Uzbekistan Airways

London to Tashkent and back. Once again the inflight experience was OK. Flights were on time both ways despite the usual Heathrow problems. The aircraft interiors are getting a little scruffy especially the seats. They have upgraded the IFE to a DVD system. According to their magazine they have ordered 2 Dreamliners and 6 A320's so things could improve after a couple of years.

Tashkent-Urgench-Tashkent. Staff try to get your money for everything even if most of them knows me personally after 5 years of same destination - extra baggage better seat etc. When you want to reserve a seat mostly you'll get a negative answer first. They will tell you that flight is full. What they do is reserve some seats for artificial names. That way the flight seems full when you attempt a reservation. If you pay an under-the-counter fee she will change the name on the reservation on your name and you got your seat. Same during check-in : they will ask you to put your hand bag/computer/whatever on to the scale. If you are somehow +20 they will start to make faces and convince you that it will be too expensive if you pay official fee. They will ask you to pay half of the money that you'll pay officially directly to check in staff. I don't do that now as the official fee is also is not that much. I simply ask them to write the extra weight which I check each time and go to pay to the counter. The officer in the counter is also surprised as this is not very common. If you'll ask for a specific seat they will make you understand that it is available against a small tip (2-3 USD). Don't as usually no one sits in accordance with the assigned seats and it is almost impossible to convince the person who have sit to your place to move. In the past you might also tip (20-50 USD) in the cabin and ask for a Business Class seat but I do not know if this is still possible.

I have flown Uzbek air extensively including international regional and domestic flights. They are not a great airline by world standards but are great by regional standards. That said if you want to fly to Uzbekistan or fly within Uzbekistan you probably won’t have much of a choice but to fly Uzbek Air. If Uzbekistan is not a destination then they are probably overpriced for the service and I would use another carrier unless your schedule requires a transit though Tashkent. For international I would give them a 3 star overall and a 2 star for domestic flights.

ATH-TAS return. Both flights on time. The personnel were friendly enough and eager to help you. The food was good only food presentation and trays were standard. There were two servings of drinks on each flight. The only complaint - inflight entertainment system was outdated (overhead screens with two outdated movies and some channels with music). The planes were old but clean. Overall a good experience with no troubles.

LHR-TAS. My experience with this airline has been OK. They seem to keep to the flight times reasonably well at least out of Tashkent. There are some problems with the cabin crew - using mobile phones during take off being one example. A real issue I have with them is the chaotic check in at LHR. The last two times at LHR the queue has filled one end of terminal 2 and takes 2-3 hours to get through. The flight is typically delayed by an hour because of this.