Had my eye on a reasonable airline ticket/situation to Athens this winter and nothing panned out. Got a little more aggressive about searching a couple of weeks ago and hit the jackpot: ASAP Tickets. When I attempted to explore the good fare I saw, I was instructed to instead call the 800 number and speak to an agent. Nihal was awesome. He was in India, so my midnight phone call caught him at the beginning of his workday. He listened, he understood, he found reasonable options from PDX. When I had him check SEA, however, he found a substantially lower fare and a direct/nonstop to Istanbul, a short stopover, and then getting to Athens at a decent hour while public transportation is still running — aking it worth my while to take off/land in SEA.
Both Athens and Istanbul are reporting “destructive” snow — whatever that means. It’s only a couple of inches and the forecast is well above freezing. Not sure what the source of the concern is but I would not be upset if we arrived in Istanbul and my connecting flight was grounded. I would love to see this city that I had heard so much about.
UPDATE 06/10/2023: I learned that "destructive" weather refers to the possibility of interruption to your daily life; like what happens when no one shovels away the snow and it freezes, preventing you from driving down the mountain and into the city.
