Greetings from Dubai! The ATX Jetsetter crew is wrapping up a whirlwind trip to western and central Asia that took us to the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, and Turkey. While the trip has been amazing, we had a few travel snags along the way that changed our itinerary a bit.
Kazakhstan was the primary focus of this trip as Mrs. ATX has family there and she hasn’t been to the country since she was five. Since we were traveling with ATX Jr., we were looking for ways to break up the trip into more manageable pieces. Ultimately, we settled on a stopover in Dubai on the outbound and Istanbul on the return.
Booking Flights
To get from the United States to Dubai, I was able to find award availability on KLM from New York with a connection in Amsterdam. I booked these seats using Flying Blue miles for 86,500 per person plus $355 in taxes and fees. This would allow me to try out two new aircraft type from the carrier, their Boeing 787-10 and 777-300ER.
To get to New York, I managed to burn some American Airlines travel credit and booked a cheap flight from Dallas to JFK in First Class on the Boeing 737-800.
Points options from Dubai to Almaty were harder to come by and I resorted to paying cash for those tickets. FlyDubai and Air Astana both operate between Dubai and Almaty with some other, low cost carriers also operating the route. Pricing in Economy was steep and Business Class was insane. Air Astana was operating their Boeing 767-300 on the route which has 2-3-2 seating in Economy so we went that route. I ended up booking those tickets for $523.90 per person one way.
From Almaty to Istanbul, the only direct options were via Air Astana or Turkish Airlines. Air Astana operates the A321neo on the route while Turkish operates a mix of Airbus A330s, Boeing 737s, and Airbus A321s. Only one of those, the Turkish A330, has lie flat seats in business class which, for an early morning 7+ hour flight, was a must. I booked our tickets in cash direct with Turkish Airlines for $1,022 per person, including taxes and fees.
Finally, to get home from Istanbul, I once again used Flying Blue miles to book IST-CDG-DFW on Air France. This would let me try out the carrier’s new A350-900 in Business Class which I was looking forward to. I booked the one-way flights for 66,000 Flying Blue miles plus $312.91 in taxes and fees per person.
Ultimately, our booked routing was as follows.
Booking Hotels
For the hotels, I turned to FlyerTalk to get some recommendations as I didn’t have a clue as to the best places to stay. Thanks to Marriott’s double elite night challenge, I wanted to try and stay at Marriott properties if at all possible.
In Dubai, we chose the St. Regis Dubai Downtown which I managed to score for $199 per night. Almaty was the easiest of the three to nail down as there is only one Marriott Bonvoy property in the city. The Ritz-Carlton Almaty came out to a fantastic points redemption of 30,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night.
Finally, in Istanbul, I blindly booked the JW Marriott Istanbul Bosphorus based on recommendations from FlyerTalk. The location was great and I highly recommend it.
Itinerary Changes
Based on the fact that there’s a whole section devoted to itinerary changes is a good indication of just how many we had during this trip. The first was KLM swapping our Amsterdam to Dubai flight from a Boeing 777-300 to a Boeing 777-200. This was a non-issue since the seats on both aircraft are the same.
The second was mildly frustrating as Air Astana swapped our Dubai to Almaty flight from the 767-300 to an A321neo. We initially booked one of the two seat pairs on the 767 but, with the swap to a A321, and its 3-3 configuration, we ended up reassigned to a middle and aisle seat. Also, I suffered a fairly significant knee injury just before the trip which made it difficult to bend my leg, so not having the whole row to ourselves was a bummer.
The final, and most major change of the trip came on the morning of our departure from Istanbul. Air France cancelled our Istanbul to Paris flight as we were on our way to the airport. They rebooked us on a flight 15 hours later, via Dubai.
While this was frustrating as it added eight hours of flying time to our trip, it did allow me the opportunity to check out FlyDubai’s Business Class on the Boeing 737-800 and Emirates’ new Business Class on the Boeing 777-300ER.
Our final routing for this trip is as follows.
Summary
This was our first major trip with ATX Jr. and he did a fantastic job throughout our travels. I hope you all enjoy following along over the next few weeks as I publish the reviews and reports from this exciting adventure across Asia!
In This Trip Report
- American Airlines Boeing 737-800 First Class (DFW-JFK)
- Delta One Lounge New York JFK
- KLM Boeing 787-10 Business Class (JFK-AMS)
- KLM Boeing 777-200 Business Class (AMS-DXB)
- St. Regis Downtown Dubai
- Exploring Dubai
- Marhaba Lounge Dubai (DXB) Terminal 1
- Air Astana Airbus A321neo Economy (DXB-ALA)
- Exploring Almaty
- The Ritz-Carlton Almaty
- Turkish Airlines Airbus A330-200 Business Class (ALA-IST)
- JW Marriott Istanbul Bosphorus
- Hilton Mall of Istanbul
- IGA Lounge Istanbul (IST)
- FlyDubai Boeing 737-800 Business Class (IST-DXB)
- Emirates Business Class Lounge Dubai (DXB) Concourse A
- Emirates Boeing 777-300ER Business Class (DXB-DFW)