Uzbekistan Airways

Lahore - Tashkent - Frankfurt in Business. First of all I'd like to acknowledge the work of the flight attendants. They do an excellent job friendly and quite service minded despite the dated equipment. Lahore - Tashkent food is - well that is the question. Supposedly chicken but it could have been anything. Tea was served in a plastic cup with broken ear. But with a smile. Some sort of business-class package given with slippers and sleeping mask. Tashkent - Frankfurt service fine only overhead IFE. I managed to fold down my chair to almost lie-flat - before realising it was because it was broken. My fellow passenger behind me protested with a moan (I would have been louder actually). Planes are old. They were nice 18 years ago when UA started their service. Nowadays it's not so good. But they get the job done. In conclusion it's fortunate I didn't have to pay these tickets out of my own pocket.

If you book your flight in Tashkent you get what you pay for - basic service that will get you from A to B with no frills. However if you book your flight outside of Uzbekistan the flight prices are ridiculous. I regularly fly LHR-TAS-LHR. If I have my ticket booked in Tashkent it costs approx $350 return - if booked in London costs me about £550 from the airline. I take great issue with the check in at Heathrow. There are 3 check in desks to check in about 300 people. Many of those 300 speak little or no English which makes the process more prolonged and agonising. There is a screen that says "Tashkent- Business class check in". This isn't used for Business class only and even those paying a premium price can expect to wait up to 2 hours to check in. Boarding is as expected - everyone pushes but my experience has been that everyone sits in their allocated seats. Inflight entertainment is poor seats are comfortable and cleanliness is acceptable. Staff vary from helpful to uncooperative. A bribe can be paid ($50-$100) to cabin crew to sit in business class.

Tashkent - Istanbul - Tashkent. Outbound flight went to plan - satisfactory and no more: a small miracle for this outfit! Then turned up at 12:45 this past Sunday for the return flight only to see nothing listed on the departure board! The Uzbek Air desk at the airport was unmanned and the airport information desk said there was no flight - as printed on my ticket - it did not exist! After wasting the day at the airport turned up at my hotel again and eventually found the city office for the airline on Tuesday - an obscure office tucked away in a dark and dingy building. They photocopied my ticket and said it would be sent to Tashkent for "investigation." How much of an investigation is there for a ticket printed for a flight that does not exist? Phoned them back yesterday (Friday) as they had not called me back as promised! I can indeed fly - but for a fee of 25 Euro! In their view it was my error not to turn up to their office on Monday given that I arrived "late" on the Tuesday. I had not contacted them "immediately". Never mind that nobody was at their airport desk and that airport information tried hard to reach them. Worse the flight that I should have been on - has my ticket been printed correctly- has been cancelled anyway. So either way I would have been inconvenienced! This is an airline that hides behind its books at every corner where customer service is an inside joke. The airline is a microcosm of its country itself.

LHR-Tashkent-LHR. Check in staff at Heathrow explained as the flight was not full we could have a row to ourselves. Food service okay - lots of it but low quality. Wine was local. Seats okay. IFE very poor. On return the flight was filled with those transferring from Dehli so the plane was full.

LHR-TAS-LHR economy. When checking in at LHR I was informed that the flight would be making an unscheduled stopover at Paris CDG. The rumour had it that it was to pick up the UZB president's daughter. All this meant the flight to TAS would take 9hrs long 2 hrs longer than normal. Some people confirmed such unscheduled stopovers were quite commonplace. I was not impressed. Inflight service is pretty bad. So bad that when you call the stewardess they do not turn up. Even when they turn up they are so unhappy to be serving you so rude it is quite unbelievable. I did not eat the food that was served so can not comment on that. On the way back I paid the head stewardess $100 to sit in business class. Seats are good not flat bed but of large size.

LHR-TAS return and UGC-TAS. International flight operated by B757. Legroom poor by scheduled flight standard more like charter. Plane only half full both ways so room to spread out. Food and drinks service okay. Both flights on time. Internal flight by Ilyshin 114no problems. No food but 2 drinks on 1hr 45min leg. My concern is security at Uzbeck airports - people allowed through security with all manner of liquids sealed and open. Security appears second to form filling and stamping.

Riga to Tashkent then on to Lahore and back. This airline's routes are excellent. Food excellent with copious amounts. Service fine and nice to get different tasting beers than the usual. FAs fine once they trust you are not going to be another difficult passenger. Uzbekistan Airways suffers from poor ground operations and officialdom at their airports which means that by the time people board the craft they are not always at their best. This is taxing on cabin crew who respond with professionalism even if they are not the greatest smilers. I understand Uzbekistan Airways are joining Skyteam. They are easily in the class of some other members of Skyteam now so hopefully this will mean more good connections in an area of the world they serve well.

Two stars is an average of 3 stars for international a 1 star for national flights. I experienced Frankfurt-Tashkent-Frankfurt Tashkent-Chiva-Tashkent and Tashkent-Bukhara- Tashkent. Airplanes on international flights are mainly Boeings 757 quite new ones national manly Tupolevs 155M probably from 80´s. Space in planes is comparable to any other airlines service is quite pure. Local people do not look for right seats very carefully so the staff ask you to sit anywhere at the end of boarding. You also have to know that there are two separate buildings at the airport – national and international. The business lounge at Tashkent airport has improved a lot – if you travel in business or with gold cards look for business check-in counter which is located in the corridor next to main hall.

Took two flights with this outfit a return TAS-ALA-TAS. The outbound flight went well booked it online via Opodo and was given an E-ticket. The aircraft was a Boeing 757. The return was a different matter and it all went wrong from here! I was not able to get the return flight I wanted but was advised to go to the airport in Almaty before the flight as they usually hold a couple of seats for every plane. My girlfriend is Russian and spoke to the staff on our behalf. We were informed that we could have two seats - but we would have to pay a bribe on top on the standard seat charges! I took exception at first but then worked out that it would be cheaper than paying an additional day for accommodation. However it then transpired that the staff were in-fact refusing seats to another couple telling them that check-in had closed for them when in reality there was 30 minutes left for check-in. Clearly they were being denied boarding so that the airline staff could collect my bribe! I felt terrible but did not have to cancel my deal with the staff as the couple being denied boarding work out that they would need to bribe the staff too! They did so and where allowed to proceed to check-in my girlfriend was then told the seats were not available after-all! She also informed me that they ground staff were really very rude indeed to this couple having threatened them with “trouble” if they complained about the flight being closed early! We went to a travel agent and book a normal ticket on a later flight without any bribes! That flight to Tashkent was then not on a nice 757 but on a Russian Tupolev 155 aircraft. While it is quite special in a way to have the full Soviet Union flying experience it is not comfortable quite or smooth! With no turbulence this thing rockets up and down like a fighter jet; the noise is such that you may as well be sitting on the wing! While we took off on-time we were met with fog in Tashkent and diverted to Sarmankand only landing in Tashkent some hours late. As such I missed my Aeroflot connection to Moscow and spent hours killing time in the airport. The funny thing was the only bar in the departure lounge does not take the national currency – just Russian Rubles and dollars! The cherry on the cake was again the ground staff coming back for bribes! I was well overweight for my Moscow connecting Aeroflot flight but $50.00 was exchanged and the matter resolved! In London the extra weight had cost me $300 which Aeroflot lost on my return thanks to the Uzbek business culture. Corruption has two sides it can be very disruptive and also very convenient but on the whole I can do without it in future.

TAS-FRA surprisingly was on time. Old A-310 was put for this flight with old seats and poor entertainment. Entertainment always a lack of Uzbekistan Service. Crew was ok they were friendly enough but nothing extraordinary. For money they charge Uzbekistan Airways can be bit more concerned about their services.