Flight Review: Europe to Korea on Air Astana Business Class A321LR
Flight#: KC209
From: Astana (NQZ)
To: Seoul-Incheon (ICN)
Flight time: 5h 30min
Aircraft: Airbus A321LR
Flight#: KC918
From: Istanbul (IST)
To: Astana (NQZ)
Flight time: 5h 30min
Aircraft: Airbus A321LR
This flight review is actually a composite of two flights, both on business class, both at night and on the same type of aircraft (A321LR) and taking about the same length of time (5.5h). So, merging the experience in one single flight report makes sense. Even if the experience was practically identical, it will offer you a glimpse of those small details that always differ from one flight to the next.
By the way, I also suggest checking out my other recent Air Astana flight reviews, of both its domestic business class and international economy class, both on A321 aircraft.
The flights were courtesy of Air Astana.
The Cabin
Air Astana offers a proper business class with a dedicated cabin and full lie-flat cocooned seats on its A321LR narrow body aircraft.
The business class cabin is organized in a rather interesting 2-2, 1-1, 2-2, 1-1, 2-2 layout, which means that every other row has a single seat on each side of the aisle with extra personal space (I am wondering whether these are sold at a premium, as Lufthansa plans to do with the different types of business class seat on its Allegris cabin).
I had the chance to experience two flavours of the 2-2 layout, one on the first row, the other further back in the cabin.
Let’s start by saying that the experience Air Astana offers on its A321LR narrow body aircraft is on a par with the business class product many major airlines offer on their wide-body aircraft.
Every other row in the business class cabin is a single seat with extra space
There is, of course, no direct aisle access for the window seat passenger, or privacy divide, but the amount of space and the level of comfort offered by the Thompson Aero Vantage seats is great. Bear in mind that Air Astana operates some of the longest narrow body segments anywhere in the world, such as the nearly 9h flights between Kazakhstan and London!
Our flight was a bit shorter than that, but considering the night time schedule (it departed Istanbul at 23.00 for a very early arrival in Astana at 6.00) the ability to lie down fully flat and with plenty of space was greatly appreciated!
To this we can add the modern and elegant cabin design. The cabin was spotlessly clean and the nice choice of colours, materials and the patterns on some elements, such as headrests and pillows, together with the LED ambient ligthing gives it a really high-end feel.
I have mentioned patterned pillows because each passenger gets this nicely decorated one, plus a truly soft and fluffy blanket. Other goodies: a bottle of water and a set of very solid noise-cancelling headphones.
Oh! and then there is the amenity kit…but this requires a paragraph of its own, because, plain and simple, it is one of the best amenity kits I’ve seen it anywhere on business class, both when it comes to the container and the content (Emirates maybe gets close).
We were given a Samsonite hard-shell amenity kit that resembles a miniature version of one of a piece of luggage by the famous Belgian brand.
But it is not just the kit’s design that is worth mentioning, but also the content, because it is fully well fitted. You can see in the pictures the whole array of toiletries and other items that were in it. At this point, it is worth mentioning that Air Astana also distributes amenity kits to its economy class passengers (albeit a simpler version) on international flights.
By the way, we also got a pair of slippers on the flight from Istanbul to Astana, also of pretty good quality (interestingly, we did not get slippers on the flight from Astana to Seoul).
What’s more, comes in two versions, dark blue and pink, which, I think, are devised to appeal to the preferences of both male and female passengers respectively. Since I had got the drak blue during my first flight, I requested a pink one on the second flight in order to check it out for you, and, why not, get the full set.
Let’s talk about a bit more about the seat layout and functionalities.
In the picture below you can see the general setup, with the monument in the middle acting as a stand for the literature pocket of both passengers. There is also a shared pretty wide middle armrest.
Btw, just underneath the screen there is yet another net-like pouch, this one is useful to keep small personal items, such as wallets or phones (just remember to retrieve them before disembarking!)
Note the seat position controls on the left side under the armrest
I have also added a picture of the second flight, in which I had a first row seat, as you can see, the layout is a bit different due to the presence of the cabin wall, but the general distribution is the same.
The small pouch under the screen
Controls for lighting, screen volume and crew alert on the left side (under a cover lid)
There is, of course, a seatback 16” screen to access inflight entertainment (more on this shortly!), as well as the cool safety video, which acts also as an advertisement for Kazakhstan’s natural and historical wonders.
Btw, the feet rest compartment can also be illuminated (there is a button for that too!)
There is also an in-seat power outlet on the left back side, right next to the water bottle compartment and the small side reading lamp.
The seat is also fitted with a USB port.
Here is a close-up picture for more clarity since in a picture of this area I posted further up, the power outlet was blocked from view by the headphones (which connect here too).
Inflight Entertainment (IFE)
This is another strong point of Air Astana. While there is no connectivity to the outside internet, the IFE system, which goes by the name KCTV (“KC” being the airline’s IATA code) is excellent and can be accessed either through the seatback screen or by syncing to your personal electronic devices.
The screen worked very smoothly and it is very responsive and the content catalogue is also quite broad and of good quality, with quite a few current titles (as an anecdote, I managed to watch the movie “Conclave”, which took on a special relevance since just a few hours earlier, the Vatican had announced the death of Pope Francis and the start of a new, real, conclave).
If you fancy some proper reading on paper, the “Tengri” inflight magazine is also pretty good within its category.
And here you can get a view from the seat right after I had made myself comfortable.
Food and drink
This is another great part of the Air Astana experience. I must say that the food they provide on economy class is already pretty good by industry standards. The business class meal did not disappoint. Both flights were at night, so we had a dinner and a breakfast just before landing.
Below is the menu on the first of the two flights, from Istanbul to Astana.
Since it was quite a late flight, dinner was served pretty early in the flight, very shortly after the welcome drink and take off.
I opted for a Turkish-style meal of hummus (accompanied by salmon and guacamole) and kebab with rice and pine nuts and I think it was an excellent choice. It was perfectly cooked and I really enjoyed the meal.
There was also a selection of different types of bread, served warm.
Then we had a choice of desserts and the crew paraded them around in a tray, so this definitely made the task of choosing much easier!
Here are the choices that day: cheese platter, fruit platter, mousse and an assortment of baclava with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.
So, again, I think I made a great choice in opting for the baclava, which was, again, excellent in all regards and, obviously, a good match for the main meal.
Coffee, tea and liquors were also offered alongside the dessert.
Meals on the flight from Astana to Seoul
Since I flew two segments, this flight review wouldn’t be complete without the second round of meals.
The structure of the meals was the same: dinner and breakfast. Note also that on its flights to Seoul, Air Astana provides also all information in Korean (in addition to English, Kazakh and Russian).
On this second flight, unlike in the first, we were also offered a snack, in addition to the welcome drink.
In the picture below you can see the (laid out here before Angelina Jolie in her role as Maria Callas) the three items on the first part of the menu (the different dishes were served sequentially, with the main coming shortly after I had finished with the entrants).
Next came the main: chicken in sweet and sour sauce and buckwheat noodles (already kind of anticipating the destination in Asia we were heading to).
This time the dessert was a cheese platter.
So, as you may imagine, after such substantious meals, it was soon time to sleep.
In fact, breakfast was served on this second flight, but I don’t have any pictures of it here, for the simple reason that I was sound asleep when they served it!
But, in any case, I documented here the process of turning the seat into a fully flat bed and preparing for a good few hours of sleep (which is something which I rarely achieve during flights, so kudos to Air Astana, even if that cost me the breakfast!)
Our Take:
I have said it earlier when I experienced other classes of service on Air Astana and I will repeat it when it comes to business class: Air Astana is a truly a top-notch airline when it comes to the service and experience it delivers.
Even within the limitations of a narrow body aircraft they are able to provide a cozy atmosphere, great food and top inflight entertainment content.
The world must know!