Transaero Airlines

LAX to VKO and back in premium economy class. No inflight entertainment (unless you are willing to pay $40-50 for portable player) and no duty free shopping. Water is not served often only two time during 11 hr flight. Restrooms were gross. The flight from Moscow was even worse. The check-in line was insane since it was the check in line for all the passengers flying to the USA (LA NYC and Miami). Also the flight was delayed about 3 hr. The airline didn't bother communicating this information to the passengers the screen at the airport was showing boarding during the whole time. Some passengers behavior was very uncivilized. Cheap ticket - cheap service. Planes are very old.

Was sold a premium economy seat for the first leg of my journey (Beijing to Moscow) but when boarding noticed that I had been allocated an economy seat. After enquiring with one of the stewards was told that there are no premium economy seats on that flight.

LHR-VKO-LHR. Outbound delayed for over 3 hours next to no information given as to why. On board truly miserable service the 'food' was almost tossed out and accompanied by soft drinks only. After clearing the food no further sign of the crew until landing. Return leg was an almost empty plane but service still at best robotic with only one drinks run in the 4 hour flight. If this is 'most improved' on the skytrax rankings I shudder to think what it was before. Go with easyjet to Russia you may have to pay for food and drinks but you can at least choose something edible and have a more pleasant experience.

16.10.2014 Yekaterinburg to Bangkok. Our flight was scheduled at 0.40 AM in the morning and it was delayed to 1.20 AM due to late arrival of airplane from Bangkok. We found seats very tight my husband is 1.80m tall and he struggled to move. Impossible to stretch his legs at all. Food was alright nothing spectacular. Cabin staff work well but not one of them speaks English - if not for my help my English speaking husband would not able to ask for a glass of water. There is no entertainment for foreigners - only movies in Russian. No individual PTV screens only big screens hanging from the ceiling therefore you can not select a movie. Was very hot in the cabin. In general flight was okay got us to Bangkok main problem was the tight seats.

I have flown for over 50 years and have been to more than 60 countries this is the worst airline I have ever flown on. The gate attendant asked us to give up our seats (window aisle and aisle seats) for a family wanting to sit together and if we did they would upgrade us. To our surprise our new seats were in the middle of the middle row at the back of the plane. The inflight entertainment computer left me with little foot room while blowing hot air on my feet. The IFE for everyone on the flight was out of order. All food and beverages (other than coffee or tea) was room temp. Only one alcoholic beverage (wine only) for the flight was allowed this was served with your dinner. No ice for drinks. I tried to move to one of the last two rows (18 seats) that were empty but I was not allowed due to fact that 4 flight attendants were sleeping. The flight attendants locked the bathroom by the galley for their own use. The other bathrooms ran out of toilet paper and degraded into something worse than a porta john after an outdoor concert on a 100 degree day. After some time a flight attendant brought 2 rolls of TP for 6 bathrooms and gave the rolls to the last person in line. The flight attendants somehow could not understand English if you asked a question but they could speak English if they demanded something from you.

My LH flight VKO-FRA (continuing to VIE) was cancelled and so I was rebooked on Transaero on a direct flight to VIE. Had low expectations but was totally caught by surprise when I entered the pretty new 737-800: Their C-class is a real C-class with 2-2 seat configuration perfect seat pitch lunch menu and utmost pleasant and friendly service. I took Japanese rolls as a starter and a grilled seabass as main course. Food looked appealing and tasted delicious. Entertainment was low but on a 3 hours flight not an issue - at least not for me. Will be definitely an option for future flights to Moscow and beyond.

I booked a flight LED-DME-PKC and back. When I arrived to the airport there was a huge lane and I almost missed my flight as check-in was as fast as 1 person per 15 minutes and the staff was unfriendly and was not speaking English at all. During the first flight one cracker and that's it staff unfriendly as well. Transfer on DME quite ok but during the 85 hour flight there was no entertainment as the screens were not working. Food was surprisingly above average but the staff was not speaking English again. Flight back was really terrible no entertainment and as there was light outside you could not sleep either. The food this time was disgusting and cold and staff (again) not speaking English. After arrival (1 hour late) my connecting flight was supposed to leave in 50 minutes. When I came to the gate which was switched 3 times until I've finally got to the right one the flight was for unknown reasons delayed 30 minutes.

Prior to this trip I had only ever used Aeroflot or Korean Air to reach Vladivostok from the USA and vice versa. As this trip was university-related and was paid for by my Russian university they naturally bought the cheapest tickets possible-Transaero. The trip from Vladivostok to Moscow was on a relatively new 777 with good personal IFE and decent food with reasonable legroom. When I arrived in Moscow I expected the Moscow-New York flight to be even better than the domestic flight. Boy was I wrong. The plane from Moscow-Vnukovo to NY-JFK was an old 767 with no personal IFE. The one plus side was a lot of leg room but it was a long flight with no IFE and rude staff. The return trip to Moscow was pretty much the same but when we arrived in Moscow and switched airports there was a slight problem. They had accidentally deleted our group from their flight manifest! We showed them the e-tickets and out boarding passes from the previous flights. They re-booked us on the same flight and gave us a free upgrade for their mistake which was nice. the flight back to Vlad was great with great IFE and food. Overall not bad for the price but I still will use Korean Air for my personal journeys back and forth from Vladivostok to the USA.

St Petersburg-Moscow DME on board of a B733. Flight left and arrived on time. Cabin was clean and in good condition. FA's did their job but as usual in Russia don't expect a smile. Got tea and a cookie but what would you expect on a one hour flight. Overall Transaero is a reasonable Airline in my opinion and I would fly them again on domestic flights in Russia.

Flights from St Petersburg to Moscow are now from the Pulkovo New Terminal. Comfort Lounge (business lounge not available) is awful. It's worse than regular space. No food no beverages (only water and coca cola). Dirty chairs only instant coffee.