Aeroflot Russian Airlines

Peking-Munich in Business. A good experience. New A330/A 319 planes clean and good seats. New lie-flat seat on 330 wasn't really flat but perfectly fine for a daytime flight. The real surprise was the 319 which has "proper" business class seats even on this short three-hour flight (i.e. four seats in a row rather than the usual six seats with the middle seat kept free). Good selection of food and drinks. Plenty of IFE (about 50 movies to choose from and on-demand even on the short-haul sector). Most staff didn't speak too much English but perfectly fine to get the job done. The only letdown was Moscow airport. Yes the terminal building has been refurbished to international standards but the many uniformed people barking at you in Russian and the organisational chaos are still a nuisance. No customer service culture there. I chose Aeroflot on price and got very good value for money.

I booked a London to Tokyo flight via Moscow as it was the cheapest fare and the journey time was good. We booked vegetarian meals and confirmed these via the booking agent Opodo. However when checking in it became apparent we had no vegetarian meal. The stewards on the first leg were great and rustled up a vegetarian meal for us they were good and I started to wonder what all the bad reviews were about. However during the next leg it was obvious - the staff never smiled and were not helpful with our vegetarian request. The inflight entertainment was not great a few new movies - it was a laugh to see movies from the 70's though. The return leg was not great we didn't even bother asking about the vegetarian meal as I couldn't face the stern expression on the steward. It was not a pleasant journey. Aeroflot is much cheaper than other airline and I would recommend it as it did the trick we arrived safely. So if you are happy to forego smiling staff have a passion for old Russian films and do not want vegetarian food you will love Aeroflot!

BRU-SVO-LED PEK-SVO-BRU. Short haul flights with A320. Lots of legroom new planes. Long haul flight with new A330-300 legroom ok but bad seats who got pretty painful after a while good IFE with pretty good selection of movies. General comments : staff is good but not too enthusiastic. Food average. You have to pay for alcoholic drinks on long haul flights (alcohol banned on some flights).

Moscow DME to Saint Petersburg. Check in was easy. Friendly smiling cabin staff who could communicate at a basic level in English. They passed out candy before takeoff and a mid-flight snack of tea/coffee apple juice and some sort of wafer dessert - distributed newspapers as well. Seating was comfortable with plenty of room.

Seoul-Moscow-Warsaw return. Great fare (just 845USD roundtrip) great food onboard. Some delays on both legs but that didn't bother me much. Good news is that Moscow airport has been renewed Wi-Fi and clean air (smoking allowed only in special cabins). They've banned alcohol on board so no more drunk passengers and fights for seats!

I just returned from a tradeshow in the Ukraine. Aeroflot offered the best fare and connections from Nice (via Moscow) so I took a chance - begrudgingly. Brand-new airbus aircraft smiling cabin crew leather seats and plenty of legroom. The crew came and greeted me to thank me for flying them - a nice touch. The food was good - even in Economy. Shrimp smoked salmon a lovely cod dish - very unexpected.

LED-SVO. During this one hour journey the crew managed to serve newspapers drinks (with coffee/tea) plus a nice sandwich. New A320 everything went smoothly. Recommend on this busy route between 2 Russian main cities.

LHR-Moscow. On arrival asked if possible to have an exit row seat. Was advised of a €45 charge which was then waived which was a nice start. Aircraft then boarded one hour late and one hour taxi/waiting to take off which made it 2 hrs delayed. Cabin crew efficient but poor command of English. Good leg room/comfort with food as expected on an Economy ticket although alcohol has to be paid for.

Istanbul-Moscow-Tokyo (Narita) Economy. Was not expecting much when I purchased the cheapest one way ticket I could find. Check-in at Istanbul despite having a 20 mins wait was friendly and easy. Flight to Moscow delayed 30 mins but the cabin interior was clean and brand new if a bit spartan (no inflight entertainment). Still the seats were comfy and the flight attendants courteous. Moscow-Tokyo leg was great. The seats were comfortable flight attendants friendly and everything went smoothly. My only real complaint is that the choices on the inflight entertainment on this leg were slim but at least it was there.

Heathrow to Shanghai via Moscow. London-Moscow flight was pleasant on a modern plane with plenty of leg room and as a short haul flight works well. However from landing in Moscow to reaching Shanghai was awful. Transit through Moscow is embarrassing - one desk with rude and unpleasant staff. I advise you to run off your plane if you have a quick connection because I have no doubt that they don't co-ordinate transit passengers and the plane would leave without you no effort made to fast-track those with short connections. One desk one security machine. The plane from Moscow to Shanghai was late and outdated with less legroom than the short haul flight from London no entertainment and food that was awful. Unfriendly cabin crew. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Yes it is cheap but there is a reason why it is cheap.