Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport  Passenger Reviews and Customer opinions

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MOSCOW SHEREMETYEVO AIRPORT customer review :  26 October 2010 by Y Kahanovych   (Ukraine)

Customer Rating :  4/5

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Arrived in the old terminal F to long walk from the plane around the whole departing area crossing paths with departing passengers going to their gates. Immigration took about 10 minutes to clear. Overall ambience of terminal F wouldn't inspire you. Toilets clean. Going to Aeroexpress train I passed the new terminals e and d. Both looked clean and bright despite construction there and here. Aeroexpress terminal was also clean and good looking with nice food options. The train to the city was clean and on time - but they refuse to accept plastic cards if you buy combined ticket for train and underground. Cash only. So visit ATM first.

MOSCOW SHEREMETYEVO AIRPORT customer review :  25 September 2010 by Chris McQuaid   (New Zealand)

Customer Rating :  2/5

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I swore after my first trip to Russia that I would never use this airport again, but unfortunately I had to use it three times on this trip (domestic only, so not having to transfer may have been a bonus). At least the AeroExpress from the city is a big plus but, despite what is advertised, the free bus transfer works only one way - it's provided by the airport, so travels inside the security perimeter to the domestic terminals. Of course, when you arrive on a domestic flight, you end up outside the terminal, and therefore outside the secure area, so you have to get the marshrutki shuttle (60 roubles) back to the AeroExpress terminal. Security and check-in for my first flight was very quck and easy, and I thought that perhaps things had improved in the last four years. That impression was very quickly ruined by my second visit - baggage took 40 minutes to arrive, causing me to miss check-in for my connecting flight. AviaNova staff moved mountains to get me on the plane, but it meant going through security 3 times, with all the rigmarole of shoes off and on, even though the security staff had already seen me go through the next scanner, 10 metres away, and then out of their own secure zone! At least there is now no smoking in the "No Smoking" area of the departure lounge. To top it all off, when I arrived on my last flight the baggage was on the carousel when we got into the terminal - talk about Jekyll and Hyde!

MOSCOW SHEREMETYEVO AIRPORT customer review :  8 September 2010 by Stefano Innocenti   (Italy)

Customer Rating :  1/5

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Sheremetyevo is the worst international airport in the world. Terminal F is always in the old Soviet-style without air conditioning system. Communication isn't one of their strong point. Ads in English are very hard to understand. If you aren't Russian, everybody ignore you. Only two shops throughout the airport accept euros and orders are rude to all western people.

MOSCOW SHEREMETYEVO AIRPORT customer review :  19 August 2010 by Eduardo Alonso   (Spain)

Customer Rating :  2/5

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Aeroflot is too optimistic about transfers in Sheremetyevo. A two and a half houres could not be enough if you have to change terminals. Wait in the plane for the bus, queue for control when you drop, queue for control when you exit, queue to control again when you arrive in new terminal and queue to boarding. Added with staff that never knos the answer. Maybe the worst airport I've been in a long time.

MOSCOW SHEREMETYEVO AIRPORT customer review :  11 August 2010 by A Johnson   (USA)

Customer Rating :  4/5

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The old terminal 2 (now F) remains its dismal soviet self, but new terminals are great. Terminal D has a children's play room like a self-service daycare center. The prices at restaurants are still sky-high but at least now it gets you tasty food. One of the nicer and more helpful airports I've traveled through.

MOSCOW SHEREMETYEVO AIRPORT review :  22 June 2010 by M Simpson   (USA)

Customer Rating :  1/5

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Numerous airport workers have no clue of what is going on. No one can answer your questions. They only scream at you for asking. You have to stand in line for hours to get a boarding pass, to go through passport control, to go through security, even to get to your gate. And what happened to chairs - there is no place to sit. Be aware of russian taxi drivers - they lie if you don't know the exchange rate. We were travelling transit from terminal B to terminal F and when we asked for a free transportation between terminals (like in any other normal airport) we got laughed at. Then the taxi driver tried to charge us three times the rate to drive us from one terminal to another.

MOSCOW SHEREMETYEVO AIRPORT review :  27 April 2010 by Sam Hill   (UK)

Customer Rating :  1/5

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Words really cannot express how awful this place is. There are two terminals, one new and the other a dingy concrete warren. But the buildings aren't really the major players in what makes this airport so appalling. It's the organisation and the staff. You will be shouted at incessantly, made to stand in tight corners, made to follow staff for no clear reason and left by toilets, stairs, outside doors, expected to crowd together in tiny spaces to 'queue' for transfer as staff yell city names and drag confused travellers through the crowd, and then taken a different route, pulled through endless puzzling security gates, abandoned on buses for ages. I will do everything I possibly can to avoid ever seeing this airport again!

MOSCOW SHEREMETYEVO AIRPORT review :  19 April 2010 by D Dovlat   (Azerbaijan)

Customer Rating :  2/5

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SVO Terminal F (old Terminal SVO2) - the worst airport terminal. Half of shops are closed, prices in cafes are higher than in London High Street Cafes - no money exchange facilities for currencies other than EUR and USD, so having enough money in GBP in your pockets you have to ask bartenders or shop assistants to change you GBP to USD or Roubles by very bad rate. SVO Terminal D new terminal - terminal is brand new and no duty free shops were operating at that time, cafes were selling foods only for Roubles. Also no money exchange facilities were available. Seats for waiting passengers were not comfortable, with partitions, so had to sleep in the floor while waiting for the connection flight after 5 hrs - only positive side was toilets which were new and clean.

MOSCOW SHEREMETYEVO AIRPORT review :  7 April 2010 by G Cleaver   (New Zealand)

Customer Rating :  2/5

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We were leaving from Moscow to Auckland via Hong Kong and our only choice was Sheremetyevo. This airport is a real shambles. We arrived at around 7:30pm local time to check into our flight. Staff are impatient and have no idea what they are really doing. The whole airport looks more like a cave and I look forward to when the new terminal will open. Passport control is the next marathon. Warning - block your ears when the officer stamps your passport. His/ her aim is too scare you with the loud bang on the passport. After passing control, we had some time to look about in the airport. This is boring. Seriously, half of the shops are not even open, and cafes sell food at rip-off prices. After a while, our flight was boarding. Security check is a pain. There is one x-ray for two gates, and while our flight was boarding, another flight was boarding in the other gate, so this meant queues. Big ones. So big that we nearly missed our flight. So when we board, our flight is cancelled because a dodgy Ilyushin can't get it's engines to work properly. This meant that everyone had to get off and wait till another plane was available. The airport gave us coupons to buy food with, but in the whole of the airport, two, only two cafes/restaurants we're open. So we had to wait till the plane fed us. Staff didn't tell us anything at all, so we used newspapers, laid them on the floor and went to sleep.3 hours later, the grumpy staff finally announced that there was a plane available and everyone boarded.

MOSCOW SHEREMETYEVO AIRPORT review :  7 April 2010 by A Cuesta-Canada   (UK)

Customer Rating :  1/5

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I stayed in SVO twice while in route to and from Hanoi, once in terminal F (SVO-2) and once in F being transferred to D (SVO-3). There is a world of difference between both. Terminal F is quite unclean and lacks services, but in exchange there are many benches, some of them in quite areas, where you can stretch and take a good nap. There is plenty of space to camp in the second floor, where no one ever goes for anything else. Proof of that is that there are several homeless people or stranded immigrants living there. In general it has the same quality that you would expect in a rail station if you would be backpacking on the cheap. Knowing that I had a long stopover I packed plenty of good food, which was a great decision since the available one at the airport is bad, expensive, and you need to manage to pay in roubles (the ATMs usually don't work). In addition to that there are huge queues for any process, and you will be required to do things by staff that won't identify themselves or explain why you need to do what they require. You will be asked to hand your boarding pass, your passport, you will be asked to follow them to any other place (don't lose sight of them or you are screwed). No one will tell you why your flight is delayed or when will it really fly. You will be boarded onto buses and forgotten in a parking lot for half an hour. The passport check process in terminal F was hilarious in its slowness and unefficiency. Amazingly in the end they will manage to get you into the flight, unlikely enough they seem to have some kind of control below the chaotic mess. The new terminal D is much nicer, clean and more staffed. It doesn't have many services yet, and you are likely to have the same problems than in terminal F regarding being herded without explanation from one side to another. One important thing to take into account is that travelling business won't make any difference to all the previous issues. In my first time in SVO my flight was delayed for 13 hours, so at the end they sent us to a hotel. Aeroflot had arranged only for double rooms, and single travellers were asked to find someone to share a room with. The only business traveller was not happy with having paid $3000 to share a hotel room with a stranger, and the result is that she had to wait until everyone else got a room, and fight hard with the hotel personnel to finally be granted a single room around 2am. I chose this airport for my trip because Aeroflot was the cheapest option by a 25%, and the trip back was really convenient. I don't think I would risk it again, with a short transfer time I would be scared of getting lost or stuck in a queue and if the staff is not aware I could join the homeless people in the second floor, and a long transfer time is never good, much less in SVO. From my second trip, I think 3h is a reasonable transfer time for this airport. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who isn't hard enough to stand soviet style travel conditions. Otherwise give it a try, you could have stories to scare other fellow travellers in the future.

MOSCOW SHEREMETYEVO AIRPORT review :  30 March 2010 by N Meyer   (Germany)

Customer Rating :  4/5

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As an international transit-passenger I only used the transit-area of brand-new Terminal D. The staff attitude was kind of a revolution for Russia - addressing passengers and offering help was never heard about before. Transit desk sufficiently manned. The same for the transit passport and security check. Most shops in Terminal D were still under construction, but bars and restaurants open. Just one disappointing thing: Bars and Restaurants only accept payment in cash roubles.

MOSCOW SHEREMETYEVO AIRPORT review :  22 March 2010 by Y Kiselev   (Norway)

Customer Rating :  4/5

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This is a review of the new Terminal D! New terminal D, built by Aeroflot for itself and SkyTeam partners, is a great step forward compared to the old terminals of Sheremetyevo. Almost every part of my experience was above the average expectations. However, there were some disappointing problems. At the time of my trip terminal navigation signs were somewhat a mess - handmade and quite unclear. Very few cafes or restaurants were actually opened. There seemed to exist no WCs at the general admission areas (check-in zone on the 3rd floor and arrivals waiting area on the 1st floor) - instead, one had to spend well some minutes to find its destination on the "technical" 2nd floor. Boarding area for domestic flights was clearly too small for the given number of passengers, but OK for 1 hour waiting time. But the most horrible part of all the journey involving Sheremetyevo airport was a transfer from terminal D to terminal F (formerly known as 2). We had to wait for the bus over 40 minutes, because the first ones were fully packed by passengers behaving like they were fighting for their very lives. To summarise, I have to admit that terminal D is a decent long-expected improvement, but SVO and Aeroflot have to do more to reach the level of similar-sized airports like Prague, Oslo or Santiago.

MOSCOW SHEREMETYEVO AIRPORT review :  1 February 2010 by R Alirezaieyan   (USA)

Customer Rating :  1/5

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This is the worst airport I have ever visited in my life. Going there to visit relatives, I step out of the plane into a brown colored air terminal that has clearly not been updated since Soviet times. I walk to Customs that takes an hour to get to and staff rude, unhelpful, and know no english. Fortunately, the man behind me knew Russian and English so he translated, and for reasons I don't know, they ask me where I was born. I reply Bandar-Gaz Iran and they pull me aside (even though I came with a US passport), start searching me and take me to the Chief (the only one who knew English apparently) and start asking me ridiculous questions such as, my home town, my alma mater, my affiliations, where I got my tickets, have I served in any military, my university major, what countries have I visited in the last six months. When I answer all these questions, they deliberate a little longer and check my name on several computers. Finally they let me go after an hour. When I get out, I find my family in a mess of people whom security gives no effort to control (they worry about finding terrorists more, like people from Iran). Store in Arrivals area is expensive and costs more to get a bottle of water than a Glass of Vodka and cigarettes. Restrooms filthy.

MOSCOW SHEREMETYEVO AIRPORT review :  19 January 2010 by R Knupfer   (Switzerland)

Customer Rating :  2/5

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The annoyance already starts at the immigration control point: endless queues, the passport check lasts an eternity, the border control staff is unfriendly and incompetent (unable to communicate in English); the services at this airport are unsatisfactory at all points. The restaurants available are extremely expensive and the food offered miserable - my advice: try to avoid SVO for arrival/departure during your trip to Moscow DME (Domodedovo) would definitely be a better alternative.

MOSCOW SHEREMETYEVO AIRPORT review :  11 January 2010 by N Fegley   (USA)

Customer Rating :  1/5

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Staff in Sheremetyevo Airport mean, prices in the stores are high and limited places to eat, walk and relax. I had to pay $20 for phone card to call my husband and made only one phone call, I talked only 2 minutes and my phone card was expired. I bought a bottle of water for $4 and never opened yet when security throw my water to the garbage. Security went through my baggage and checked each my close, and presents that I bought for my family. I didn't like this airport and I hope that I never have to fly through this airport again.

MOSCOW SHEREMETYEVO AIRPORT review :  9 January 2010 by K Jain   (UK)

Customer Rating :  1/5

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What a dire airport. No fruit or vegetables in sight. Nothing but Alcohol, Cigarettes and perfume. In fact a bottle of water would set you back $7 US compared to a bottle of alcohol costing $4. Ridiculous is the word to use! Full of cigarette smoke. I thought it was illegal to smoke in public places now - not in Moscow Airport obviously.

MOSCOW SHEREMETYEVO AIRPORT customer review : 19 October 2009 : by O Bana

Customer Rating : 1/5

Indeed one of the worst airports in the world, at least when talking about an international major hub! I hope to see improvements when terminal 3 comes into operation, but don't hold your horses on that one - they been promising it for years. The worst thing about this place is the endless waiting, just because someone cannot be bothered to do their work! Some survival tips for transfer passengers - don't allow less than 2 hrs for transfers (within the same airline, terminal) - ensure you are the first to exit the plane - run for the transfer desk (staffed by one lady and her younger colleague who thinks its more important to chat on her mobile than serve 3 plane loads just arriving) - be polite, patient and don't ask questions. Smile a lot! (seriously hard, but try). If you need water be prepared to spent 5 Euros for a tiny bottle.

MOSCOW SHEREMETYEVO AIRPORT customer review : 31 August 2009 : by Dorothea Bassett

Customer Rating : 1/5

This is an old, dirty and horrible airport. Okay so they are undergoing renovation at the time, but the impression is like going back in time to the soviet era! Staff unwilling to make any efforts to help you out - you better have some money, because neither one of the two money machines were willing to give out any currency at all! Toilets are filthy, only redeeming feature of Sheremetyevo is the new train station across the road - which is still under construction, but at least there you find clean modern facilities and new coffee shops and seats to rest in. But otherwise be aware - this is an old, battered and run down place! let's hope the renovations will eventually improve some of the most horrible aspects- the toilets!