Flights to Georgia

(In the unlikely event anyone but Future Steve is reading this, massive
amounts of tedious detail alert. Frankly even Future Steve might want to
skip this one...)

If I fly out on Friday night after my last day at work, the only option
at a remotely sane price is £342, LHR 2230-IST 0420, IST 0705-TBS 1020.

If I fly out on Saturday, the absolute cheapest (on ITA's matrix, which
I am kind of trusting - maybe I will double check on expedia before I
book anything) is £234, but that gets me into Tbilisi at 2325, and I'd
really rather not be arriving in an unfamiliar city where I don't speak
the language at midnight.

Now, what seems to have popped up but wasn't available before is a £235
flight LHR 1635-TBS 0420 via Athens (2h 15m there). And, oddly enough,
the Polish airlines flight I was flirting with which seemed to have gone
up £80 last night is now back down to the original price. I wonder if I
just ballsed up my search last night. Anyway, that Polish airlines
flight is £256, LHR 1750-TBS 0400 via Warsaw.

I am not paying an extra £100 for the Friday night flight in order to
get an extra day's holiday, even if I weren't at all concerned (and
there'd probably be no problem) with flying out directly after work on
my last day. That would be quite cool in a way, but at this price no.

Last night there seemed to be a cheap flight via Azerbaijan (Baku), I
even e-mailed to check I didn't need a visa to change planes there. That
would have been oddly cool, plus the Baku-Tbilisi flight would have been
in a smallish plane which would also be novel, but it seems not to be an
option any more.

You fool Steve, you've been looking at the Sunday by accident.

So the cheapest and probably the best option is now the via Baku flight.
£257. LHR 2205-GYD 0735, then GYD 1010-TBS 1011 (in an Embraer RJ-190
for 1h1m). It's a real shame that isn't an option on the Friday night
but it isn't (or if it is it costs like £800 and I filtered it out). In
a way it seems a shame to be "wasting" the Saturday like that, as I
wouldn't arrive until Sunday morning, but basically the trip takes about
7-8h minimum so unless there is a flight on Friday night, I either
arrive late on Saturday (which I really don't want to do, as noted
above) or fly overnight on Saturday and arrive Sunday morning.

Hmm, sorting by arrival time, there is actually a £234 flight via Kiev
which leaves Gatwick at just after midnight on Saturday, arriving 1540
in Tbilisi. However, it has a 6h 45m layover in Kiev.

OK, expedia can't turn up any decently priced flights on the Friday
night, although they do turn up the via Kiev flight just after midnight
mentioned above at £236.

On Saturday, expedia is offering the LOT Polish flight LHR 1750-TBS 0400
flight for £235, although ITA is showing it at £331. Not that it's a
major factor, but that also involves a probably small plane (Embraer
RJ-195 this time) for the second hop, although in this case it's 3h 20m
on the thing.

I am thinking I need to look at the London-oriented times of these with
a view to comparing the sleeping potential.

So, going via Baku (£257, ITA) I leave Heathrow at 22:05 BST and have a
5h 30m flight to Baku, i.e. we land at 03:35 BST. I then spend 2h 35m at
the airport before flying out at 06:10 BST, landing in Tbilisi at 07:11
BST, 10:11 local.

Whereas going via Warsaw (£235, expedia) I leave Heathrow at 17:50 BST
and have a 2h 30m flight to Warsaw, landing 20:20 BST. I have a 1h 20m
stopover there, we take off at 21:40 BST and after a 3h 20m flight land
in Tbilisi at 01:00 BST, 04:00 local.

Now looking at that my gut feeling is that the via Warsaw flight is
better. I have more chance of sleeping on the plane via Baku, but I
could very easily just be falling asleep by the time we land in Baku and
then I don't really get much of a chance to sleep after that (too risky
to sleep at the airport, and only 1h flight to Tbilisi). If I go via
Warsaw, because it's a bit earlier, I probably won't sleep, but given my
typical UK hours, I probably won't be particularly tired when I land at
01:00 BST. If I assume I could check in as early as I liked, I'd
probably just be getting really tired by the time I got to the ho(s)tel
maybe 2-3 hours later, i.e 04:00 BST ish, 07:00 local.

I would probably be knackered, especially if I couldn't check in and had
to occupy myself with coffee until check in time, but the Baku flight is
probably no better in that sense. I'd probably not get to sleep on the
planes at all (I often don't fall asleep until 1-2am anyway), and I'd
just be even more knackered when actually travelling from the airport to
the ho(s)tel.

I suppose either way it's like staying up all night and not being
allowed to go to bed until check in time. If check in time can be early,
that's a big bonus for the Warsaw route as it means I can go to bed by
04:00 BST-ish, which wouldn't be that big a strain. If check in time
can't be any earlier than (say) midday local, which would be 09:00 BST,
I have to effectively stay up until then, it's just that via Warsaw I
spend the last 6-7 hours feeling tired in Tbilisi a staggering distance
from the ho(s)tel, whereas via Baku I spend more time feeling tired at
Azerbaijan airport or trying to navigate transport in Tbilisi. Throw in
the fact that the Warsaw flight is a bit cheaper anyway and it's
starting to look like a no-brainer.

[I'm going to stop writing ho(s)tel and just use whichever word seems
appropriate, without implying anything about my plans unless I'm
explicitly waffling on that theme.]

Hmm. I might hope to book something today but I clearly need to brood on
this a bit more anyway. I'm going to send this to the blog now and I'll
perhaps avoid waffling further online.