Astana to Amsterdam via Minsk. Flying Belavia was probably one of my worst flying experiences ever. Unfortunately I had no other choice as all flights out of Astana to Europe where fully booked. The two aircraft I travelled with were very old B737-500s. Especially the first one was outdated and probably over 30 years old and retrofitted somewhere in the 90s or so by adding an entertainment system for music only, which was broken. But nobody uses this type of IFE any more as everyone has either a phone of MP3 for personal entertainment and music. The aircraft still had ash-trays installed in the arm rests. Seats on my first flight from Astana to Minsk where terrible resulting in neck pain. Seats on the flight from Minsk to Amsterdam where soft and had good head rests, but the seat back was so thick and pitch so small that knee and leg space was very limited. Check-in staff was friendly and boarding was quick. Some of the crew members were very friendly, others were grumpy old Belarussian men. Crew assumes everyone is Belarussian, which is not very thoughtful. Drinks are fine, but the food was absolute horror. They said it was beef but I was unable to identify what kind of stuff I got. In general I would say to avoid this airline, unless Minsk is your final destination as I don't think that there are many alternatives from Western Europe except for (as far as I know) Lufthansa via Frankfurt and Austrian via Vienna.
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