Trapped in paradise and bad customer service

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This is going to be a rant and some of you will roll your eyes as I am in Bali, far from the craziness at home and and and. Well the craziness at home is spreading.  Last night I was turned away from check-in because Turkey had decided, a few hours before my flight, to close its borders to people from the UK, even for transit.  Their advice was to request a refund and sit it out. Well thats all fine and dandy but how long will I end up being here?  

So my list of offenders (bad customer service are as follows)

https://www.turkishairlines.com/ for selling me a ticket for £1100 then telling me to claim a refund rather than re-route me.

Opodo for not being contactable at all for 2 days and counting

Emirate for hanging up on me after 45 minutes and telling me to wait and see what happens

And finally but definitely the worst, Lastminute.com for selling me insurance I can't use, flights I cannot change and not responding to any messages for 3 days and counting. I will report them to ABTA but know it will take a long time to get a response.

And I must praise my hotel for letting me check back in.  Villa Kresna Suites let me have the room I just left at the same rate and are offering a really low rate of $47 B&B for the next week or so if I do get stuck! I recommend them to anyone coming here! Lovely rooms and service.

I travel a lot and have had lost bags, late flights, missed connections etc, nothing beats this for stress.

And I thank my parents who gave me enough money to pay for a new ticket so I have the chance of flying home tomorrow if the UK border doesn't close and Bali airport doesn't close, the rumours are crazy here and some Mexicans here in my hotel decided to fly to Singapore and see what happens as more and more places close up and go into lockdown.

Please feel free to share far and wide.

Sean, Seminyak Bali
March 19th 2020

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