Booked: My First Journey to Asia

This week I put the finishing touches on my first major trip of 2025. As I said in my 2024 Travel Year in Review, a major focus for 2025 was going to be Asia. I’ve never been to the continent before (unless you count the Maldives and airport transits in Doha and Abu Dhabi) and excited would be an understatement.

The catalyst for this trip is to take ATX Jr. to see family in Kazakhstan, Mrs. ATX also hasn’t been so this is a homecoming of sorts for her as well. Her mom and grandmother are also planning to join us for this portion of the trip

Kazakhstan isn’t the easiest place to get to and it requires some extremely long flights from the United States. Since ATX Jr. will be 10 months old when we make the trip, we decided to split it up into multiple parts.

KLM Business Class to Dubai

Our dates for this trip were somewhat constrained as we needed to travel in late March or early April. With that in mind I started looking for destinations in Europe or the Middle East that had nonstop options to Kazakhstan. This narrowed my focus down to Dubai, Frankfurt, and Istanbul.

I’ve traveled to Europe many times and frequently connected through Frankfurt Airport (FRA) but the city itself never appealed to me much. Onward options to Kazakhstan were extremely expensive and I couldn’t find many appealing points options.

Dubai has been on my radar for quite some time and I managed to find award seats on KLM from New York-JFK to Dubai (DXB) via Amsterdam (AMS). While I’ve flown KLM Business Class many times in the past on the Boeing 787-9, this would allow me to review the carrier’s Boeing 787-10 and Boeing 777-300ER in Business Class.

KLM also operates out of Terminal 4 at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) so I’m planning visits to the American Express Centurion Lounge and Delta One Lounge. To get to JFK I booked a cheap positioning flight from Dallas to New York in American Airlines First Class.

Air Astana Economy Class to Almaty

To get from Dubai to Almaty (ALA) we had plenty of options at first glance but, as I narrowed my focus on Dubai International and only nonstop flights, i was left with a choice between FlyDubai and Air Astana.

FlyDubai is a government owned low-cost carrier that has a close partnership with Emirates. Emirates uses FlyDubai on shorter routes from their shared hub at Dubai International Airport (DXB) and operates a fleet of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. Air Astana, the flag carrier of Kazakhstan, serves Dubai using Boeing 767 and Airbus A321neo aircraft.

Prices in Business Class were insane for this four hour flight so we’d be flying in the back. Both of FlyDubai’s flights operate as short overnight flights that arrive in Kazakhstan in the wee hours of the morning.

Both Air Astana flights operate during the day and, though it is an older plane, the 2-3-2 seating on the 767 won out over the 3-3 seating on the A321. While I still plan to review the flight, it likely won’t do many folks much good as the carrier plans to replace its 767s with Boeing 787 Dreamliners later this year.

Turkish Airlines Business Class to Istanbul

This was one of the last pieces of the puzzle to come together as we already had our tickets home from Istanbul by the time I booked. There are two airlines operating between Almaty International Airport (ALA) and Istanbul Airport (IST), Turkish Airlines and the aforementioned Air Astana.

For this 7+ hour flight Business Class was a must. Air Astana operates a daily flight using an Airbus A321neo with lie-flat seats in Business Class. Turkish has two daily flights, one on a Boeing 737 MAX and the other on an Airbus A330 with angle flat seats. All three flights departed within a couple hours of each other but Air Astana had the earliest departure around 5:30a, so we eliminated that.

With just over an hour separating the two Turkish Airlines flights, the A330 seemed like a no-brainer so we quickly booked that. I’ve heard great things about Turkish Airlines’ soft product, so this is one of the flights I’m looking forward to the most.

Air France Business Class to Dallas

To get home I wanted to try and find the quickest, most direct routing possible. I used point.me, which I get access to via my American Express Platinum Card, to search award availability between Istanbul and Texas.

Air France had a reasonably priced award ticket from Istanbul to Dallas via Paris. The Istanbul to Paris flight is operated by an Airbus A319 with the EuroBiz configuration. While not the most comfortable for a long flight, I flew essentially the same configuration between Athens and Paris a couple of years ago and it was fine.

On the flight from Paris to Dallas, we were supposed to fly on one of the carrier’s Boeing 787 Dreamliners. I’ve flown Air France Business Class on the Boeing 777-200 and 777-300ER aircraft so I was looking forward to a new aircraft type, though the hard product is essentially the same.

However, a few weeks after booking, our flight was switched to the Airbus A350-900. The A350 may be my favorite passenger plane flying at the moment and the -900 will be a new variant for me. I’m very excited to finish up the trip with this!

Hotels

Though I’m roughly 6 weeks away from departing on this trip, I still need to nail down lodging. Currently I have The Ritz-Carlton Almaty booked for our time in Kazakhstan. I managed to book this for a very reasonable 30,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night prior to the recent, unannounced, devaluation.

In Dubai, I have tentatively booked the St. Regis Dubai Downtown as it appears to be walking distance to many attractions as well as the Dubai metro. With a little one in tow I don’t want to have to install/uninstall a car seat in an Uber every time we want to go somewhere.

For Istanbul, I haven’t even started looking for a place to stay yet. That part of the trip seems so far away even though it’ll be here before I know it. Finalizing our Dubai stay and getting something on the books for Istanbul are on my to-do list for this weekend, along with finally taking my Christmas lights down.

Summary

I’m very excited to have this trip on the books! While Mrs. ATX has been to Asia many times before, this will be my first trip and I’m looking forward to exploring new parts of the world. Since ATX Jr. is coming along, I’m especially glad that we’ll have family joining us for the Kazakhstan portion of the trip.

Please pass along any recommendations for things to see and do in Dubai, Almaty, and Istanbul. Also, if you’ve got a hotel you love in Dubai and Istanbul I’d love to hear about that as well!