New Airline reviews and ratings for flying to Russia and the FSU - Russian Ukrainian Belarus Travel Music Woman Dating News

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New Airline reviews and ratings for flying to Russia and the FSU
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Posted by: Khashyar

Hello Everyone,

I have uploaded several airlines into the "Russian User Reviews" section so that we can rate our experience with airlines that fly to Russia and the former Soviet Union.

Please post your reviews and ratings of airlines that you have flown to the FSU, so that we may all read about your experiences and recommendations.

I have already posted my review of Aeroflot, and I encourage everyone to also contribute your reviews.

The airlines review and ratings section is here: http://www.russianmeetingplace.com/...cat.php?cat=101

Thank you,

Khashyar

Posted by: Khashyar

I didn't know that Austria Air played upon the weaknesses of foreign men...?

(I actually have included some other various airline photos in the airline section of the User Reviews...)

Posted by: Khashyar

I will be flying Lufthansa Airlines from Los Angeles to Minsk this September, and I will post a review of Lufthansa in the review section after my trip.

I'm actually looking forward to trying Lufthansa, since I have never flown with them before....

Khashyar

Posted by: ConnerVT

You'll have to let us know if they still have metal forks and spoons. It is one of the airlines that have held off replacing them with the plastic 'spork'...

I'll be using the JFK-SVO Aeroflot route pretty soon. I'll post an updated review after I travel. It's about two years since I traveled Aeroflot.

Posted by: Khashyar

It'll be good to read your updated review, Fred.

Yes, I will let you know about the silverware.

I wonder if they changed the silverware because of security concerns.

Khashyar

Posted by: tanya3475

Out of all the airlines i flew I thought Lufthansa was the best

Posted by: Khashyar

It's good to hear your good feedback about Lufthansa...

I look forward to experiencing German airline high quality

Feel free to post your Lufthansa experience in the Review section. (The link to the Lufthansa review page is here: http://www.russianmeetingplace.com/...&cat=101&page=2).

Thanks for your feedback.

Khashyar

Posted by: bobjf

hi all,greetings from australia.
my first trip to russia i flew british air to bangkok from sydney,never will again ,terrable crew attitude, from bangkok to seoul went with korean, not bad. korea to novosibirsk with siberia air, what can i say, the tupolov 504 was a huge shock to my system after all previous flights on 747,s, no onboard entertainment of any kind, all commuitcation with crew was by guess work.
yes the plane was old but well cared for,food ok,crew were nice ,very interesting experiance.
flew back to korea with them & then qantas home ,i might be biased but qantas take a lot of beating,service is fantastic.
smoothest landing i have ever experianced.
second trip over went with asiana, man there the best & then on with siberia again,we flew from barnaul to moscow via airoflot, won,t do that again, siberian people are angels compared to other clowns. went back to barnaul via siberia air,same to korea & home via asiana.
natasha flew to aus via siberia & air china ,she was less than impressed
our ratings
brit air 3/10 airoflot 1/10

korean 6/10 asiana 9/10
siberia 5/10
qantas 9/10 air china 6/10 airoflot would be last resort

Posted by: Khashyar

Welcome to the RMP, Bob, and thanks for your feedback on those airlines.

If you could please do me a favor and post your reviews in our Russian User Reviews section> http://www.russianmeetingplace.com/...cat.php?cat=101 .....so that we can organize the reviews and visitors can find them easily.

Also... feel free to join in the conversations in the Russian-Australian section of the this forum.

Khashyar

Posted by: Jutman

Well

I can't understand the negative attitude towards Aeroflot. I have flew with them 10 time CPH-SVO and 5 times SVO-KUF and they haven't fail to deliver the service.

The are punctually.
They speak english.
Clean.
Okay mix of food.

and from CPH they used older boing and now Airbus 319.

and they aren'r more bad than my other experience in flying. With (now dead, Conair and its not a joke). KLM and Northrwestern to Amsterdam and a the way to Twin City. Where I switch to to Jetstreamer31 to Iowa. Thats the worst I tried of flying.

Okay, Aeroflot is economical solution but they are not a LCC and deliver the service.
At domestically fligths they use, old crafts, yes. But they do the job.

Posted by: Khashyar

Hi Brian,

My experience (as well as Lena's) flying from Los Angeles to Moscow, and also dealing with Aeroflot staff at the Moscow airport, has not been so positive.

Please post your review (based on your perspective and experience) of Aeroflot in the reviews section.

Perhaps we are experiencing Aeroflot differently...

Khashyar

Posted by: bobjf

g/day jutman.

i guess everybody has different experiances, i have never flown international with airoflot but after experiancing there version of domestic travel & dealing with there personel i doubt i ever will.
try flying with a few of the others out there .
you may decide differently.
try singapore air, thai air,air newzealand,quantas.asiana.
varity is the spice of life but like all spices some leave a bad taste in your mouth
cheers bob

Posted by: Jutman

I have experienced, they have been friendly and one time helped my out of a mistake (I, travel agency or both of us) made.

I have like 2 options SAS and Aeroflot and I am sorry to say that for me SAS is criminal sh@tairline who I personally hope goes under soon.

During my 1st visit I have also tried Volga-Dnepr airline (have posted a pic) where I flew a Yak-40. Thats was another story conning the level of comfort, but when they discoveried we were 2 english speaking, the information from the staff was in english.

For me is a the story were rich western are use to luxary and forget the situation Russia are in. Or at the international flights you must compare price and service.

Posted by: bobjf

hi jutman
sounds like you havn,t the luck of the irish, i,m far from rich & usually only get to travel cattle class but i tell you what mate service & friendly staff make up for lots.
i,m well aware of life in russia & experianced many things that had steam coming out of my ears & i am a lot more blaza these days because of it.
one of the things natasha taught me quickly was not to talk english when we were out together or traveling in russia.
prices had a habit of jumping when they know you are a westener
i have spent far to much time on aircraft in last few years & can,t say i injoy it ,maybe 1 day i will get to fly first class lol.
natasha & i plan to travel a bit more when we can afford it but you can bet we will pick who we fly with.
price will always be part of any trip but i like my comfort these days & tues not to fly again with companys who piss me off.
if sas rate worse than airoflot you should tell us about your experiance
happy travels mate
bob

Posted by: steve27t

Khashyar, There are more options than those listed. I have flown from Miami via Amsterdam with Martinair. Onward flight with Ukraine Intl. And you can fly via London with Virgin or British Airways. Steve

Posted by: Raspberry

Being in the industry myself, I thought I'd put in a few updates that are not all that obvious.

Aeroflot has discontinued service out of Seattle. Don't know the reason, but I would guess due to something involving aircraft leases. For quite a while, they were using a 777 to SVO. So we have no Moscow, and no service to the far east part of Russia, either, direct from SEA.

Most passengers are defaulting to using SAS via Copenhagen. As expected the SK trips are often oversold, as a result. Seattle has the largest Swedish and Norweigian populations west of Minnesota, so the flights are full anyway. Plus with Horizon Air now having direct service service from Santa Barbara to Seattle, the folks out in Solvang are now doing the one-stop, long layover in SEA, as opposed to two plane changes--via LAX and one other city.

If you have frequent flyer miles on a SAS partner(i.e. Air Canada, United, US Airways) it is extremely difficult to try to use your miles up on SEA-CPH on SK.
If your travel plans are less than six months away, it's next to impossible to cash in your miles for the Seattle SAS trip due to overwhelming demand by people paying for tickets

Belavia recently changed its policy concerning listing flights in major computer systems, such as SABRE, Apollo, SystemOne, etc. The flights in and out of MHP(Minsk-1) airport have been removed from the system. This is due to the fact that the schedules have been erratic, due to the fact that flights have maintenance issues, and not able to come up with a realistic schedule. In other words, travel agencies/airlines system are only showing a select bunch of flights that are sure to operate.

Since about Christmas, the only B2 flights that are listed are ones from MSQ(Minsk-2) to Europe/Poland/certain FSU destinations, as well as weekly trips to Gomel and Mogilev......In actuality, though, there are more scheduled flights than there are shown in the system.....both out of MSQ and MHP. Plus there are charters to places such as Egypt and China, among others.

In the late part of 2005, Delta added an extra Moscow trip. Instead of JFK, this is out of their other main hub, Atlanta. Actually better connections for some of the smaller markets, especially in the south.

Posted by: Jutman

Hi

Interesting to read, that people use SAS via Copenhagent to visit Russia, but a little funny that they have a ticket problem. SAS has lost a lot of money and is closing several overseas routes due to lack of customers, and in the medai there was talk about sell/lease some of the airplanes.

So I hope for for who need the service, they will upgrade to a larger airplane or put more airplanes in.

But from Copenhagen to Moscow and back a normal SAS ticket cost about 600$, a snowflake ticket (the low cost ticket) cost about 400$. Aeroflot charge 300$ for a return ticket, at the same route and almost same time and type of airplane.

B-t-w 'flot' means in Danish handsome or good.

Posted by: AngryFisherman

Brian,

I have used the route via Copenhagen to Moscow many times myself and allow me to say what an truly awesome airport you have! It beats the living daylights out of what I have seen in Sweden (Arlanda), France (CDG) and USA (JFK) so far!

The only downside is that I need a big sack of cash to survive the tax free shopping there, I am afraid my credit card will burn up when sliding it at the registers

Cheers,
FisherMan

Posted by: Jutman

Hi

I know its well organised, and thankfull I am a economist and a trifty person, so the shops has got no money from me, except a newspaper or so.

Posted by: Raspberry

Jutman, I don't know how it is on the other end(CPH-SVO/LED),but SAS is almost always full on the SEA-CPH portion.

The one thing is peculiar about Seattle is that we do not have that many international flights, considering how many people who travel internationally.

With Aeroflot gone, besides SAS, only two other scheduled Europe flights-
British Airways to London, and Northwest to Amsterdam. That's it. Everything else has to go through the major US or Canadian hubs. With the exception of these, and the Delta JFK/ATL trips, any other trip to Russia requires at least two plane changes.....

Posted by: Raspberry

Lufthansa now flies direct to Donetsk from Frankfurt. Plus they now have
Munich to Dniepropetrovsk.

Delta now has the rights to fly into Kiev/Borispol, but has not put the flight officially on the schedule yet as they need to take care of some details with the Ukrainian government. Flight will be out of New York/JFK.

Posted by: TheWongs

Not many British posts here, so.......

I went from Belfast, N. Ireland to Birmingham using Flybe... Nothing much to say. 45min flight in a twin engined box. Cheap, but effective.

From Birmingham to Kiev by Aerosvit. Nice staff and smooth flight. Food was just ok. The plane was pretty old, but got us there in one piece. I did have a problem with my ears for a few days after landing though.

Posted by: zaniac

Where are British Airways????

I would like to see British Airways added, as I have flown with them on both occassions, but am unable to give a review unless I do it in one of the other forums.

Posted by: Khashyar

Quote:

Originally Posted by zaniac

Where are British Airways????

I would like to see British Airways added, as I have flown with them on both occassions, but am unable to give a review unless I do it in one of the other forums.

Hi Zaniac....

I didn't realize that we forgot British Airways...

I will do it in the User Reviews section right now....

Does Virgin also fly to Russia or Belarus?

Khashyar

Posted by: Khashyar

You can find and review British Airlines here:

http://www.russianmeetingplace.com/...php?product=287

Posted by: zaniac

Thanks Khashyar, will post a review soon

Not sure about Virgin, will find out soon for you.

Posted by: zaniac

I don't think Virgin do such a route from the UK at least. Also I notice there are alot of flights from UK to Ukraine provided by BMI. I don't think I can see this on your list Khashyar.

Posted by: Khashyar

I look forward to that review, zaniac.

-K

Posted by: Raspberry

While on the subject of British Airways, just thought I'd pass along the fact that they moved their operation out of Sheremetyvo last year and are now flying their trips from Heathrow to Domodedovo airport instead....

I'm not sure if this makes it more or less convenient for you Brits....

Posted by: zaniac

It's coming soon, will try and be as informative as possible

Are BMI related to any of the airlines that are already listed?

Posted by: vic2012

Quote:

Where are British Airways????

Just thought I would mention BA. Travelled with them many times. Never had a bad flight (unlike Bobjf). I think everyone has a poor experience sometimes. Of course. it doesn't help, if the flight is choc-a-block.

Flew to Moscow with them a couple of weeks ago. Very comfortable and efficient. Then on to Omsk with Siberian Airlines (see review). There's no changing of terminals at Domodedovo.

I'm going out to Omsk for another long weekend in early March, (can't keep away) on same flights as before. I'll post a review on my return. But I almost booked on Aeroflot. But the travel agency turned out to be a scam. (see thread: Are these cheap flights to Russia genuine?)

BMI used to be British Midland Airways. They are independent.

Posted by: zaniac

Just done a BA review, don't know how useful it will be to anyone though.

Posted by: dagpop

When I went to Tashkent,I flew American Airlines from Des Moines to Chicago and from Chicago to London.In London, I used British Airways to fly to Tashkent.In flying to Tashkent,we made a stop in Yerevan.The service on the flights were good.The only bad thing is sitting in a seat so long.Once you meet your lady,you forget the bad parts of the flight.

Posted by: disculmawsu

Has anyone had experience flying into Domodedovo Airport (Moscow)? I am very impressed by the website, but doesn't mean it good airport. A friend in Moscow suggested it as alternative to Sheremetyevo, so I am interested in some other views.

Posted by: OldFlak

I have flown out of Domodedovo on a domestic flight, and will try to avoid it in the future. Crowded. Poor signage. Limited counters/space for check-in.
That was in 2004, so things might have changed and inbound might be better.

Posted by: disculmawsu

Thanks for information - I decided not to risk it and went with a flight to Sheremetyevo - I feel comfortable with immgratation, baggage pick and customs. I also taking a flight allow to spend a little extra in Moscow.

Posted by: JamesB

Im just looking at flights for Xmas to siberia.
After last year when Aeroflot didnt transfer my bags from first to second flight and i arrived with no cloths for 3 days.As we were doing a documentary i didnt feel great.
Then on return Aeroflot said again the same but at Sheramatevo i collected my bags from carousel and missed return flight and had 14 hour wait.

Liuda insists we fly Transero but i just wish it was all BA