Have you ever heard of blind date? Of course you have. At least most of you might have heard and even some of you may have done it in the past. What about Blind Booking? Well, until 2004, I haven't. It was amazing though. Let me tell you about it a bit more.
It was May 2004 and I was living in Cologne, Germany. Cologne, the heart of Germanwings, the first low-cost airline company I know, was and is an amazing city with full of surprises. This experience for me was also like that.
I was receiving regular emails from germanwings.com regarding their promotions and even once I booked my flight to Istanbul through their website. This time the email I got was about Blind Booking. It was saying that they were offering 10 cities for €19 and 10 cities for €39 one way ticket. The headline was blind booking and I didn't think what it really meant. You know, one almost never reads the tiny detail writings at the bottom of promotion sites. Since they are so small and not really important (well in this case they were), I usually don't care about them. I always wanted to go to Paris and this way it would cost me a very small amount to go there. All I saw about the promotion was that there would be a 48 hour period and then I'd choose my destination. Or so I thought. As a matter of fact it was the period I would learn where I was gonna go at my selected date. Yeah, I forgot to mention how the system worked:
- You choose the dates of your travel. You choose how much you would pay (€19 or €39) and then pay the amount. The amounts are at least €33 and €49 now though.
It was that simple. Well, not really. Since I thought I would be able to choose my destination after 48 hours, I just went for it and purchased my ticket. It was non-refundable of course, like all the low-cost airline tickets. And I started to wait. I thought I was gonna wait 2 days but the next day I received an email from Germanwings saying that my ticket was to Stockholm. I thought there should be a mistake and contacted them. They told me that it was how their system worked. And there was nothing to be done for that. I was pissed and since I didn't know anyone in or from Stockholm, I thought not to go.
There was still a lot of time until my travel. I was a member of an email group of EVS (European Voluntary Service) volunteers and one day I saw an email from a girl saying that she was back to her home in Stockholm. I was really happy and immediately wrote her about it. She told me that she was living with her boyfriend and they would welcome me to their home for my travel. I was so happy after this news. €38 is not a big amount but at the time, still a student and getting about €300 for my food and pocket money, it was important for me. With her in Stockholm, I thought I should go. It was one of the most adventurous trips of my life.
For 2,5 days, I spent €36 only for public transportation and had great time in there. She, İnci, showed me around. We went to real 3D movie. One wouldn't need 3D glasses for this since the screen was an imitation of human eye. We went to a nature museum and for the first time I saw dinosaur skeleton. It was 2,5 days gone like a wind. After I took the photo of a small street, these kids were coming up and asked in Swedish why I shot their photo. My friend explained in English that we were tourists. They started talking in English and posed for me.
If you ask me if I would do it again, the answer is definitely a big YES. This is how it's now. They have different alternatives for different needs of blind booking. But the prices have gone up and free 20kg. luggage is now for €15. It's still an amazing way of travelling.
It was May 2004 and I was living in Cologne, Germany. Cologne, the heart of Germanwings, the first low-cost airline company I know, was and is an amazing city with full of surprises. This experience for me was also like that.
I was receiving regular emails from germanwings.com regarding their promotions and even once I booked my flight to Istanbul through their website. This time the email I got was about Blind Booking. It was saying that they were offering 10 cities for €19 and 10 cities for €39 one way ticket. The headline was blind booking and I didn't think what it really meant. You know, one almost never reads the tiny detail writings at the bottom of promotion sites. Since they are so small and not really important (well in this case they were), I usually don't care about them. I always wanted to go to Paris and this way it would cost me a very small amount to go there. All I saw about the promotion was that there would be a 48 hour period and then I'd choose my destination. Or so I thought. As a matter of fact it was the period I would learn where I was gonna go at my selected date. Yeah, I forgot to mention how the system worked:
- You choose the dates of your travel. You choose how much you would pay (€19 or €39) and then pay the amount. The amounts are at least €33 and €49 now though.
It was that simple. Well, not really. Since I thought I would be able to choose my destination after 48 hours, I just went for it and purchased my ticket. It was non-refundable of course, like all the low-cost airline tickets. And I started to wait. I thought I was gonna wait 2 days but the next day I received an email from Germanwings saying that my ticket was to Stockholm. I thought there should be a mistake and contacted them. They told me that it was how their system worked. And there was nothing to be done for that. I was pissed and since I didn't know anyone in or from Stockholm, I thought not to go.
There was still a lot of time until my travel. I was a member of an email group of EVS (European Voluntary Service) volunteers and one day I saw an email from a girl saying that she was back to her home in Stockholm. I was really happy and immediately wrote her about it. She told me that she was living with her boyfriend and they would welcome me to their home for my travel. I was so happy after this news. €38 is not a big amount but at the time, still a student and getting about €300 for my food and pocket money, it was important for me. With her in Stockholm, I thought I should go. It was one of the most adventurous trips of my life.
For 2,5 days, I spent €36 only for public transportation and had great time in there. She, İnci, showed me around. We went to real 3D movie. One wouldn't need 3D glasses for this since the screen was an imitation of human eye. We went to a nature museum and for the first time I saw dinosaur skeleton. It was 2,5 days gone like a wind. After I took the photo of a small street, these kids were coming up and asked in Swedish why I shot their photo. My friend explained in English that we were tourists. They started talking in English and posed for me.If you ask me if I would do it again, the answer is definitely a big YES. This is how it's now. They have different alternatives for different needs of blind booking. But the prices have gone up and free 20kg. luggage is now for €15. It's still an amazing way of travelling.
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