FlyerTalk Forums - Uzbekistan Airways business class

Origin

An old friend kindly invited me to attend his wedding in Tashkent. With visions of dusky girls, magic lamps and flying carpets, all the wonders of the exotic orient, I was keen to visit.

Destination

The ancient city of Tashkent is the second-largest urban area in the CIS after Moscow and sits in a desert oasis. Once upon a time traders travelled through this part of the world on the silk road. Unfortunately I was unable to visit the other silk road cities in Uzbekistan, which include Bukhara and Samarkand, because the weather at the time was extremely hot.

This was my first trip to Uzbekistan, a country that Human Rights Watch labels “atrocious” and “closed to independent scrutiny” (Source). It was with some trepidation that I agreed to go, but my friend is well connected so in the end I was sure that there would be no problems.

Itinerary

Uzbekistan Airways is the only to carrier to operate direct from London to Tashkent. The other options are not great, involving transits in either Russia or Kazakhstan. Turkish Airlines operate but the flights were much more expensive.

I headed off to the airline’s London office to book my flight as their website was not working. The office is on Great Portland Street and when I turned up a chap took all my details to make the booking and then said “we don’t take cards”! :eek:

I was welcome to pay in cash or directly in to the airline’s bank account! In the end I thought it best to book through eBookers and pay with my Amex.

My itinerary was:

08 Aug 21:35 LHR TAS 08:25 09 Aug
12 Aug 16:20 TAS LHR 20:00 12 Aug

Fare: GBP 1,335.75
Change fee: EUR 10.00
Cancellation fee: EUR 10.00

Uzbekistan Airways does not offer advance seat selection and availability is not visible in GDS other than an ‘A’ for ‘available’ and ‘L’ for ‘waitlist available’.

Departure from LHR T4

I took London Underground to the airport and left Pimlico at 15:55, just in time to avoid the extra GBP 2.00 on-peak charge. Accordingly I reached LHR T4 at about 17:05 but unfortunately the Uzbekistan Airways desks were not yet open.

No problem, though, as I enjoyed standing back and watching other passengers go about their business. Arik Air and Air India, Qatar Airways and KLM were all open for check-in.

Finally my flight opened at 17:30. There was no queue for the business class desk but the agent on duty had to call the station manager, and he the airline’s HQ in Tashkent, to release business class seats for assignment.

Uzbekistan Airways uses the Skyteam lounge at T4, which occupies the space that was once used for BA’s Concorde Room (main floor) and Terraces (upper floor). Stairs lead down to the lower floor, where Etihad has taken the space once used for the BA First lounge and Molton Brown Spa.

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It was nice to be back in the old place, which was still recognisable despite the new decoration.

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I saw the aircraft arrive from my seat and it parked on stand a few gates away from the lounge entrance. The flight was called approximately 40 minutes ahead of departure and I headed to the gate then. Uzbekistan Airways operates a connection to Amritsar so I was interested to note that almost all of my fellow passengers were Sikhs.

LHR T4 –TAS T2

Aircraft: UK-67003 Boeing 767
Seat: 3J, a window seat at the back of the cabin

Configuration: 2-1-2
Capacity: 15

Seat factor: 12 / 15 = 80%

Pre-departure drinks were offered on a tray and these were champagne, Pepsi, orange juice and water. I took the juice and it was yummy. The drinks mat was think and of high quality, much like what you would expect of a bar in a fine hotel.

There were four groups of passengers in business class:

i) the wedding group
ii) a group of Uzbek business men
iii) two uniformed flight crew returning from their mission to LHR (flights are operated on Tuesdays and Fridays only)
iv) three schoolboys, no doubt sons of important Uzbeks, who were accompanied on-board by the station manager.

I noted that although Uzbekistan Airways does not offer advance seat selection the seats taken by the three schoolboys had been blocked in the seat map the check-in agent had shown me on DCS.

The all-female crew were gorgeous and wore extremely well-tailored uniforms. They issued slippers, an eyeshade, a shoehorn, pillows and blankets on boarding. There were no other amenities or creams and there was no toothbrush or toothpaste. Fortunately I had been supplied with toothbrush and shaving kits in the Skyteam lounge.

After push-back, which was more or less on time, we witnessed the safety video in Uzbek, Russian and English. Some of the English was not exactly standard, such as “welcome aboard aircraft Boeing 767” and “on command of crew, release life vest”, but the demonstration was nevertheless easy to understand. The emergency lights in the floor turned on and off at the appropriate time in the video, which I thought was quite cool! :cool:

I got my head down and slept most of the way, but there was a decent breakfast of cold meats and/or sushi before on-time arrival in Tashkent.

When we were all leaving the plane I turned my head back. The prettiest stewardess was there and she both winked at me and gave a cheeky salute! ^:cool:

Arrival at TAS T2

Passengers arriving in Tashkent are taken from the aircraft by bus. Business class ‘CIP’ passengers are carried to a separate arrivals terminal and we were through immigration with a friendly official in no time at all.

Although I only had a cabin bag my friends were travelling with checked luggage. After a short while a truck pulled up outside the ‘CIP’ arrivals terminal and the bags were pushed through a port and down a roller track. The customs officials were friendly too and offered to check our forms (you need to complete two copies, both of which are stamped and one of which you must keep) before the bags arrived.

There is a duty free shop after immigration and before customs with competitive but not outstanding prices. They accept USD and EUR but they may (I did not ask) accept GBP too. I understand that the local currency, Uzbek Som, is not accepted.

I was informed by my Uzbek friend that the staff in the economy part of the airport are much less friendly.

Time in Uzbekistan

I can confirm that the girls were dusky and that although there were no magic lamps or flying carpets as such some quite close approximations were available. I have never before experienced such gracious and generous hospitality as I did in Uzbekistan.

Departure from TAS T2

After a great wedding and overwhelming hospitality it was time to head back to London. A large group of my new Uzbek friends took us to the airport and said goodbye at a security checkpoint before the main entrance. There are separate entrances for VIP (important people) and ‘CIP’ (first and business class) passengers so we went through the latter and up the escalator.

The departure process comes in three steps:

i) complete and submit for stamping another copy of the customs form which you submitted on arrival – the official was friendly
ii) check-in – seat allocation, boarding card printing and bag tagging
iii) passport stamping – again the official was friendly.

As with the arrivals process, I understand that the airport staff are much less friendly in the economy part of the terminal.

There is a premium lounge with a few snacks, a duty free shop and a paid bar. If you are travelling in business class I would not recommend getting to the airport any more than 90 minutes before departure. A nice lady comes and takes all the passengers for a particular flight into the main airport area, through security and to the gate.

Unlike arrivals, which are done by bus, departures are through an air bridge.

TAS T2 – LHR T4

Aircraft: UK-67006 Boeing 767
Seat: 3J, a window seat at the back of the cabin

Configuration: 2-1-2
Capacity: 15

Seat factor: 15 / 15 = 100%

The crew were just as gorgeous and the uniforms just as well-tailored as they had been on the flight out. Each passenger was shown to their seat and offered a pre-departure drink. I had a Pepsi.

I was interested to note that despite being only 32 I was one of the oldest, and aside from the flight crew operating the flight back possibly actually the oldest, passenger in business class! :eek:

Cabin and seat

After take-off and as the flight progressed I captured some images of the cabin and seat:

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The monuments are coated in carpet:

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Obligatory leg-room shot:

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Note that seats have power sockets:

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The seat does not recline into a bed, even a ski-slope style flat surface, which is a shame because there is more than enough room for it to do so:

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Placards are in Uzbek and English:

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I would avoid row 1 as these seats lack the stowage areas shown in the picture above.

The arm rest is independently moveable

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Flying over central asia

As we took off from Tashkent I captured some images of the airport:

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After an amazing holiday and the chance to meet many new friends I was sorry to leave Tashkent behind me:

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Tashkent is in an oasis:

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You soon reach desert:

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The clouds made some shadows on the dunes undulating below:

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There were some interesting features in the landscape:

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After two hours we reached the Caspian Sea:

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Lunch

All the meals I had enjoyed in Uzbekistan featured a huge amount of cold food with most courses placed on the table together at once. The meal on Uzbekistan Airways was no exception.

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To wipe hands:

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I was drinking Pepsi and started off looking out of the window with these “indian nuts”:

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I then proceeded to the fish, which was good quality and full of flavour:

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This meat, cucumber, sweet corn and mayonnaise salad was good:

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There was so much food that I did not try this cold collation:

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Bakery products were good – the piece at the front of the picture has meat inside and the one behind is just tasty bread:

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The main course was either plov or a European dish that might have been lamb cutlets in a sauce. Obviously I went for the Uzbekistan national dish, which was delicious with just the right balance of meat and fat:

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Good chocolate cake for pudding:

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I did not eat the cheese and crackers, the dried apricots or the raisins:

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The service

The only shortfall was that drinks were served in plastic rather than glass vessels.

I was impressed that:

i) the stewardess noticed that I was drinking quickly and always delivered two glasses of either Pepsi or water
ii) the main course selection was displayed on a tray to help make your choice, which makes a change from seeing a menu
iii) the curtains were constantly buckled closed rather than just being drawn across
iv) on landing at Heathrow two members of the crew blocked the economy class passengers from entering the business class cabin until this area was empty.

Verdict

Uzbekistan Airways is an excellent airline in business class and I would not hesitate to use their services again.