Getting There

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:25:38 -0700

We left home at 3:40 am. Took a plane to Newark. Because it rained in Florida, our plane to Greece did not get to NJ on time. It left New Jersey 3-1/2 hours late.

We knew we would miss our scheduled 12:15 pm flight to Crete, so before we left NJ we booked the next flight, 3:25 pm.

When we got to Athens and tried to get on the 3:25 pm flight, Olympic Airline found us on the computer but could not find our tickets. They sent us to the ticket booth. We had to wait on line. They tried to charge us a penalty for changing our flight, but we got out of that, despite the language barrier. We got tickets, but got back to check-in too late for the 3:25 flight. The doors were closing.
The 6 pm flight was cancelled.
They booked us on the 9:35 pm flight.
We waited 6 hours for a 40 minute flight.
The whole trip from Arizona to Greece took 34 hours.

Others missed their connections, too. We spoke to a family who was going to a small city in Lebanon. Their next available connecting flight was in 3 days. They had the option of paying a fee, and changing their flight to get to that town through another route. They chose not to wait 3 days.

A woman who travels often between her homes in South Carolina and Crete said these airlines do this all the time. They have a monopoly, and don’t care.

Greece 2009

Getting There