Our Flights are Booked… Again!
After discovering even more international transit regulations which meant several of the flight routes we were looking into were not possible, our Travel Agent found something that should work!
We discovered that many international airports have a limit of 24 hours that transit passengers can be there, and one even closes overnight, meaning you can only transit through there if you are in and out in the same day! So frustrating!
Thankfully, after hours of repeated inquiries and different options, our Australia-based Travel Agent was able to get the international tickets that we were supposed to travel on last weekend, re-booked at minimal cost. Sadly though, the Canada domestic flight could not be re-booked and we were forced to buy a new, short-notice ticket, which wasn’t cheap, although far cheaper than having to buy a new international ticket! :-(
Our flights are now planned as follows (all times LOCAL):
Depart Calgary, Canada on Fri 14 Aug at 11:55 on flight AC0322 (Flight time - 3 hrs 55 mins). Transit time in Montreal = 3 hrs 25 mins.
Depart Montreal, Canada on Fri 14 Aug at 21:15 on flight QR0764 (Flight time - 12 hrs 10 mins). Transit time in Doha = 27 hrs.
Depart Doha, Qatar on Sun 16 Aug at 19:25 on flight QR0844 (Flight time - 8 hrs). Transit time in Kuala Lumpur = 19 hrs 35 mins.
Depart Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Tue 18 Aug at 04:00 on a UN Humanitarian flight (Flight time - 8 hrs 10 mins). Arrive Port Moresby, PNG at 15:10. (This routes via Dili, Timor Leste where we will be on the ground for a short time to offload some passengers and pick up others.)
More than 3 whole days of travel with over 32 hours of flying!
We will spend Tuesday night in a Hotel in Port Moresby. On Wednesday morning MAF will come and pick us up to take us, along with the MAF PNG Finance Manager, Fiona (who is from the UK and will be joining us on the UN Humanitarian Flight), all back to Mt Hagen where we will quarantine for 14 days in MAF accommodation.
Gosh, this has been an exhausting few days getting all these details together! PLEASE continue to pray that these flights will NOT be cancelled and this time we will get home to PNG, with no more costs involved.
Thank you!
