Review of Kam Air flight from Dubai to Kabul in Economy

Intro

As a kid, you have dreams, dreams in life that you’ve always wanted to fulfill. One of these dreams since being a kid was visiting every country in the world, and with this dream comes its own struggles. Sometimes you contemplate if it's worth it, and sometimes you are astonished by the most magnificent random occurrences. Well, Afghanistan, you have fallen into the latter category, as you truly blew me away ❤️🇦🇫.

As I sit at the airport in Kabul writing this outbound review (delayed due to personal security+bad wifi haha), a sense of calm fills my body. A sense of joy, a sense of disbelief, and a sense of happiness.

Well, some days ago I embarked on a mission to Afghanistan and flew on their A340-300 from Dubai to Kabul on a very early morning flight. If this airline wasn’t in Afghanistan, I have to say that I would fly this airline all the time. The service is friendly, the captain has stellar takeoffs/landings, the food options are good, and I mean, hearing those 4 engines roar is a sound for sore ears. The only downside with Kam Air is that their economy cabin is in a 3-3-3 configuration (in the front). Be that as it may, the flight was empty in the forward cabin. 

Routing

How I Booked

When heading to Kabul, you have a couple of different options to choose from. Turkish Airlines, Kam Air, Fly Dubai, and Ariana Afghan Airlines are some of these.

In the past few years, Kam Air and their A340-300s have always fascinated me, so when the option came to book it, it was a no-brainer. I was pleased to find that Kam Air takes US credit cards as well, as that also surprised me…

Sure Ariana would have been nice on one of the legs, but the airline flies a 737 to Dubai so yeah… no. I WANT MY A340!!

Check In

Following a lovely flight onboard FlyJinnah from Islamabad to Sharjah, and getting some food, it was off on the 25-minute drive to Dubai International.

Checking online, there was some back and forth on what terminal Kam Air uses, but I followed Flighty’s advice and headed off to Terminal 1, door 1. Sure enough, Kam Air check-in lay right in front of me. 

But there was one issue, I was too early. It’s one of those weird connections where there is not enough time to sleep, but a little bit too much time to kill if you know what I mean.

By 1:00 am sharp, check-in opened, and what a debacle it was. Never in my wildest dreams have I seen so many people checking in so many bags. I must have been about 3/5 of the way back (since I was taking out some USD) and it took an hour and 20 minutes to get a boarding pass. Crazy stuff!

With a boarding pass finally in hand, I headed off on the short walk to immigration. 

Ahh yes, I have more than enough time to grab a bite to eat, have a couple of beers, etc. WRONG. Heading to the passport control, after being denied by E gates, I was instructed to go to the boss due to my DOB change. Waiting, and waiting, and waiting, it took about 10-15 minutes before I was through… 

Inshallah

Food, Hungry, Tired

You know, I’ve never actually flown out of Dubai Terminal 1 before, so when I saw that there was a train, I was like “You must be friggin kidding me right now”. No, Dubai Airport was not taking the mick… 

Eventually, by 2:40 am, I had made it to the main part of the terminal. The one thing on my mind was food, I hadn’t eaten all day, and just wanted to stuff my face before Afghanistan so I ended up choosing Giraffe. Those from the UK will know it. 

It was good, I had a chicken breast and a pasta ragu, along with a couple of beers. 67$??? Yup, this is the last time I am visiting Dubai. Good thing the next time I come I'll have Emirates First Class Lounge access.

Boarding

Stuffing my face like there was no time to spare (since there was no time to spare), I scurried along to gate D2 for boarding this morning. While boarding commenced at 3:00 am sharp, I didn’t end up boarding until about 3:25 due to my hungry belly.

Interestingly, the boarding group was backed up and I ended up meeting a lovely man from Afghanistan. We exchanged contact details and so forth, and he said “If you need anything, please let me know”. Such nice people…

And so it is time, time to get onboard this magnificent plane that I have heard so much about. Time to go to a country where they say to “establish proof of life protocols, leave a sample of DNA”. Needless to say, what I experienced was completely the opposite.

The Seat/Cabin

Stepping onboard, I was warmly greeted by two flight attendants who escorted me to my seat: 9K. Upon booking, I noticed that the cabin between doors 1 and 2 could be selected for an extra 30$ per seat, and the airline blocks the middle seat. Originally, I thought that maybe Kam Air was selling Business as economy, but I was wrong…

Seats on the Kam Air A340-300 are laid out in a 3-3-3 configuration in the front part of the plane, and a 2-4-2 in the rear part of the plane, totalling 346 economy seats. Each seat is quite tight (width-wise) but features decent legroom and some nice recline.

My seat: 9K

A cool little addition:

If you are looking for a more private flight, I highly recommend choosing the cabin between doors 1 and 2. 

Departure

By 3:54 am, boarding was complete and we were ready to get underway. The captain came on to announce our flight time of 2 hours and 15 minutes, our cruising altitude of 35,000 feet, and that we would be on our way shortly departing from Runway 30R.

The cabin crew quickly came around to offer us a sweet treat and a bottle of water. A Pre-departure beverage… in economy… on an Afghan carrier? Say goodbye Lufthansa, you are being replaced by Kam Air 😉. 

It was a decently long taxi out, as we pushed back at 4:04 am local time, and were not airborne until 4:28 am. My gosh, I am in heaven, the climb out on the A340-300 is just surreal, and combine that with the view of the two engines. WOW 

Side note: this was my first time ever on an A340-300. Funny that it’s on Kam Air. 

Amenities/IFE

Let’s just get this out of the way then shall we, you can say goodbye to amenities or any sort of in-flight entertainment (including wifi). In general, Afghanistan is a lot of the same, but we’ll touch on that more. The entertainment on the airline and the country is the natural beauty, and that came with the gorgeous views that were offered on this flight. 

Meal Service

However, what Kam Air does offer is a free meal service to all passengers. Perhaps because it was Ramadan (we will find out shortly on the return leg), within 15 minutes after takeoff I had a meal ready to be eaten. 

Honestly, for a 2-hour flight, this was a pretty damn good meal. Chicken, rice, bread, and a choice of drink (no alcohol of course). Impressive, Kam Air!

Lavatories

Before heading off for a short nap (yes, I had just pulled an all-nighter, and didn’t sleep much the night before), I decided to check out the lavatories. Interestingly, the crew didn’t let any passengers use the lavs by door 1L, only the ones by 2R and 2L.

However, they seemed spacious and in decent condition, so that is a plus. 

The Views

Waking up refreshed from my nap, I opened up the window to see one of the most surreal views I’ve ever witnessed in my life. My eyes were glued to the window as if I had just witnessed a flying mermaid. You know those exist right? Okay, just making sure… 

I mean wow, just wow, this is the epitome of aviation to me. The mountains of Afghanistan, in the background of the 2 engines of the Kam Air A340-300, about to descend into Kabul.

Service

I wanted to touch on the service aspect of this flight very quickly, as I found the Kam Air crew to be extremely warm throughout my flight. All of them were professional but were happy to assist in any way they could for passengers.

As an example, there was a family with a baby stuck in the back, and they moved them to the forward cabin so they could have more space (since the baby was crying non-stop).

Every interaction I had with them was friendly, and even upon landing, I chatted with a flight attendant for a bit. It resembled the people of Afghanistan, kindness ❤️. 

Arrival

The descent into Kabul is a tricky one, and one that I imagine is quite difficult to master. It starts by getting quite low over the snowcapped mountains…

And then making a sharp left bank to begin final approach. Oh sh*t, this is it, we are landing in country 116, one that is deemed to be the “second most dangerous country in the world”. Honestly, there was a small part of me that felt I was pushing the limits here, but I also felt calm like “I got this”.

Okay, moving on from my tangent. We ended up having a HEAVY crosswind landing right at 7:15 am. To say the captain buttered the landing would be the understatement of the year. We had the front gear up for quite a while and slowly came to a stop close to the end of the runway. 

Simply surreal

A lovely landing

I tip my hat to you El Capitan!

Immigration

Pulling into our remote stand (TK and FlyDubai use the jetbridges) on this beautiful morning in Kabul, we were quickly ushered onto a bus leading to immigration. 

After suffering the brunt of long immigration lines in South Sudan, Libya, and more, I made sure I was the first one off the bus, positioning myself strategically on the bus.

Sure enough, I was the first one to immigration, where I was stamped through in no time at all, and off to baggage claim.

And this is where I had my first interaction with the Taliban. Each tourist receives a small notecard which you must obtain nearby baggage claim.

Can I just say, everyone was so nice and we ended up laughing about how I was a student. This set the mood for the most wonderful trip in Afghanistan as I embarked on the way out to meet my guide.

As I grabbed a coffee, the man at the shop even offered his hotspot to me so I could check my message. It has just been so lovely the whole time, I’m not crying writing this I swear 😒. To me, witnessing what I have witnessed over the past 3 days has left me in a humbled state. From seeing 5-year-old kids sleeping and begging on the street, to the natural beauty of Afghanistan, there are so many sides to Afghanistan that I learned about.

Bamian Tourism Bonus

This tourism bonus will be out about Bamain, the next one about Kabul. 

Upon arriving in Kabul, we headed straight off on the 5 hour drive to Bamian. This country is so beautiful, but the biggest suprise was seeing the amount of Asian looking people in Afghanistan (I had no idea). One of the biggest ethnic groups is the Hazaras, and also some of the kindest people in the world. 

I digress, we visited around Bamian including an ancient city dating back 500 years. 

I am trying to work on my photogprahy, but how beautiful is this???

Note: While I will speak about The Taliban in this report and the next, I will NOT speak politically about the Taliban, I will simply share my experience with them. 

Everyone I met from the Taliban was very welcoming to me, and weirdly, even more so when they saw I was from the USA… Anyways, here is a picture of a Taliban flag. They are everywhere, all over Afghanistan

We also visited some Bhuddas, dating back to the 6th century BC. WOW!

That night, I happened to meet a guy from New York staying at the same homestay as me. Wild! 

It gets really cold here in the mountains, during the day you are sweating, and during the night you are grabbing every blanket you can find. Hot water is a scarcity, and heating as well. However, I slept very well!

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed!