Like thousands of other tourists, Carole, who went to Asia with her family for the school holidays, must now be patient to return to France. Her Emirates flight from Dubai was canceled and, since then, her wallet has been running at full capacity… But she puts things into perspective.
A vacation that turns sour… Carole, a 35-year-old French woman who left with her two daughters and her husband for a two-week stay in Asia, is one of the thousands of people impacted by the war waged by the United States on Iran. While airports in the Middle East are slowing down, she is now stranded and does not yet know when she will be able to return to France. She tells us how she organizes herself while waiting.
Arriving in Laos on February 19, to meet with her two young daughters some of her husband’s family who live there for a few days, Carole and her clan then continued their family stay in Thailand. A stay which now promises to be much longer than expected… And for good reason: when they were due to return to Paris on March 11, by an Emirates flight stopping in Dubai, everything fell through. “Our flight from Bangkok to Dubai was canceled and, previously, we learned two days ago that our flight from Dubai to Paris had been brought forward“, she confided to Women’s Journal.
Established in Bangkok since March 8, the little family immediately headed to the Emirates agency to get more information. “It was quite amazing the world (Airports of Thailand reports more than 300 flights already impacted and more than 50,000 passengers affected, editor’s note)there were many of us in the same situation. Emirates distributes meeting tickets to have an interlocutor. I was with my granddaughter, I was looking if there was a priority line for families and a hostess gave me a ticket to come back the next day“, she first explained. Then she clarified, a little disappointed: “In fact, what is annoying is the inconsistencies between the information given by the company and the speeches we hear here and there.”
Because, for the moment, Carole and her family have no set date for a return to France. If the family wants to return as quickly as possible, they only have one solution: buy new plane tickets for direct flights between Bangkok and Paris. “There are some but it’s 2000 euros per head (so 8,000 euros to go out at once for a family of four, editor’s note). At this price, you can stay three months in Thailand!“, she says. She also notes some vagueness on the conditions for repatriation or reimbursement of tickets canceled by Emirates; the company updates a special page for customers here.
While waiting for the situation to resolve, Carole and her family took the lead. “We found an Airbnb with a swimming pool to keep the girls busy in Bangkok which we took for safety for at least four more days, for around 300 euros“A reasonable amount but it shouldn’t last too long because Carole is already “for three days on unpaid” with her employer, she who started a fixed-term contract a few months ago and who had already planned this family trip in advance. Luckily, her husband is still on leave and is not losing money.
Despite everything, there is no question of complaining. “We’re fine, we’re not to be complained about. We could have been stuck in Australia, where life is three times more expensive. Whereas here you can get by for 10 euros worth of food per meal. Afterwards, we’ll start to really care when it’s been more than a week…“, she assures.
Update : A few hours after our interview, Carole and her family accepted a reclassification proposal from Emirates for a departure not before March 20, on a flight from Bangkok to Tokyo, directly from the Japanese capital to Paris, on the company ANA.
