Help! Stuck in Jordan and TA cancelled flight

[Belleoftheball83]

Hi all. Posting for traffic in case anyone can help urgently.

I'm in Jordan due to fly home tomorrow with Turkish Airlines via Istanbul. They've changed the first leg due to "operational reasons" and the only other flight that will get me home the same day only has business class seats. So for two of us they're trying to charge us £900!

Its Friday holidays today so Turkish Airlines call centre is all closed and trying to phone UK connects me back to the local centre. No luck on live chat yet either.

Does anyone know if I pay the extra can I get it refunded?? The flights have already cost us over £2k for economy!

Thanks!

So? Do people just go ‘oh that country is green bet it’s all fine,’ and book a holiday without researching? If they do, they’re a muppet.

Just because a country is ‘green’ doesn’t mean it’s safe. It means it’s safer than those that are ‘red’ or ‘amber.’

Jordan has a high terrorism threat risk. Lots of spontaneous protests. A heightened anti-west sentiment. Border Crossing closures randomly - all that is in the detail of the travel advice. Still think ‘green’ means safe?

It’s a RAG rating and it’s done based on risk - green has never meant ‘it’s safe’ it just means ‘it’s not as dodgy as all these other places.’

Jordan is not "dodgy" comparison to Afghanistan is simply ridiculous.
It's not dangerous atm and it certainly doesn't want to join into some war, they are trying to keep calm and worry about further economical impact after being fucked by covid (and 700 things before that). No plans to try to retake west bank and no plans from someone to try to take Jordan.

Jordan has a high terrorism threat risk. Lots of spontaneous protests.

So do most countries atm. Including UK for travelers from outside

WizzAir flight to Luton tomorrow evening seems to be your best option. There's a Royal Jordanian flight to LHR too but that's over £400pp. Anything else for tomorrow involves a change and is still significantly more than the Luton flight.
Get the Stagecoach bus from Luton airport to Milton Keynes and from there you're on a direct train to Manchester Piccadilly taking about 1hr 45min. Journey Results | Stagecoach (stagecoachbus.com)

Erm, why not just travel tomorrow? Some special occasion?

If you are worried about being in Jordan why not get a cheap flight to the nearest safe-ish country or if you are really really worried why not just pay for the business class tickets? (Obviously you must have some funds, you have taken a trip to another continent)

I think people are over panicking a bit - this isn't "all flights out of Jordan are cancelled" it's "my one most convenient flight out of Jordan is cancelled"

Pretty much every country in the world has a heightened risk of terrorism right now. The middle east is a large region with many different countries, it's not likely OP is looking out of her window at the west bank right now.

Get the flights to Luton OP, then trains home. Although your train might end up being horrifically expensive!!

Have you called the Turkish Airlines office in London? They were very helpful.

@Aquestioningmind

I wasn't saying they should get her out, I was saying they probably won't get her put if she needed it. The amount of citizens the UK has travelling anywhere would make it untenable.
Afghanistan was always more unsafe than Jordan though, that's a poor example. Never met anyone who went on holiday to Afghanistan as a tourist rather than visiting family. Jordan on the other hand has thriving tourism with the west.

My concern for OP is more than airlines will drastically reduce flying in airspace that is so close to a volatile situation, hence me mentioning the physical distance to the west bank.

In any case, I'm not sure how long OP has been there, but the situation in Israel started 11 days ago. Im unclear whether she was already in Jordan when it started.

Airport Sales Office - Heathrow
Address: Turkish Airlines. Terminal 2 – Departures Level. London Heathrow Airport. TW6 1EW
Working hours: Desk opens during flight operations only (3 hours before flight departure time)
Telephone: 0844 800 6666 – 0203 991 1993

E-mail:[email protected] (Ticket and payment transactions for flights departing from İstanbul.)

City Office - Heathrow* *
Address: London
Working hours:
Weekdays : 09:00-17:00
Weekend: Closed
Ticket sales are not available.Please contact us via call center or email
Telephone: Call Center: 0844 800 6666 -0203 991 1993

Apologies for typo's

@Aquestioningmind maybe OP went to visit family or maybe travelled before 7th October? If it was an all out jolly trip, I doubt there'd be panic at having to spend the additional charge on flights.

Agree. Take the cheap flights to Luton. I imagine you'll get it back from TA or insurance. But even if you don't (or can't be bothered to pursue it) it isn't really very much money compared to the large amount you have already spent. So unless you are in the habit of spending a disproportionate amount on travel and pushing yourself to your financial limit, it's presumably an amount that you can suck up if you need to.

The foreign office has been advising only essential travel to Jordon for the last 9 days.

How important is time for you compared to money?
Bus or shared taxi to Egypt. Either holiday areas like Sharm el Sheikh or all the way to Cairo. Then fly.

No it wasn't

Turkish Airlines will not cover this cost. No chance.

Your travel insurance might. I would call them.

It absolutely cracks me up when people are going on about just buying the £900 tickets and deal with it later. What if you don't have £900 spare or a credit card or can't afford to wait for the money to (maybe) get refunded. It's not always that easy!

Why would you lie about something like this? They're not even advising that now. Just with 3km of the border WITH SYRIA which isn't new.

I don’t understand the fuss about this when a PP pointed out there are flights to Luton for £105. Why would you pay £900 in those circumstances? I know trains are expensive these days but I really don’t think it’s going to cost £800 to get from Luton to Manchester!

I just had right giggle at one if the safety warnings about opening times for Petra on fcdo travel advice page.
Now I wonder how many people got in trouble for it to actually having to be mentioned!

And I think it’s unreasonable to suggest it’s irresponsible to go with Home Office advice. It is literally their job to use their international knowledge to assess safety for British citizens and advise them accordingly. Why would you think you know better?

You shouldn't really be travelling without enough money to make emergency arrangements. I've had times when £900 would have been an enormous sum to me, I wouldn't have been in Jordan though.

Just get the Luton flights and then work out how to get home from there , it’s a no brainer as I can’t see any way that TA will reimburse the £900

Where? Any why would you make that up?

This. And if you travel against HO advice it will most likely invalidate your travel insurance.

OP I hope you can get this sorted. I second other who have recommended calling the UK or US office for TA and contacting your travel insurance for advice.