For an avid travel lover and Travel Broker, 3 years of not really travelling seems like a lifetime. 2020 -2023 went so quickly it wasn't funny. They say time flies when you're having fun...however, that sadly was not the case for the last few years.
As it had been a while, I booked and paid for my business class flight (first time ever -however it has ruined me as once you go up the front of the plane you no longer want to sit at the back!!) in Oct 2022 to travel in September this year (2023) to have a relaxing holiday. Booking early in a post Covid travel era definitely pays as my fare went up by $1400 the following month.
I really just wanted to chill and relax after the last few years of still booking travel whilst doing another full-time job. I picked Greece for that exact reason. I just wanted to swim in the amazing blue sea, lie on the beach and enjoy some fabulous Greek food and hospitality.
The last time I went to Greece was in 1997, when I checked out Athens, worked in Ios for a month and went to Santorini.
For this trip I picked Naxos, Koufonisia, Mykonos (just to meet up with a friend coming from London) and Paros. I was looking for Islands in the Cyclades that I hadn't been to before that were ideally less commercial.
I flew on a Lufthansa ticket but via Singapore, on Singapore Airlines. I have travelled on Singapore Airlines on many occasions, (and in business class occasionally) but this time the staff seemed rushed and not as polished. I don't really like the A350 pods, but I did make good use of the free wifi to do a bit of work in-between watching movies. In business class they do have the 'Book the Cook' option (which I had looked at but left it too late to book but worth looking at if you want to guarantee a specific meal.)
The Singapore Airlines flight from Auckland was delayed by 3 hours due to a mechanical fault which meant I had a 20 minute turnaround window to catch my flight to Frankfurt and then on to Athens with Lufthansa.
Lufthansa by comparison had much larger, better seating (bed at this stage)... almost 2 meters long (my feet couldn't reach the other side), a fully lie flat bed complete with an extra mat for more comfort. You get given a given a top to change into should you wish to. The service, food and wine served I couldn't fault. You can preorder your meals up to 24 hours before and can decide after seeing the menu for your upcoming flight.
Due to the tight connection in Singapore my bag never made it to Athens, and I left the following day to fly into Naxos. I had purchased a couple of Tile Tags (the android equivalent of an Apple tag) and I could see that my bag was still in Changi. Unfortunately, a very helpful Air New Zealand staff member had reprinted my boarding passes in Auckland so that I had them all for all the flights through to Athens and I didn't spot that my baggage tags details were no longer on my boarding pass so I couldn't log my lost bag on the Lufthansa site and had to que up with the many, and I stress many, people queuing to report lost luggage. To their credit Lufthansa did update me on a daily basis as to where things were at. I got my bag in Naxos 5 days after I had last seen it. Word to the wise....just take carry on or at least take more with you as carry on to change into. Fortunately, I had 10 days in Naxos and wasn't Island hopping at that stage, so it wasn't such an issue to get it to me.
Naturally I did go shopping ( not that I had planned on doing so after a 30+ hrs of flying. I went to the closest mall near the Holiday Inn Athens Airport ,where I was overnighting, and managed to get some underwear, a swimsuit, slip on shoes, and a bag as I had purchased a reasonable amount of skin care etc at Auckland duty free and needed something to put it all into. Fortunately for the Insurance company, but unfortunately for me it was the end of their season, so most shops had little left for summer as they were selling their new season winter stock.
In hindsight I would have booked at the Sofitel across from the airport in Athens as I had to pay for the taxi to the hotel as the wait for the free shuttle seemed too long after 30+ hours of flying.
Allianz (who I had taken out Travel Insurance with) paid out the $1200 + claim - (obviously I did more shopping in Naxos) in less than 24 hours of me submitting the claim when I got home. I am a great believer of Insurance despite not really claiming over the last 30+ years.
