Flight Review: Air Astana Business Class domestic on A321
Flight#: LX1953
From: Astana (NQZ)
To: Almaty (ALA)
Flight time: 1h 45min
Aircraft: Airbus A321
After having flown Frankfurt to Astana on Air Astana’s economy class, the upgrade gods, finally, smiled as I was boarding for the next leg of my trip to Almaty and found myself in the premium cabin.
This was a relatively short segment, but nevertheless allowed me to get a glimpse of the service.
The flight was provided courtesy of Air Astana. Opinions are all my own
The Air Astana Business Class experience
Let’s start by saying that expectations were high, since, in my opinion, Air Astana has one of the best economy class products out there.
At this point, though, it is important to highlight that Air Astana doesn’t offer the same business class product across the whole fleet. The newer A321LRs, which typically fly the longer international routes, are fitted with cocooned seats that can be stretched to full flat position, while the regular A321neos, like it was the case here, have a more classic cabin. As we shall soon see, this cabin proved to be also perfectly suited for the job.
As you can see in the pictures, the business class on this Air Astana A321neo was fitted with these leather-upholstered, rather sturdy, but very comfortable, seats. They do not have full flat recline or segregating walls, but you don’t really need them on such a short flights. They reminded me a bit of Icelandair’s Saga Premium business class, a nice product for the type of medium-haul (3 to 6h) flights that are is the bread and butter of Air Astana.
On each seat there was one of these beautiful pillows, a set of large, noise cancelling, headphones for the inflight entertainment system (more on this below). Unlike in the previous economy class flight, there was no amenity kit, but, again, this was a relatively short domestic flight, so there is really no point.
Each seat is fitted with a large seatback screen with access to the KCTV inflight entertainment system, which I commented on in the previous flight review. In short: a very easy to use and smooth system, with a pretty decent content library.
Each seat has a flexible literature bag at the back with the Tengri inflight magazine.
A nice detail, as well, is that, like in the good old days, the crew distributed newspapers, including the FT (which was from the day prior, but, well, who reads the newspaper to get the latest news nowadays?)
The seats are also fitted with universal in-seat power outlets and, in fact, the very large and wide armrests provide a perfect support to leave a personal electronic device while it is charging.
Btw, here is a close-up of the headphones.
Food and drink
This was a morning flight, so we were served breakfast. Here below you can see the three choices available as mains.
I opted for the rice porridge, which was excellent and served warm, together with the seeds next to it, which had already been warmed up before serving. The fruit was just at a perfect point as well, not too sour, not too ripe.
And I almost forgot to mention, that we were offered also a glass of either sparkling wine or fruit juice just before breakfast. These were later refilled during the meal service.
Here another close up of the breakfast, including the. muesli, above, and, below, the pastries (there was a choice of different types), orange juice and coffee, which were also served shortly after the main, warm dish.
And this is how, with some additional sleep and our stomachs full, we arrived to our final destination: Almaty, where the majestic view of the Tian Shan mountains welcomed us!
Our Take
This was one of those flights that you wish had been a tad longer in order to be able to fully enjoy all the nice perks and attributes of the business class product.
To be entirely honest, having experienced the high standards of Air Astana’s economy class on the preceding flight, the fact the Kazakh carrier has a great business class service, even in the short haul, didn’t come as a surprise!
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And if considering a trip to Kazakhstan, you can also check out this comprehensive post about what to do and what to see in Almaty.