Fly Yeti... Pay less, fly less.

Now just as we were deciding that Malaysia would be good for a holiday, Air Arabia, a low cost carrier that flies out of Sharjah, announced that they were opening up flights from Sharjah, through Nepal to KL. We laughed about this because I had just booked to go to Nepal in the second part of the holiday and it seemed random that we would be there together just days before on out return from KL. I went ahead and booked the flights, which were half the price of Malaysian Airline. When I booked it became apparent that the Kathmandu KL leg was operated by Fly Yeti, a Nepalese airline recently taken over by Air Arabia. We laughed at this too.... Maybe we'll get fed yeti steaks, maybe the yeti hangs his arms out and flaps them due to a lack of wings, you know, funny stuff.

We went ahead with the booking, then about 2 weeks before we flew I got sent a strange flight plan that had us flying on the 2nd leg of our return journey, before we had flown the 1st. 5 phone calls later with me slightly annoyed, I'd sorted out this 1st, relatively small issue.

Our first flight went off without a hitch, we flew Sharjah Kathmandu, spent the day in Kathmandu which was crazy and a mess (and had me mildly concerned about heading back there for 5 weeks). We then headed back to the airport to catch our ongoing flight. Sorry, it's been postponed until the morning! We opted to wait and try out the airline provided hotel, back into Kathmandu, we spent the night at Hotel Prime which was actually ok I suppose by Nepali standards. We were then entertained by some traditional Nepali dancers, which was quite hilarious (I'll share a picture of the yak one day). By the time we got back to the airport early the next morning it had actually been a bit of a laugh, we met a couple of nice people and had had a good time.

Then we had a great holiday, on the second to last day we thought we'd better confirm our return flights. Then we found that during our holiday Air Yeti has folded and we can get a refund for the half of our flight that they would've operated. We hopped down to their KL office and are told bad luck, take the money. After a heated discussion and a few tears they agreed to fit us on a Royal Nepal Airlines flight that was leaving in time to make our connection.

We got that flight and it was fine, the flight was full of workers and we were upgraded to business class. All was well till we were landing in Kathmandu, nearly on the tarmac when the pilot pulled up due to low visibility. He had another go 15 minutes later, no luck, then would you believe we were told we had to divert to New Dehli due to low fuel.

So we landed in New Dehli, sat on the tarmac for about 2 hours, then flew back to Kathmandu in time to miss our connecting flight! Royal Nepal Airlines agreed to put us up for the night, air arabia told us bad luck you missed your flight. Another heated discussion ensued (with another few tears, I was quite weary by then) and finally the Air Yeti office put us on the next days flight despite the fact that it was already full. Back into Kathmandu, same hotel (they must have a deal with the airlines). We actually had a really pleasant evening, the city had been cleaned up and we arrived much earlier, had a delicious dinner in a very laid back bar (leaving me feeling much better about spending the next 5 weeks there). We got to the airport about 4 hours before our flight the next day not willing to risk getting bumped because the flight was over booked. So, a day late, we arrived back in the UAE, no worse off financially but a little weary and a little more knowledgeable about airline offices and their workings, I can certainly say I have never been so glad to be in Sharjah in my whole life!