Turkmenistan Airlines

Flight out of Heathrow was in economy flight nowhere near full so had 3 seats to myself food surprisingly top quality but service lacked friendliness. Cabin was shabby and in need of refurbishment! Pilots made no announcements. Flight back to Heathrow I was upgraded to business class without asking. The seat was obviously bigger but lacked the foot extension you get with Emirates business class the seat was also in need of replacement due to shabby arm rests. Service on return flight was very good flight attendants friendly and spoke fluent English. Food plentiful and a choice of three dishes also provided with a flight pack pillow and blanket. All in all flight home was great because of the comfy seat that allows some chance of sleep. My biggest gripe is after checking the web for info on the 757-200 the aircraft is around 20 years quite old but the planes look it.

LHR-ASB-ATQ. I travelled with my elderly mother and all I can say is never again. Rude FA food inedible no entertainment aircraft old and dirty. Lay over in ASB a disaster we were made to walk from the plane to the terminal and back again and negotiate stairs covered in ice - outside temperature was -17C. Complete chaos in the terminal when issuing boarding passes. Left to sit on plane with door open as they conducted several head counts of passengers! To make it worse it wasn't even cheap to fly them.

Heathrow to and from Ashgabat and have no major complaints. The crew struggle with English but we managed to communicate without too much difficulty. Aircraft's were clean and tidy and legroom good. There is no inflight entertainment aboard however the inflight catering was rather good washed down with a generous supply of soft drinks. What spoilt the experience was the behaviour of a minority of Amritsar bound passengers who chose to openly smoke during the flight. When approached by the crew those passengers screamed and shouted that they could not understand the crew requests for cigarettes to be extinguished. These passengers chose to play very loud music to the annoyance of those nearby refusing to turn it off. Fellow Amritsar-bound passengers were powerless to stop them.

LHR-ASB. Busy flight mostly passengers to Amritsar. No inflight entertainment (not even map). No duty free magazine or alcohol. Main food service - tasty curry choice of veg or meat. Crew ok but English not first language. Toilets clean. Over hour delay in take off from Heathrow - probably due to few check-in posts being open. Landed on time. Return flight was not as busy - room to swap seats. Map this time and crew ok and remembered to get me black tea without asking.

I took the flight from Frankfurt to Bangkok via Ashgabad and I must say it was ok. The flights left on time and there was a transfer time of aprox 1 hr at Ashgabad in the middle of the flight which is quite convenient. The food came in large portions and consisted out of a lot of meat. The personnel was not over friendly. The in-flight entertainment doesn't exist bring your own.

Birmingham to Amritsar via Ashgabat. Check-in smooth and flight left on time. Plane clean and staff could speak enough English to make themselves understood. The drinks trolley came around every hour or so but no alcoholic drinks. There was no entertainment onboard apart from a map showing where we were. Landed on time at Ashgabat airport. The transfer lounge was adequate - we waited approx 90 minutes before we continued onto Amritsar - we sat in the same seats so no new boarding passes were required. We arrived on time at Amritsar. The things I didn't like about this airline were that it was no longer cheap - in the UK they have put their prices up by 50% from last year. Also they don't have life jackets - something that petrifies me as I panic when flying. One other moan I have is that whenever we hit turbulence - and we did quite often - there was no announcement telling passengers to return to their seats and put their seat belts on - children were playing in the aisles as we went up and down!

A nightmare journey to Amritsar due to leave at 1350 from BHX. On arriving for check in we were informed the flight was delayed 11 hours - spent all day at the airport. On boarding the flight the staff were rude and unhelpful - not even fully conversant in English. The flight was due to land in Ashgabad for a short break but the pilot took the aircraft to Mary Airport due to bad weather - and left the aircraft as did other members of crew. The passengers were left sitting on the aeroplane for 4 hours prior to it taking off for Amritsar. There were insufficient drinks onboard and we were not able to leave the aircraft. Staff could not update us on when we would leave Mary as they had to wait for another aeroplane to land so they could get back up to full crew. I will never fly with these people again they offered no apologies for the gross mistreatment of the passengers. Never will my family travel with Turkmenistan Airlines again!

Ashgabat - Dashoguz return on B717. Outbound had interesting boarding arrangements - you get a numbered generic boarding pass (with a picture of an Ilyushin 76 cargo plane on it) and you have to refer to your ticket for your seat number (at least the seat allocation is honoured). Aircraft interior was comfortable and well presented - they now have safety cards but still no sick bags and no life jackets. Picture of the President is displayed on the front bulkhead Small sandwich served and additional items can be purchased at prices lower than those at Ashgabat airport. Landing was not the most confident. Look out for the fleet of Antonov AN- 2s at Dashoguz airport. Inbound also interesting - no conventional check-in counters everyone queues at a plain doorway for security etc. No boarding passes. Aircraft interior was clean and well presented - I didn't use the bathroom but others reported it was not in a good state. Snack consisted of two buns which were so dry they were almost impossible to eat. Both flights were on time. For USD37 return I have no complaints.

I recently travelled to India on Turkmenistan Airlines. The food was horrible so I advise you to eat something beforehand. The seats were dirty and sweet wrappers were everywhere. There were TV's but they were rarely on. The crew can't speak English and you can't understand them.

Cabin crew on this airline seem not to care at all about security on board. I have recently flown domestic from Ashgabat to Mary and the person seated in front of me refused to put his seat into the upright position for take-off and landing. Even though I asked a flight attendant to intervene she asked the gentleman in vain to comply with security instructions but finally gave up and just walked away. I had to call her again tell her I would report her and the gentleman in front of me to the police after landing until she asked the purser to show up and solve the problem. Another gentleman came back 2 times from the washroom smelling of cigarette. It was so obvious he had been smoking. No one said a thing.