Turkish put me through it the last 48 hours.
Booked LHR to Kigali with a 14 hour layover in Istanbul. I specifically asked if there were earlier options. Agent said yes but it’s only a 35 minute layover, not enough time. Then assured me I’d get a free hotel since this was the soonest available “proper” connection. I confirmed this multiple times with different agents.
At Heathrow they tried to force me to check my hand luggage. I refused because I had a laptop and medication. They literally told me to just carry those in my hands. After 10 minutes of back and forth they let me keep it.
Arrive in Istanbul and get told no hotel because there’s technically a later LHR flight that connects with 35 minutes. The exact one I was told wasn’t realistic. So apparently I was “misinformed.” Ended up paying for my own hotel because I wasn’t sleeping in the airport.
Then in Kigali… almost no one’s luggage showed up. Whole carousel full of confused passengers. I was lucky one of my two bags arrived. They blamed “operational issues.”
Honestly can’t imagine if I had checked my hand luggage like they pushed me to.
Just a really frustrating experience start to finish.
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