A coworker of mine, +Leonid Notik, is currently stuck in the Ukraine trying to get home from Odessa, because “Aerosvit” apparently is in bankruptcy. Here is his story so far:
I needed to land Odessa we circled 5 times and then they would not approve our landing so the airline then flew us to Kiev (which is a distance of 900 km away). They left us at the airport and said “You will have to continue on your own.” We made a fuss and then they tried to fly us to Odessa once more failed so again we returned to Kiev.
Then they told us that they did not have an airplane that to land in weather conditions like these. So we were organized into a vehicle to travel 10 hours, at a cost of $40 each.
So we had a night without any sleep yesterday. Two days ago I saw that the flight board said the flight was okay so we rented an apartment for the day in Odessa. When checking with my travel agent she told us that everything is fine, but in the evening, when we were already in Odessa (and I suppose to leave the other day) I called her once more (having been taught by bitter experience) to check that everything was still fine and the answer she gave me was that “the flight is canceled”, and that we must to arrive to the airport to see how can they help us.
When we got to the airport yesterday they told us that they won't have an airplane this week and we have to fly to Kiev.
I checked and there were no seats on the bus to Kiev on the necessary dates and there are not places on the train in the necessary dates , by close to miracle we paid extra to a friend of my fiancé's father (he is a bus driver) and the friend canceled the ticket of one of passengers and accepted mine :)
So take the time to check out that your airline is not in trouble before flying, and if you used a travel agent ask them for help should something go wrong.
Photo by Leonid Notik, used with permission.
