ROSSIYA RUSSIAN AIRLINES  Passenger Reviews and Passenger Trip Reports

ROSSIYA RUSSIAN AIRLINES customer review :  12 January 2010 by S Smith (Australia)

Helsinki to St Petersburg - short flight, 2hrs or so. Seat pitch was fine, plane was exceptionally old, still had ash trays, smelt of musky smoke, must have been flying in the 1960's. Flight staff dont speak English, only Russian which was ok, no need to talk to them. Flight was delayed by an hour or so due to snow. Actual flight was a bit scary... never been scared on any flight before but Rossiya Air brings about a whole new flying experience. I probably would fly them again if I was desperate or on a tight budget, otherwise fly BA or Finnair.

ROSSIYA RUSSIAN AIRLINES customer review :  20 December 2009 by Per Urban (Sweden)

STO-LED Boeing 737. Efficient flights, but be prepared for a strange service concept. You are offered a non-alcoholic drink, tea/coffee and a chocolate bar, regardless of its early morning flight or a late night one. It's a short flight, so you might survive anyway, but in this respect I prefer the competitor on this destination, SAS, where you can at least choose what you want to buy.

ROSSIYA RUSSIAN AIRLINES customer review :  15 November 2009 by Denis Chistyakov (UK)

LGW-LED-LGW. Usually I fly BA but the ticket price with Rossiya was much cheaper than usual. I booked 3 days before departure, e-ticket as standard. Flight from Gatwick, registration quick and easy. Outbound flight an A320, approx 40% filled. Seat pitch excellent. The interior look is slightly tired but seats are nice. Inbound flight an old ex-Aer Lingus B737-500, filled to 80% capacity. Aircraft interior in a tired state. Food great as it was a typical Russian mash potato with beef. As an overall evaluation, very good value for money.

ROSSIYA RUSSIAN AIRLINES customer review :  31 December 2008 : by A Nushanya

A frequent flyer with GTK Rossiya since I have to travel a lot within CIS and Europe. Recently I have decided to give up the choice in favour for this airline for good. First and major issue is there online booking service. Even if you have booked a flight online and you cc was charged it does not mean you are done. Often flights are being cancelled. Customer service do not even bother to inform the passengers about the changes in advance, they just rebook you for another flight on another date (that happens!) and then refuse to make a full refund if you decide to completely cancel your itinerary due to the fact they have cancelled the flight on exact date you needed. To reach their head office in St Petersburg by phone is a nearly impossible mission since it is permanently busy. Reaching customer support toll free number is useless since they will anyway send you out for a personal visit to their office. As you can imagine it is very handful for business travellers. Visit to the office is a guaranteed 2 hours waiting in a queue. A typical Russian service for a not so cheap price after all. They do not have to care about customers satisfaction since they will anyway hold up to 60% of the market. There are basically only two sufficient airlines in Russia - Rossiya and Aeroflot. Both state owned and both with beyond bad approach to customers. Unfortunately no other choice. Its a shame that a huge country like Russia with distances of up to 10000 km from Central to Far East destinations can not offer its citizens an airline we could be proud of. Do not fly with Rossiya Airlines unless you have no other choice of course.

ROSSIYA AIRLINES review :  25 November 2008 : by B Vincent

LED-MMK. Booked on the internet, but had to pick up paper ticket in person which was a bit of a drag. Airport security at Pulkovo 1 was thorough. Only a single check-in desk but once it was opened, it moved quickly - also did not require carry-on baggage to be weighed (as stated in the "small print"). The aircraft was a TU134, in good condition, and reasonably comfortable despite a tight 29 inch seat pitch - I was delighted to have the opportunity to fly in this classic plane. A snack and tea/coffee were served on this short flight, which departed on time and arrived ahead of schedule.

Rossiya Airlines - by Dmitry Gorodenskiy

3 December 2006

A major carrier serving St Petersburg (formerly Pulkovo Airlines). I was flying LED-CDG route on them and the airline is mediocre. Not bad actually but if you compare it to Air France, ageing Boeing, attendants looking tired, nothing special meal. But what can you expect from the ticket cost round trip 150$? Nothing special, indeed.