we got stranded in the IBIS hotel in Amsterdam!) The accommodations and views are beautiful, the food was delicious and the beds very comfortable. Now I just hope and pray that we can make it home tomorrow!!!

Our room:



Our view:



I do really hope this is the last post!

Thunderstruck Plane

Well - our usual luck with flying back to the states hit (literally) once more. We got up at 2:30 am to get ready for our flight out of Istanbul airport that was scheduled for 5:55 am. We got to the airport at 3:55 am, found our line for check in... and then found out that all passengers making a connection in Amsterdam had to move to another line. Instant flashback to our return through Amsterdam in 2005 when we ended up in line for 8 hours to re-book a cancelled flight... yikes! We eventually found out that our plane to Amsterdam had suffered a thunderstrike and was delayed until 11:55, so they were trying to help us make other connections. After watching people in front of us get delayed until tomorrow, we got to the agent and she immediately gave us our re-routing - Istanbul to JFK then to Minneapolis! Arriving only 11 hours later!



The best part came when we checked in for the flight to JFK and found we had been bumped to business class and got our passes to the lounge! So there is a silver lining to our cloud...



So... I think this is really the last post - at least I really hope so!