Atlas Jet...adventure flight???

I can tick off another item on my "Things To Do" list for my trip to Turkey in September! :)

Last week, on a whim I started checking the budget Turkish airlines to see if any of them had published their October schedules. I checked Onur Air...no luck, I checked Pegasus Air...no luck, then I hit the jackpot with Atlas Jet! Now just because I have never heard of Atlas Jet does not mean it is "Fly By Night Air" as some friends have suggested. I even went so far as to do a search on FlyerTalk.com (the airline equivalent of Trip Advisor.com) to find out if anyone has posted any comments about Atlas Jet. There was only one comment, but it was favorable...so I am going with it! :)

Anyway....Atlas Jet had their October 2007 on their website and a 3:20pm flight from Izmir to Istanbul with a one way fare of 49 New Turkish Lire, before taxes (which is about $38USD)...it looked good to me, especially since the only other airline with October fares listed was Turkish Airlines for a price over $100USD.

I didn't want to book it that night without checking with CL, so the next morning I called CL and she said "Go For It"!

That night I sat down at my computer and went through the booking process on the Atlas Jet English version website. When I got to the section for entering passenger names I was cruising right along, that is until I got to the drop down box for gender of passenger. My drop down choices were not "F" or "M" like it would be in English but "E" and "B". Being the "savvy" internet guru that I am (yeah, right!) I managed to get to a free translation website and when I typed in "female" and hit "translate to Turkish" a word neither starting with "E" or "B" came up. OK...type in "male"...no Turkish word starting with "E" or "B".

Now I am getting a bit exasperated, but I go back to the Atlas Jet website and start the booking process again. This time I just keep the "E" in the gender box and move on to the payment screen. I type in all the pertinent credit card information and get to the drop down menu for type of credit card. Instead of the "usual" types that would pop up in English, up comes dozens of choices all in Turkish! But many of them have MasterCard after a Turkish word, so I just start choosing ones with MasterCard at the end...nothing is working! I keep getting a error message that the transaction cannot be processed.

By now I am ready to give up...but I realize there is a 24 hour reservation office phone number I can call in Turkey or I can send an email. I decide to send an email asking what credit card selection I need to make and pray I get a response. Then I shut down the computer and go to sleep.

The next morning as I am checking my emails there is a response! Wow! less then 24 hours to reply...I'm liking this airline! The reply indicated which credit card choice I needed to make, and no, it did not have the word MasterCard in it!

I immediately go to the Atlas Jet website and start the booking process, use the credit card type selection they told me to use and Voile! I have booked 2 one way seats from Izmir to Istanbul! Of course, I left the gender drop down box as an "E" so we may be booked as "Males", but I am not going to sweat that right now! With taxes the charge for each ticket is $46 USD and some change! I think it's a pretty good deal! It will cost me more to take the Low Country Airport Shuttle van from my house to the Savannah airport then what it will cost for me to fly from Izmir to Istanbul!

And why do I need to fly from Izmir to Istanbul? The Rick Steves tour I will be on ends in Kusadasi, Turkey. The closest airport to Kusadasi is Izmir and CL and I will be going back to Istanbul at the end of the tour to spend an extra 4 days in Istanbul. So, we need to get from Izmir to Istanbul!

Now I am happy to say that almost all of my Turkey trip transportation and lodging is set. The last few arrangements for this trip don't have to be worked out yet, like the shuttle from home to the airport and then a hotel room in NYC for our one night lay-over on the way back from Istanbul...I can coordinate that in the summer. YIPPEE! Things are looking good for the Turkey Trip....now it's just 5 and a half months away....it will be here before I know it!