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India- Kazakhstan- Uzbekistan: All in One Trip!

 
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PAL@YWG
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Joined: 22 Dec 2006
Posts: 438
Location: YWG, Canada

PostPosted: Mon Apr 23, 2018 6:41 am    Post subject: India- Kazakhstan- Uzbekistan: All in One Trip! Reply with quote

There is a saying in Sanskrit (yes, Sanskrit!), “Ghranena Ardha-bhojanam”. For younger generations (who didn’t get the chance to study Sanskrit) it means in loose translation, aroma is half the taste.

Lately, planning a trip gives me equal pleasure going on the actual trip. With every selection (or change afterwards) whether it’s an airline selection or a routing or even ticket price one takes the journey many times even before the actual trip happens.

The last one that I took this March-April for example. I wanted to cover India, Uzbekistan this time but then at a later stage remembered a friend who now lives in Kazakhstan, so mind started working on how to combine the three countries in one trip with reasonable ticket cost.

Google Flights

Casual searches on Google flights started about 6 months before the trip. My aim is to get an open jaw ticket where I should arrive in DEL/BOM and depart from TAS/ALA. Tashkent offers no direct flight to Western Europe so my searches concentrated on ALA departures. Suddenly around end November, a routing showed up with open Jaw:

YWG-YYC-AMS-DEL / ALA-AMS-YYZ-YWG with KL/9W for a princely sum of CAD1176! As Google Flights always advise different pricing options, no exception for this one:
Book with KLM: CAD3166
Book with a Travel agent: CAD1176
Book with Expedia: CAD1198

For this kind of routing, I know I have to go to a brick and mortar Travel Agent, so I visited Flight Centre where I most of the times buy my annual India trip tickets from.

A friendly TA got me the flights that Google Flights suggested but the price came to CAD1256 (CAD80more) which he explained is due to higher class fares for domestic connector flights (YWG- YYC/YYZ-YWG). Fair enough, tickets gets issued for the family (TF). I will leave on March 10th whereas rest of TF leave on March 25th then I come back with my son on April 2nd but the wife (TW) stays back. Little complicated, as always Very Happy

Once the main flights are ticketed the rest of the itinerary is less cumbersome. I need:

DEL-CCU-DEL: No issues there. I wanted to fly Go Air (the only mainstream airline in India that I never flew). Go Air website is friendly but anyone accessing their website from outside India will be offered prices in USD (obviously higher when compared to INR). Can’t fool me, I go to Make my Trip and they offer the same flight in decent INR. So my ticket gets done. TF wants only Air India because of desi food and that extra aluminum foil wrapped Paratha Very Happy . I buy for them AI for DEL- CCU. We all came back (CCU- DEL) by Go Air because of their time of departure suited our connection at DEL for DEL-ALA.

DEL- ALA- TAS- ALA: Now the remaining piece of the puzzle was how to cover TAS. Since our Inbound journey starts from ALA (KLM ticket), I knew I have to use Air Astana because they fly daily to TAS and DEL from ALA. So I started searching in Air Astana website with different options: One way DEL- ALA and ALA-TAS- ALA or multi city routing DEL-ALA-TAS-ALA. My experience says airline websites are not designed to handle complicated routing and pricing as was evident with KC website.

Finally Expedia came to my rescue and I got the tickets done. So, final flight segments looks like this

YWG-YYC-AMS-DEL-CCU-DEL-ALA-TAS-ALA-TSE(tech stop)-AMS-YYZ-YWG 12 flights for just over CAD2000. Not bad I say. In the process it will be my first time to experience a B789 (YYC- AMS), 9W long haul (AMS- DEL) and two new airlines G8 and KC.

TF flew together for CCU-DEL-ALA-TAS segments, father and son flew together CCU-DEL-ALA-TAS-ALA-KBP-AMS-YYZ-YWG segments. Curious ones already noticed and thinking how KBP came in to the picture?

KLM withdraws from Kazakhstan and hell breaks loose!

Around end-January I read somewhere that KLM is withdrawing from Kazakhstan market from S18. Oh no! Next thing going thru my mind is what is going to happen to my well-knitted and well-priced dream trip? I called Flight Centre. The very professional TA told me that he has got a notification from KLM just now and I shouldn’t worry. I kept in touch with him but nothing was moving, finally he gave me a Delta airlines phone number. Delta handles KLM’s cases like mine for North American flights. The junior staff kept on telling me that I can take a full refund, no penalties deducted. Big deal! If I accept refund, I am going to pay double $$ to get the same routing now. I held on to my point that "KLM cancelled the flight, KLM has to find a solution". She transfers me to a senior officer at Delta who lectured me about fare classes and that I bought at the lowest possible class. He suggested that I take refund when I declined that he said I should talk to my travel agent.

Travel agent told me that his seniors will take up the matter with KLM. I had confidence in my Travel Agent. A month before the trip, we get re-routed via KBP (on Air Astana metal) at no extra cost. The final routing become:

YWG-YYC-AMS-DEL-CCU-DEL-ALA-TAS-ALA (Night stay)-KBP-AMS-YYZ-YWG. The only added cost was a night in Almaty, KLM didn’t budge so I had to pay. Then I remembered about my almost expiring Finnair Plus points Very Happy

Expiring Finnair Plus Points= One night Hotel $ in Almaty

Some points we collect thinking one day it might come to use but most times it quietly gets expired, only time you notice it expired when monthly statement comes showing Zero points.

In 2016 we had a great trip to India on a cheap fare offered by BA/AY combo and we all collected Finnair Points for the first time. Finnair Plus allows adult family members to transfer/ consolidate their points to one account for a minor fee. Our points were about to expire and about that time the need for one night hotel at Almaty surfaced. One transfer from TW’s account to mine and I get a hotel night in Almaty for free courtesy hotel booking portal of Finnair Plus program.

Air Astana offers Hotel Stopover Program in Almaty and Astana for USD1 per person

Came to know about this program while surfing KC’s website. If you stopover in Almaty or Astana on your way to your final destination, KC will give you decent hotel room for USD1 per person for the first night. It worked perfectly for us. We were anyway stopping over in Almaty to meet my friend before flying to Tashkent. I didn’t have to call anyone, the hotel (Ramada) was bookable thru their website by mentioning the reservation code. Impressive cooperation between a national airline and tourism authority.

I am now going to deviate from the traditional Trip Report writing style that I followed in my previous TRs posted here, I will just mention the highlights of the trip. With technology the world is changing so fast in front of us (especially to the not so younger generations) that writing a traditional TR has become a futile exercise Very Happy. After watching excellent Video TRs from CollegeAviator (aka Jishnu Basu) and others in this forum, I sincerely think I have no excuse to burn midnight’s oil anymore Very Happy

Jet Airways and their Amsterdam hub
:
Seeing 3 Jet Airways biggies parked shoulder to shoulder in a busy European airport is a sight in itself but impressive part was the transfers between the flights were happening seamlessly. Agents at the end of the aerobridge was directing incoming passengers to their respective connecting flights.
Once inside, I found my DEL flight was almost 50 percent empty. That gave me space to lie flat. One observation: A FA literally tossed a paratha (in aluminium foil) halfway thru my lunch. If she didn’t give me that I wouldn’t have known that a Paratha was part of the menu.

Air Astana is a good airline

FAs are courteous and knows how to handle Indian passengers. No rudeness. Candies offered in all flights (I took four flights with them). Passengers’ got a pouch with toiletries and slippers on DEL- ALA flight, kids got toys. Edible food. From DEL when we were about to board our flight to ALA, another KC flight landed (I guess from Astana) and docked at the next gate and at the end of the aerobridge a KC agent was directing “Transit Passengers”. Who could be transiting from KC in DEL? Do they have code share flights out of DEL?

Go Air Excess Baggage Fee

Go Air allows only 15kgs of checked in baggage. While buying the ticket I thought it would be enough. But final weight came to 22Kgs courtesy TW. So I went to G8 website and they have a special pricing if you are connecting to/from International flights. So I called Go Air call centre from Canada to pay by credit card the excess baggage fee. Their system was down to take payment but the guy said Sir, don’t worry I have made note on your file and pay at the airport. He was right I paid INR500 while checking in for DEL-CCU as against INR2500 if no notes were made.

March 12th: Go Air flight 101: All Female Crew!

Announcement was made that the flight is operated by all female crew led by Capt. Suparna Joshi. Being an Indian I felt immensely proud, yet to hear an announcement like this in one of my many North American flights that I take. India is a country full of paradoxes; On one hand is an event like this on the other are numerous Rape cases that are more and more being used as political tool!

T3 to T2 transfer

Absolutely hassle-free, part of the connector is canopied. Trolley with my two bags were no issues, took about 10 minutes. Thanks Sumantra for the heads up.

That’s all for the time being, friends!


Taking off from Calgary

KL678 at AMS

elusive Iran Air

One of 9W's biggies at AMS

T2's post check-in area

Tian Shan mountain range in the vicinity

Our plane from DEL

You can still find them in this part of the world


F100 from Bek Air

View of Almaty from Mountain top

Traditional music presented by local artists at a restaurant in Almaty

Almaty Hotel Stopover voucher

ALA duty Free area. Our friend who went to climb Mt. Everest Base Camp around same time, met us in Almaty


Tashkent City

Chor-Suv Bazaar

Brisk trading inside the Bazaar

Taskent Metro station called "Kosmonauts". Yuri Gagarin there on the wall

Kam Air from Afganistan landed in TAS. Parked pretty far from the building

Beautiful Tian Shan mountain range in view during TAS-ALA

Our bird for KBP-AMS

"City of Johannesburg" Alas, this one will retire soon!
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sabya99
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Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 1399
Location: New Jersey/CCU

PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 4:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mr.Pal your camera skill outstanding. Please post this way. I don’t know when shall I learn to use camera!
Also I knew that Tashkent was the largest airport in Central Asia, but it looks small!
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stealthpilot
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Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Posts: 2325
Location: BLR, DXB

PostPosted: Mon May 21, 2018 11:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow brilliant pictures and informative TR .... brought back memories of my trip a few years ago.
Interesting planning and flight bookings- even I use google flights a lot to get an idea of routings/airlines, I just wish they could include the weird airlines as well Very Happy
Thanks for a great read.
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PAL@YWG
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Joined: 22 Dec 2006
Posts: 438
Location: YWG, Canada

PostPosted: Thu May 24, 2018 2:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

sabya99
Thanks for the compliments! I use a Nikon Coolpix, nothing fancy but does the job. And who nowadays can ignore his cellphone! Like an avid angler, a nice catch (an exotic aircraft like Kam air @ TAS) is always self-gratifying Very Happy

stealthpilot
Thanks for your comments. I vividly remember your Uzbek/ Kazakhstan TR and experiences you shared there like USD conversion and your ride on IL-114. BTW, all those IL-114s are now decommissioned from HY's active service.

After Madagascar melancholy, what we can expect next Very Happy Very Happy?
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shivendrashukla
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 23, 2018 12:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice and Concise TR. Good read.
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sumantra
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Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4685
Location: New Delhi

PostPosted: Sat Aug 25, 2018 11:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dear Samir-da: when I finally got to read your TR, what an experience it has turned out to be!
Right from the sanskrit quotation (a whiff of your trip report is enough to send all parts of my brain into raptures), to the planning part being exciting, I can relate with every one of your points.
You have also given a nice suggestions with Google Flights. I have had some disappointing experiences (fickle options, some not showing up), hence I have avoided Google Flights for a while.
The Pal family trips have always been quite complicated: from what you have described over the years!
DEL-CCU-DEL: ah, so this was why you were interested in DEL T2!
DEL-ALA-TAS-ALA: this is quite interesting for us, since the Joshi family has also done a similar routing, and Ameya Sir has been enticing us with his brief descriptions and exciting pictures. And precisely the USD1 enticing
Sir, we are with you, reading with bated breath, as you describe each part, and how the mystery unfolds. KBP!
Wow...trust Samir-da to use FinnairPlus points for a hotel booking!
I only wish I were as enterprising as you are, Sir!
Sir: please do burn midnight oil in writing the traditional TRs. I am facing a job/work-related time crunch. The notes and pictures are all there. If only I had a bit more time!
9W: parAnThA toss-in. That is not nice!
KC: that sounds nice! The Joshis have also had a decent experience, from what I understand.
G8: I have heard of some nice experiences, as well. The luggage part was nice.
Exciting plane types in your pictures, as usual!
You do entice us with your Tashkent pictures and descriptions. Since you have seen this part of the world in the Soviet breakup transition era, do let us know how you felt looking at changes, and what changes have come about, since then.
Looking forward to more from you, Sir!
Cheers, Sumantra.
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PAL@YWG
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Joined: 22 Dec 2006
Posts: 438
Location: YWG, Canada

PostPosted: Wed Aug 29, 2018 1:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

shivendrashukla wrote:
Nice and Concise TR. Good read.

Thanks Shivendra. Your crisp TR on DEL T2 really helped me to get over any apprehension I had about using that terminal.

sumantra wrote:
Dear Samir-da: when I finally got to read your TR, what an experience it has turned out to be!
Right from the sanskrit quotation (a whiff of your trip report is enough to send all parts of my brain into raptures), to the planning part being exciting, I can relate with every one of your points.
You have also given a nice suggestions with Google Flights. I have had some disappointing experiences (fickle options, some not showing up), hence I have avoided Google Flights for a while.
The Pal family trips have always been quite complicated: from what you have described over the years!
DEL-CCU-DEL: ah, so this was why you were interested in DEL T2!
DEL-ALA-TAS-ALA: this is quite interesting for us, since the Joshi family has also done a similar routing, and Ameya Sir has been enticing us with his brief descriptions and exciting pictures. And precisely the USD1 enticing
Sir, we are with you, reading with bated breath, as you describe each part, and how the mystery unfolds. KBP!
Wow...trust Samir-da to use FinnairPlus points for a hotel booking!
I only wish I were as enterprising as you are, Sir!
Sir: please do burn midnight oil in writing the traditional TRs. I am facing a job/work-related time crunch. The notes and pictures are all there. If only I had a bit more time!
9W: parAnThA toss-in. That is not nice!
KC: that sounds nice! The Joshis have also had a decent experience, from what I understand.
G8: I have heard of some nice experiences, as well. The luggage part was nice.
Exciting plane types in your pictures, as usual!
You do entice us with your Tashkent pictures and descriptions. Since you have seen this part of the world in the Soviet breakup transition era, do let us know how you felt looking at changes, and what changes have come about, since then.
Looking forward to more from you, Sir!
Cheers, Sumantra.


Impressive comeback, Sumantra! Reading 10+ TRs in this forum and commenting on them with minute details, it's Sumantra-esque! Smile

Thanks for your comments on my TR.
About KBP re-routing and Hotel room(courtesy FinnairPlus's almost dead miles): Events like these give me immense pleasure Smile Included breakfast with my hotel room tasted extra yummy!

Current state of ex-USSR satellites: It's a point for an elaborate discussion...I am always fascinated by the events that took place between 1917 till current time in that region. I will comfortably pick a history quiz about USSR/(Russia+Stans) over India anyday Smile
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sumantra
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 30, 2018 12:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hats off to you Sir, and thanks for devoting your time, and sharing your immense knowledge, on the forum!
Cheers, Sumantra.
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