My Turkmenistan Airlines adventure started when I saw this post on Flyertalk which got me thinking about whether it would be possible to fit this into an upcoming trip to Southeast Asia. After watching the youtube reviews from Noel Philips and Josh Cahill it sounded like a fun adventure so I figured I’d give it a try.Most of the flights available had layovers in Ashgabat during the night, and many of them were very short. I wanted a daytime layover of a few hours to hopefully get views in and out of the city and have some time to explore the airport without being rushed. It took quite a bit of searching I eventually settled on this itinerary from Dubai to Bangkok with a 4.5 hour stop in Ashgabat. The price was around $330 one-way. Booking was not straightforward with a U.S. card. The booking was initially declined, however Chase had no record of the decline. After spending some time on the phone to the bank, it turns out visa declined the charge, and Chase had to call visa to resolve it. Anyways I eventually got it booked.


Turkmenistan departs from terminal 2 at Dubai which is the worst of the three terminals. There isn’t much pre or post security to recommend. Check in was quite an experience. I was clearly the only non-Turkmen on this flight, and the only person without several boxes of luggage. I have never seen anything like it. Some families were arriving with 10 giant boxes to check in between all of them. They were only able to check me in as far as Ashgabat and they said I could pick up my next boarding pass there.





At the gate, an agent was making everybody check their carry on bags. I really didn’t want to do this because I was only checked as far as Ashgabat. I told the guy I was going to Bangkok, and he asked me to wait and the woman behind me went next. She said she had a laptop in her carry on, so the guy just waved her through. I asked him if he could wait one minute while I put my laptop in the bag. He smiled and also waved me through without having to check my bag.

The first flight was operated on a 737 and was about half full. Everybody had at least one spare seat in their row. And half the people just dumped their luggage wherever they felt like it. Oh and another guy brought berries as his carry on.








The legroom was very good. I’m 5ft 9in and my knees were nowhere near the seat in front. The inflight magazine was heavy on the achievements of the Turkmen president, and also featured many of the destinations you can visit on Turkmenistan airlines. The food was ok. Significantly better than it looks in the photo.








Unfortunately I sat on the wrong side of the plane for good views of Ashgabat but got a few photos of the airport on arrival.



In Ashgabat, I was the only transit passenger on the flight. A lady checked me in for the next flight. She was trying to hurry me through but I saw a foreign exchange office and asked if I can get some Turkmen money for a souvenir. Note to anybody else transiting in Ashgabat – don’t do this!!! The way it works is they take your foreign money ($14 minimum), and then you get a certificate which you exchange for Turkmen money after you enter Turkmenistan, which I would not be doing. So I paid $14 for this useless certificate. I did eventually get the Turkmen money (see below)




After this misadventure it was time to clear security. Which would have been fine but nobody was there. I didn’t really want to walk right through an empty security checkpoint so I went back to the representative to tell them nobody was there. I don’t think they really understood. They kept waiving me around the corner to security until the 3rd time I came back when they finally got somebody to the scanner.




There isn’t much to see and do at the airport. There are a couple of cafes selling snacks, a handful of souvenir stores, and some duty free stores. There seemed to be a lot of different types of Turkmen drinks which I would have liked to buy but couldn’t because I was traveling with a carry on. The duty free stores also sold Turkmen items like carpets, clothing etc… There was no internet available for foreigners. The WiFi required a Turkmenistan number, and cellular data didn’t work for me. Entertainment in the terminal was music videos and occasionally some quite bizarre Turkmen propaganda type videos. I eventually got a bunch of Turkmen money by buying a fridge magnet and a handful of snacks including this fantastic Turkmen ice cream waffle thing. You are able to pay in dollars at every store in the airport and they will give you change in whichever currency you want.












As I’m sure you’ve read before, there are way too many gates and it’s way too big an airport for the number of flights. I walked all the way up and down many times while listening to podcasts. There were around 5 officers wearing Soviet style uniforms. They would occasionally stop me and ask which flight I’m on, where I’m walking to, or where I’m from. But they seemed nice enough. They have one of the most boring jobs in the world policing a completely empty terminal with barely any passengers and presumably zero incidents of any sort to deal with. I had heard a lot of people saying you would get in trouble for taking photos and filming but I didn’t experience any issues. Maybe they didn’t see me.

There were signs to various amenities like the lounge, food court, ATM etc... but in reality none of these things existed. They were all either missing, or closed. One guy was in a big hurry asking me where the lounge was. I told him either there isn't one or it's probably not open and he said "I paid for it, I have to find it and use it!". I hope he didn't miss his flight because of that.






My second flight to Bangkok was on the 777-300. It felt brand new, and honestly the hard product was great. The seat was very comfortable. Although leg room was standard, the flight was so empty that everybody got a bed to themselves. There were maybe 50 people on the flight including a much more diverse mix of nationalities than the previous one from Dubai, where I was the only non-Turkmen. Sorry for the lines in the photo, it was impossible to get a photo without them. The food was the same as the first flight.








This time I sat on the right side of the plane for excellent views of Ashgabat on takeoff







The crew were heavily policing the back section of economy and don’t want anyone back there for some reason. A handful of people were trying to get back there to pick up the 4-across beds but the crew were turning them back. I managed to get back there to use the toilet but couldn’t take a photo of the cabin because I was getting death stares from multiple crew members at all times. There’s unfortunately no other way to say it, the crew were really bad on this flight. The whole time they seemed entirely disinterested in their jobs and more interested in preventing passengers from walking to different parts of the aircraft.

This was a night flight, arriving in Bangkok at 3am, but the lights stayed on for just about the whole flight. Except the aforementioned back area of the aircraft where the lights were turned off, but no passengers were allowed to go. Soon enough we landed in Bangkok and everybody clapped for the landing.

I’m glad I did this flight. It was a unique and interesting experience. If there was an opportunity to visit Turkmenistan I would like to go there and experience this strange and interesting country, but otherwise I would probably not do it again. Happy to answer any questions for anybody considering this journey.