Long Journey Home

Some of you may already know that I am going on a 9-month teaching and research assignment in Tbilisi, Georgia, starting September 1, 2025 and through May next year.

I have managed to arrange for a trip to my home country of Kyrgyzstan before actually settling in Tbilisi for the program, but to be compliant with the grant requirements I needed to go through Tbilisi. I was supposed to fly in there, spend about a day in the city and then fly to Kyrgyzstan right away. My son, my mother, sister and niece were already in Bishkek and I was planning to get there by July 23, which is my son's Birthday. He is turning 23 on the 23rd, so it's important I am there for it.

Here's a detailed account of what it took:

Day 1 of travel: July 18

My good friends took me to the airport for my 10 pm Delta flight and I was there shortly after 6 pm, checked in online. All I needed to do was to hand my three large suitcases (I'm going away for 10 months, remember?) to the baggage, which I promptly did. Happily, I headed to the gate after smooth sailing through TSA.

At the gate, we were told the flight would be delayed by 1.5 hours, to 11:30 pm. Some equipment problem - they never tell you exactly these days to avoid liability but it's basically a code for "something wrong with the plane." It was supposed to come in from JFK and supposedly was in the air. As soon as it lands, they promised, we'd inspect it and turn it around for your Paris flight right away.

A second delay came shortly after. My FB post from that night: "My flight from Atlanta to Paris has been delayed from 10 pm to 1:30 am now. I will only have about 20 min to make to the connecting flight to Tbilisi. Taking bets on whether I or my bags or both will make it."

My friends commented that some miracles can happen and both me and my bags would make it to Tbilisi. I was rightfully skeptical.

At 1:30 am, the delay notice changed to 2:59 am, right on the edge of the 5-hour delay limit that gives the passengers the right to expect hotels, meal vouchers, and other pesrks of delayed travel. I moved to another gate as this one was being used for a different flight.

I sat there waiting, reading and writing, and playing Wordle. At about 2 am, when the flight was supposed to start boarding, I moved back to the assigned gate to find absolutely no one there. I just sat, waiting. At some point I must have dozed off because when I woke up it was 3 am and the gate board said "CANCELLED" across from the number of my flight.

At 3 am, it's impossible to find any live people at the help desks. I stood in line for the phone customer service where I was assured that I was being re-booked on the next available flight and that I'd get a coupon for hotel and meals in my email. "Just check your phone," they said. I did indeed get the coupons but when I tried following the instructions I was notified that there were no hotels available in the area for that night.

I stood in line for the phone customer service again, overhearing stories of other Delta flights cancelled that night. One was of a Johannesburg flight's engine catching fire. It had to be diverted to ATL. I thought, how do you survive the trauma like that? The customer service agent told me to find a hotel on my own and then submit the request for reimbursement.

I used my IHG hotel membership to find a room. Before I headed to the hotel, I got a confirmation that I was re-booked for the flight on July 19. I also went to the baggage service and the only woman there assured me that my bags would most definitely be on my flight.

When I arrived at the hotel, after paying $25 for a 5-minute taxi ride because shuttles didn't run in the middle of the night, I was told that there were no rooms there. Apparently, Delta had booked everything up for its delayed flights and I made a reservation for the wrong night. It should have been July 18 to 19, not 19 to 20. Of course, it was my fault, but who thinks straight at 4 am?

Seeing how tired, groggy and upset I was, the hotel night shift manager was able to find a room for me, near the elevator and with no air conditioning (they had some power outage that busted the AC unit there, he said). I was up for anything. When I got into the room, it was stuffy and humid from the Atlanta heat but I knew I wouldn't care after I'd get to bed. Just as a matter of precaution, I turned off the AC that had been in a fan mode and turned it back on. It started working! I guess all it needed was a reset.

Exhausted, I fell asleep almost right away.

Day 2 of travel: July 19

I got up for breakfast at the hotel and then immediately went to bed again, to catch up on sleep. I also had to communicate with a lot of relatives and friends to put them at ease about my troubles. At about 5 pm, I checked out of the hotel for my 8 pm rebooked flight and asked for the receipt so that I could ask Delta to reimburse me. They did print one out for me and I took the hotel shuttle to the airport.

Atlanta airport is huge, one of the busiest in the world, and its new international terminal has its own access road and transport connections. The shuttle driver told me that they only take the guests to the domestic terminals, advising to take a shuttle bus to the international. I knew better: All the terminals are connected by the internal airport train, I just needed to get the new boarding pass and go through the security after check in.

The Delta agent was extremely helpful and assured me that I am fully booked on both flights - to Paris and then to Tbilisi - but she couldn't give me the second boarding pass because it was with Georgian Airlines and I'd have to get it in Paris at the gate. I knew it spelled trouble but she couldn't do anything more for me except for checking that my luggage would be on my flight.

"There's a tracking service in Delta app, you can see how your luggage moves almost in real time," she said. I checked and it indeed said that my luggage was being loaded on the plane. Somewhat reassured, I got the boarding pass and went to my Air France flight gate.

The flight to Paris was uneventful. I've watched the last installment of the Bridget Jones' Diary, read my books, and listened to some music. Using the limited wifi for texts and messaging, I updated everyone that I was alright. I could never sleep on the planes, wherever and whenever I went, but because I did sleep at the hotel, this night flight didn't feel too long. Except for the 25 min we were just sitting on the tarmac in Atlanta because of some air traffic control issues.

When I arrived in Paris only about 20 min late, I've figured out pretty quickly the gate I needed to go to for my Tbilisi flight. I tried to go there directly, showing the woman at the security my "interrupted travel document" with the Tbilisi flight listed on it.

"But it's not a boarding pass, this is not scannable, so I can't let you through," she said firmly.

"So what should I do?"

"Take the train to the K gate for Delta customer service and ask them to give you a boarding pass."

It took me awhile to get to the K gate, which also required a security check. While moving, I was checking the Delta app for my luggage. It got stuck on "unloading" from my Air France flight. A bad feeling started to rise in my stomach.

I finally got to the Delta customer service and was told again that they can't issue me a boarding pass because Georgian Airlines is not their partner but Air France's. The agent did, however, assure me that I am definitely booked on the Tbilisi flight and that my luggage should make it there as well. She gave another non-scannable document as a confirmation of the itinerary and instructed me to take the bus to the 2D gate for my next flight.

It took me about 20 min to convince the security officer to the 2D gate that my non-scannable document was legit. At some point when she again told me to go get a boarding pass, I raised my voice in desperation. She said I shouldn't be flustered and called someone on her radio. After that, she reluctantly let me go through to get to the shuttle bus.

The bus took me around the entire airport and for the life of me I still can't understand why the Delta officer told me to take it when I could have easily gone back by the train. It was about a 40-min slow drive between three different terminal points that gave me a pretty good idea of how huge CDG airport was. When I finally got to the 2D gate, the security officer told me that I actually needed to go to 2A as 2D was for luggage only.

"Am I supposed to pick up my luggage and put it on my next flight myself?" I asked the officer. Another sinking feeling in my stomach.

"No, no, your luggage will be transferred," he assured me. "Just go to the gate where your next flight departs." He showed me the departing flight information board, and it said 2A, gate 39. I still had about six hours to my next flight.

Another security check and I'm finally at the gate. There's an officer there, and I came up to ask about when I can get my boarding pass. About one hour before the flight, he told me. So I sat at the gate, waiting and checking the Delta luggage tracking which was still stuck on "unloading" from my first flight. I got a snack, walked around the terminal, got Wordle on the first try in my life, wrote some and read some to kill the time. At the expected boarding time, the board said my Tbilisi flight will be delayed by two hours.

To my surprise, I was not too upset about the delay. "It means they'd have more time to transfer my luggage on the flight," I told myself.

Exactly one hour before the delayed boarding, the same officer I talked with earlier came with a crew of three to board us. I stood in line, got to another officer and showed my "interrupted travel document." He tried to find my name and couldn't, so he sent me to the crew chief.

It took him awhile to find my name, and he asked multiple times about why and how my original flight was cancelled. After many calls to various services he gave me the boarding pass and said it was highly unlikely that my bags would make it on the plane as he couldn't track them.

"Let's hope they put it on the plane and just didn't update the system. If not, they will for sure put them on the next flight, probably even tonight, there's another flight to Tbilisi," he said.

I know better. Paris to Tbilisi was a two-times-a-week flight. My luggage will not be there when I have to fly to Bishkek.

This flight was uneventful as well, and when I arrived in Tbilisi, the Delta luggage app was still frozen on "unloading" from Paris for me. At midnight, I stood at the baggage carousel till the very last bag from our flight, and even after they started to unload another flight onto it. Only one of my bags arrived and it wasn't the one I needed in Bishkek.

See, I'd packed smart. I put all of my winter, fall/spring clothing and books into two large suitcases that I'd planned to leave at the Depot Storage in Tbilisi for a month or so until I come back from Bishkek. I only needed one bag with my summer and hiking clothes. The one that did not arrive.

I went to the Lost & Found. A very friendly and helpful woman there told me that she'd already got a call about my luggage and the rest of it would arrive in a couple of days on the next flight. I called my sister and we discussed changing my Bishkek ticket for a later date so I could stay in Tbilisi and wait for my luggage there. But that meant I'd miss my son's birthday. Marta in Lost & Found overheard that and said she'd keep my luggage there until I come back. So it was decided that I'd leave the bag that arrived with her there as well. Somewhat relieved, I left the luggage area a little after midnight, went through passport control and hung out in the Departure Terminal until my next flight to Bishkek in 3 hours.

Day 3 of travel: July 20

During my night wait, I posted this on socials: "Two observations about the Tbilisi Airport: 1) the passport control agents are mostly young beautiful women; 2) almost everyone speaks Russian. A lot of people speak English as well but Russian is everywhere. Russians are traveling to Europe through Tbilisi a lot, I guess that’s one way to avoid the war sanctions and travel restrictions. The airport is very busy unlike most American and European airports that calm down between 12-5 am. Here lines are everywhere even if you have a boarding pass on hand. Good thing I have time. But oh God how tired I am."

My flight to Bishkek was with AJet, a Turkish Air low-coster brand that I suspect is its response to Pegasus - a popular but shitty Turkish airline that flies rattling tin cans and has the worst customer service in the world, online only. I've flown with Pegasus once and decided never again. I don't recommend it to any of the people I care about. AJet used to be an independent domestic airline but when Turkish Air decided to grow its international routes, an opportunity opened up with the shunning of Russian Aeroflot, they saw AJet purchase as something that could successfully serve regional and medium-range international travel. Smart move.

The AJet plane was a Boeing 767 from the 90s, with no individual screens for movies and other modern bells and whistles but more leg space, which I was very happy about. By this point, I spend two full days sitting on planes and in airports and my body was craving to lie down. It was only about 1.5-hour flight, and when we landed in Istanbul, I had over 10 hours of layover before my final flight to Bishkek.

My sister told me I should go to a hotel in Istanbul. I've found a better solution at the SAW airport - Kepler Club. For 15 Euros an hour, you could use their toilet with a bidet (clean fun!), a shower, and a sleeping pod. I bought myself 10 hours, took a quick shower and went straight to the pod to sleep. It was probably one of the best sleeps I've ever had while in travel, even with all the hotels, just because I was so exhausted, both physically and emotionally.

I left the Kepler Club at around 6 pm to get to my 9 pm flight to Bishkek. Before the flight, I had a cup of the famous Turkish lentil soup and a cheese bun. The flight was on time and I was looking forward to finally getting to Bishkek.

Day 4 of travel: July 21

My flight landed in Bishkek a little after 4 am. I quickly went through the passport control and ran through the baggage area as I had no bags to claim. When I came out, I saw both my sister and my cousin waiting for me. Throwing myself into their arms, I thought it was the best reunion in my life. Until we got to my aunt's place and my mom, son and niece were there. Nothing like finally getting to see your loved ones, after the years of pandemic and wars.

P.S. My luggage did arrive in Tbilisi on July 24. It will be waiting for me there, with Marta in Lost & Found.

Also, it took me over a week to finish this story and I'm incredibly grateful to you for plowing though this long read.