So whilst at the Alitalia check in at the Istanbul airport I was highly complimentary of the people working there -- and contrasted them with those eejits at British Air. The nice young lady gave me my boarding pass and a pass for the executive lounge. I then discovered she had upgraded me to business class for 2 legs of my trip. So it was sparkling wine and cognac all the way to London.

As I said, it pays to be nice.

Wow, that sounds great

Perhaps I should try this too

oli

Ah...old European airline charm!

What do you mean with nice?
Abundant flirting does actually work with many Italian girls/woman behind desks, but I would not advice to try the same thing in Central Europe without risking to be left behind on the tarmac.

Absolutely; I've flirted my way in board with 50kg of excess baggae before now, without having to pay for it!

I've heard today, that it is cheaper to send stuff over the limit of 20 or 30 Kg as so called "air freight" (air cargo?) instead of letting it declare as excess baggage. Especially if you fail on the flirting...

Has anyone experiences with that freight/cargo-thing?

Or does anyone know a cheap way of getting stuff from mainland europe to Istanbul?

Thanks in advance...

P.S.: Of course I am NOT asking because I expect myself to FAIL in flirting, it's just, ehmm, errr, I'm generally interested in such money and transportation knowledge - of course.

I, for one, would never have thought for a second you would fail on flirting!

Rooooaaaaarrrrr (Tim Allen style)

when we took a flight to lithuania from istanbul we had around 200 kg baggage with us.we were flying 3 people and the baby.we didnt need to pay anything at this time.usually they ask for an extra killos...
1 kg=5 eur.
its cheaper to give heavy bags to cargo.we did so the last time...we paked into one box 23 killos and had to pay about 19 eur for sending it to lithuania from istanbul.it took 1 week to get it back.

Once, after living in the basque country for 4 months, I travled back to the states. Flight from NY to San Francisco was late, then I missed my flight to Reno... So, I got off the plane, and went to the counter, and as soon as I started talking I was crying like a baby with tears running down my face "I... missed... sniff.... my flight... sniff..." and they got me a room at a hotel, and a ride over there, and a flight first thing in the morning, plus some $100 cupon off the night time I flew with them.

I was so used to the French rails that I thought for sure I'd be spending the night camped in the airport sleeping on the ground, and not getting a refund for my flight!

So how much does crying work??