Turkmenistan Airlines KUL-LGW in J for $1,300 one-way. Would you book it?

[MEL_Traveller]

Honestly, that looks better than I would have expected.

I’m very tempted to give this a go on another trip to/from Europe.

There was a previous trip report from a couple years ago… looks fairly same same! I think business is almost always empty?

 

[CaptJCool]

There was a previous trip report from a couple years ago… looks fairly same same! I think business is almost always empty?

I’m figuring the locals don’t fly international that often - local wage rates etc really stifle capacity to pay
(When I ran a project that looked at worldwide income, the only places coming close to Australia high wage rates were UK USA & Switzerland).
Being off wifi takes me back to 1992 when there was none !

 

[Ansett Nostalgic]

Has anyone been to Ashbagat as a destination?

 

[esseeeayeenn]

I would definitely not do this.
I did FRA-ASB-BKK with them in 2018.

The two most important things to note are:
(1) Turkmenistan is an officially Muslim country and the airline does not serve alcohol. So no champagne for you.
(2) They rarely allow foreigners to book flights, and the whole experience is very strange and parochial.

The FRA-ASB sector was unbearable. A 757 with 2x2 recliners in the J cabin.
The service was poor and the food best forgotten.
Almost every seat was taken by a parent and infant.
In each case, another parent seemed to be aboard, seated in economy.
Several times during the flight, each parent in business would rotate with the parent in economy.
A process which was actively assisted by the crew.

As you can imagine this made for an extremely noisy cabin with the constant noise of unhappy infants wailing.
I could not sleep at all and the experience was exhausting and excruciating.

Near the end of the flight, the adjacent PAX started talking to me.
He was a government official and was very surprised that I had managed to book a seat on the flight.
He confirmed that there would be no alcohol in the "lounge" in ASB.
He told me that Turkmenistan does make its own wine, but I would never drink any of it.
The experience off foreigners is very carefully curated by the authoritarian regime.

In ASB the "lounge"experience was appalling.
No alcohol, lukewarm water and juice, and very tired limp sandwiches.
That was all, and none of it was kept at a food safe temperature.

The sector ASB-BKK was on a B772 so the business cabin was more spacious, though the seats themselves were quite old.
The cabin was half empty and there were no wailing infants. I was able to sleep a little and ignore everything else.

I would never subject myself to this again.
I would not subject my worst enemy to this experience.

 

[aaa99]

For anyone taking up this fare, it seems like you might need a transit visa as well.

 

[nancypants]

Has anyone been to Ashbagat as a destination?

Sure have!!

 

[nancypants]

I would definitely not do this.
I did FRA-ASB-BKK with them in 2018.

The two most important things to note are:
(1) Turkmenistan is an officially Muslim country and the airline does not serve alcohol. So no champagne for you.
(2) They rarely allow foreigners to book flights, and the whole experience is very strange and parochial.

The FRA-ASB sector was unbearable. A 757 with 2x2 recliners in the J cabin.
The service was poor and the food best forgotten.
Almost every seat was taken by a parent and infant.
In each case, another parent seemed to be aboard, seated in economy.
Several times during the flight, each parent in business would rotate with the parent in economy.
A process which was actively assisted by the crew.

As you can imagine this made for an extremely noisy cabin with the constant noise of unhappy infants wailing.
I could not sleep at all and the experience was exhausting and excruciating.

Near the end of the flight, the adjacent PAX started talking to me.
He was a government official and was very surprised that I had managed to book a seat on the flight.
He confirmed that there would be no alcohol in the "lounge" in ASB.
He told me that Turkmenistan does make its own wine, but I would never drink any of it.
The experience off foreigners is very carefully curated by the authoritarian regime.

In ASB the "lounge"experience was appalling.
No alcohol, lukewarm water and juice, and very tired limp sandwiches.
That was all, and none of it was kept at a food safe temperature.

The sector ASB-BKK was on a B772 so the business cabin was more spacious, though the seats themselves were quite old.
The cabin was half empty and there were no wailing infants. I was able to sleep a little and ignore everything else.

I would never subject myself to this again.
I would not subject my worst enemy to this experience.

I suspect many aspects of this are historic. FWIW, my experience was almost identical to Lucky’s OMAAT review as posted, so it seems there is at least a degree of “not absolutely terrible” consistency. The 757s are definitely long gone

They also now have an English language (and Turkish, and Vietnamese) booking website. You definitely can’t book on the Turkmen website as a foreigner so I can imagine that historically this would have been accurate

For anyone taking up this fare, it seems like you might need a transit visa as well.
View attachment 515959

Would be interesting to know how accurate this is also- certainly Lucky’s account of someone thinking they were connecting in Istanbul and being confused as to Turkmenistan and Turkey being two different countries would tend against it. I didn’t talk to anyone really on my flight but I do know that almost everyone was connecting elsewhere

What I would say is that if there’s IRROPS, I can imagine having a transit visa would make for a much more pleasant experience. I’ll see if I can get some more detail on the transit visas element from my contacts

 

[RooFlyer]

And the meal service:

Turkmenistan Airlines 737 Business Class: Look At That Meal!

Here's my adventure flying Turkmenistan Airlines' 737 business class, with a strange meal, an odd mid-flight turnaround, and a request for no photos.

onemileatatime.com

 

[MEL_Traveller]

And the meal service:

Turkmenistan Airlines 737 Business Class: Look At That Meal!

Here's my adventure flying Turkmenistan Airlines' 737 business class, with a strange meal, an odd mid-flight turnaround, and a request for no photos.

onemileatatime.com

Saw that too.

Ridiculous to be complaining that he was given three packets of peanuts instead of one.

 

[Mattg]

I’m figuring the locals don’t fly international that often - local wage rates etc really stifle capacity to pay
(When I ran a project that looked at worldwide income, the only places coming close to Australia high wage rates were UK USA & Switzerland).
Being off wifi takes me back to 1992 when there was none !

The capacity to pay is one factor. Actually being allowed to leave is another. Keep in mind that Turkmenistan is not a democratic country.

For anyone taking up this fare, it seems like you might need a transit visa as well.
View attachment 515959

I don’t believe this is correct for international transits on a single ticket. The Turkmenistan Airlines website (one of them, anyway) even flags specifically with a big message on the home page that you don’t need a visa for international transits.

Perhaps the Smartraveller website is referring to passengers with separate tickets?

 

[elanshin]

I think the bigger question here is what the government is doing overall. Are they trying to get a bit more of the pie / opening a little bit more up to curated tourism?

There are varying different experiences and accounts of flying Turkmenistan and transiting over differing periods of time, so we may potentially be seeing some changes in policy (which could just as easily change again tomorrow).

@Mattg if I were in your position and had a non urgent trip where I could get stuck for a little bit without major consequences at the other end time wise, I'd give this a go. I feel like plenty of content creators have done this sort of thing with various difficult country/airlines (including Turkmenistan) over the last while.

 

[AuSammy]

i have a on bucket list to visit the ‘stans, so flying the airline would be part of the experience. If J is exceedingly cheap, all the better.

The while reason for me traveling is to see how the other half live/travel so all part of the experience.

 

[Scarlett]

Has anyone been to Ashbagat as a destination?

Me three, or four if you include @RooFlyer.

Thread 'Eurostan'

Aug 31, 2025

Here's something you can't do every day: I'm seated in a VA-provided lounge ahead of my international VA flight! Now, admittedly it's the OOL lounge, so nothing to rave about, but it is possible.

Heading off to see some new things in some lesser, but becoming much more well-travelled, countries. The Eurostan title is because I'm visiting a couple of small parts of Europe and a couple of the 'stan countries. It's been an interesting exercise booking it all and I still haven't learnt my lesson to keep things simple but where would be the fun in that. I'm visiting:
- Vaduz, Liechtenstein
-...

• Scarlett
• Replies: 104
• Forum: Trip Reports

• 
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Posts 1, 6 and from 46 (for a couple of posts) from this trip report which included Ashgabat, should give you an idea if you’re keen.