![]() 28th June: Dalaman – Istanbul – Valencia. 01st Aug: Valencia – Istanbul - Dalaman. As a Brit I am a devout animal lover, so much so that when I go on holiday to Spain for a month or more, I cant bear to leave my only baby behind. So you guessed it, I take him with me! Gucci is my only child, my baby, my one and only. Over the top? HELL NO! Gucci is now 8 years old (not that you would know it as he still behaves like a hyper active puppy), an American cocker and we have been together since day dot. Gucci has his own facebook page and his own blog. I did not choose Gucci, Gucci chose me. It’s fair to say that Gucci lives life to the fullest, as while writing this article we were living it up in Spain. This was not Gucci’s first trip to Spain – we did the very same for 2 months last year. Am I deranged taking my D.O.G on holiday with me? Well, that’s debatable, but I wouldn’t have it any other way! 2012 - It all started while having a chat with my vet during a routine hair cut (Gucci’s – not mine). We got to talking about how I can only ever go away for short periods of time as I hate to leave my boy with anyone for too long. The vet pointed out that the rules had changed and that I can take Guc with me on holiday to Europe with no quarantine time so long as I have all his paperwork, injections, passport, microchip, etc up to date. So there and then I asked if we started with everything immediately, when the earliest time would be that we could go on our jolly holidays. 4 months was the answer. A bit lengthier than I would have liked, but not particularly long non the less. That was in preparation for Gucci’s first successful trip to Spain. The below details Gucci’s second and most recent holiday: February 2013: Gucci already had his microchip many moons ago so that made it one less thing to worry about. So the vet started out with the Rabies Blood test. Poor Guc, he had to have about 6 vials of blood drawn for testing, and he didn’t like that one little bit! I felt sorry for him, but sorrier for me as this year it had tripled in price from just 10 months earlier. From there it was a 4 month waiting period: 1 month processing, and a 3 month wait to see if Rabies developed in the blood. March 2013: I went ahead of the rabies results and booked the flights with Turkish Airlines as I was sure that Gucci didn’t have Rabies. As Guc weighs over 6 kilo’s, it meant that he would have to travel in the hold in an animal friendly travel container. I had to reserve his flight but could not pay for it then as he had to be weighed in at the airport and charged as excess luggage. With his return flights now reserved, it was a relief. Beginning of June: Rabies test results came back, and off course Gucci didn’t have Rabies. The vet gave me the papers for the all clear test and I was good to go for another year. 26th June 2013: Worm tablets and frontline plus a visit to the Kaymakam to get his documents signed off which can only be done 2 days prior to departure. I did this in the center if Marmaris in the Kaymakam’s office close to the PTT. Something else that I had noticed was the price increase for signing documents there too. Last year they charged 45.00TL – this had nearly quadrupled in price! After I had calmed down from my near heart attack over the price increase, it was finally holiday time! 28th June 2013: Poor Guc wasn’t allowed to eat or drink anything 12 hours prior to travelling so that he didn’t do his business in his traveling case, however as it was so hot I couldn’t not give him a sip or two of water, especially after taking him for a walk… I had booked a private taxi transfer to take us to the airport, as I did last year. I did not even inquire if a normal transfer service would accept dogs – I am pretty sure the answer would be no, however if anyone finds out any different, I would be very interested to know. Before getting into the taxi transfer, I had to coax Guc into licking the Relax Serum which is not as easy as it sounds, however the vet recommends it for traveling animals. It doesn’t make them sleep, just chills them right out. I sometimes wonder if it would be OK for me to give this to Guc on a normal car journey to the beach seeing as he tries to drive the car himself even though he is strongly tied up! The relax serum keeps the dog/animal nicely chilled out for 11 hours, which believe me is sometimes not long enough when flights go wrong… As my taxi transfer driver knows me well, he didn’t enforce the fact that Guc needed to be in his dog box. He sat next to me the whole journey to the airport nice and calmly and actually behaved himself. Usually he embarrasses me in some way (all down to the fact I never did train him well), so this really does deserve extra kudos to the relax serum. Once at the airport, I walked him to the ex-ray area, where my luggage plus his carry case went through the machine, whilst I walked him through the scanner, collecting everything the other side with all the airport police cooing over him yet not wanting to get dog on their hands… Check in was easy enough: The staff checked all his documents which included his Pet Passport, Rabies Result paperwork and Kaymakam documents. Then they weigh him on the luggage weighing belt. Had he have been 6kg or under, he could have traveled with me on board the aircraft as I could have carried him on as hand luggage. But no – my chubby boy is 10kg unfortunately; however looking at him you would never think he had a care in the world whilst thinking this was the best adventure ever with an ever so spaced look about him. Once they had given us the tickets to pay for the excess luggage (Urm – Gucci), we headed down to the THY customer service desk to pay his fare, then back to check in to complete everything. They informed me at the desk that as I had a connecting flight to Valencia, I wouldn’t need to collect my luggage or Gucci in Istanbul, all would go directly through. Bonus! They asked if I would like Gucci to be taken then from the check in desk or at boarding, I opted for boarding as I did last year. It gives Guc that bit extra time out of his box to stretch his leggies. Up to this point he had not actually been in his dog box once. We walked through passport control easily enough and then had a wonder about departures, his nose constantly to the ground sniffing for simply anything that he could eat as by now the poor soul was starving. Last year he inhaled half of a manky old hotdog that he found under a chair whilst at the airport – This year I was taking no prisoners in that regard and was way more clued up and had my beady eye on him constantly. Everything was going swimmingly until we were just about to get on the aircraft… The check in lady came over with a troubled look about her and informed me that the aircraft was not equipped to carry animals as it didn’t have an air-conditioning system in the hold. She went on to tell me that they had tried to contact me on the 24th March (it was now the 28th June) to inform me that the aircraft type had changed, yet there was no answer on my mobile… They let me check in and pay for the dog’s airfare, let me get through passport control and right up to boarding, yet had known since the 24th of March that this aircraft would not be able to let us fly. It’s fair to say that I burst into tears whilst a cloud of curse words engulfed the boarding gate. I could not comprehend how they could let us get that far, I still can’t, but that is a story for a different issue… THY removed my luggage from the flight and I was walked back through to the check in area and escorted to the customer service desk. On the way to the desk I scanned the board and noticed that THY had another flight 3.5 hours later. When at the desk, the THY agent was doing her best to keep me calm as I was totally panicking about my connecting flight that was due to take off from Istanbul at 10.55am (it was 5am at the time). I asked her when I could get to Istanbul and she consulted with head office and they could confirm me for the following morning for the 5am flight as that had an air-conditioning system in the hold. Well, me being me I refused to give in. I asked immediately about the 08.30am flight that I had noticed on the board. THY advised me that there would not be enough time to get from Domestic Arrivals through to international departures in Ataturk airport to let us fly, to which I told them not to worry about the time, and should we not make it then they could confirm us for the following day Valencia connection and we would spend the 24 hours in the airport. They booked us on the 08.30am flight; we made it through boarding and actually onto the first aircraft! To say that I was panicking about the amount of time we had at Ataturk was an understatement. I still didn’t have to collect my luggage or Guc, so it was only me I needed to worry about getting over to international departures. The universe was looking after us as we landed at 09.20am and by 09.30am I was seen running like a screaming banshee through the airport to make it to my gate for boarding at 09.55am. I made it! As soon as I arrived at the gate I spoke to a THY agent and asked him to find out if Guc and my case had also made it – they had, and a huge sigh of relief ran through me. Picking up Gucci and my luggage (all from the same luggage belt) in Valencia, I don’t think I had ever been as happy as what I was right there and then. I noticed that the travel box had been damaged as there were two large splits by the wheels, indicating that the box had been dropped – with Gucci in it… I got Gucci out immediately and he was in excellent spirits, no injuries that I could see and he was pretty damn happy to see me, as I was to see him. My parents were picking us up at the airport and had brought him lots of food and water which we gave to him just before leaving the airport. And so began our adventures in Spain – Round 2, however that’s another article for another time… A week before we were due to return to Turkey we received an email from Turkish airlines informing us that the flights coming back were the wrong aircraft types for carrying an animal and would we change the date of travel to one day earlier. Not left with much of a choice, we obviously had to change dates. When we arrived at the airport – low and behold we were not booked onto the flight to Istanbul or the connection to Dalaman. To say I was getting rather stressed out was an understatement. I presented the print out with the change of dates on and was then ushered to the Turkish Airlines office. The Spanish THY staff there were so helpful and apologized for the confusion, but reiterated that yes indeed we were not booked on as once again the aircraft types had changed. We could fly from Valencia to Istanbul however they were searching for a new connection flight for us. Thankfully they found one for the same day, making our waiting time at Istanbul 5 hours as opposed to 1.5 hours, however that didn’t matter at all seeing as we could still get home without having to stay in the airport overnight. And, we did eventually make it home. We arrived shattered and rather grubby, but at least we arrived! The cost… · Cost of Rabies Test in February 2013: Approx 450.00 TL · Cost of Travel Container in August 2012: Approx 500.00TL · Cost of paperwork in the Kaymakam office in June 2013: 143.00 TL · Relax Serum from the Vet: 30.00 TL · Private Taxi Transfer from Marmaris to Dalaman: 40.00 Pounds each way. · Cost of Gucci’s one way flight on 28th June 2013 – Paid per kilo as excess luggage : 100.00 Euros (they didn’t charge e for the dog box as I was under weight with my suitcase by 10 kilos. · Spain – Vet check up 2 days prior to departure: 28.00 Euros. · Cost of Gucci’s one way flight on 28th June 2013 – Paid per kilo as excess luggage: 160.00 Euros. · Cost of having my baby with me on holiday: PRICELESS !
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