Aeroflot Russian Airlines

Moscow to Seoul with Aeroflot. I had trouble at Moscow Sheremetyevo airport at check-in on 27th January my seat booking could not be found even though I had rung the day before and was assured I had a confirmed seat. I was sent to Domestic terminal D to a Korean Air office that did not exist - I rang the airline and again was told my seat was booked and confirmed and after going to the service desk at Terminal D being yelled at by a charming girl I did receive help and a man from Aeroflot escorted me back to Terminal F. I had 4 attendants then check me in and one was waiting at the gate to see that I was OK and to tell me to checkin again at Seoul for my flight to Sydney. The flight was fine food was good and the service was fine. Russian airports are very difficult at the best of times I only speak a little Russian but I have travelled with Russians and it is also difficult when there are problems for them as customer service is terrible one. Russia is not a country where it is easy to travel - at airports there is often no trolleys no one who speaks English and rude service.

My first experience with Aeroflot has been really awful. December 26th Moscow Sheremetyevo to Beijing but due to the bad weather many flights including mine are cancelled. Aeroflot is unable to cope with the passengers requests for clarification and the assistant who manages the Transit office is only able to say that she cannot tell anything to anybody and that passengers should just hear the announcements and watch the displays. Needless to say the announcements are barely audible and spoken in a language which hardly resembles English and the displays report incorrect information. We happen to discover by chance that Aeroflot dispenses meal vouchers which passengers are able to receive only after long and exhausting queues. The worst part is when the flight Moscow-Beijing is actually announced at 1630 on December 27th. No information is given as to who is allowed to access the airplane and this causes chaos at the gate. After some time rumors spread that only passengers with a ticket for Dec 27th flight will be admitted as well as some people with the ticket for the Dec 26th flight. After a couple of hours in wait at the gate an announcement of an Air China flight to Beijing has the result to disperse part of the crowd mostly Chinese but when we go to the gate joining the others we notice that the monitor at the gate reports a flight to Antalya. Therefore we go back to the Moscow-Beijing gate and after pushing and shoving we are admitted into the airplane with no apparent logic while other passengers are left behind. What has happened is really beyond comprehension and I discourage anyone from flying Aeroflot which is the worst company that I have used in my entire life.

JFK-Moscow-Kiev. Food and drink were free unlike many American carriers and found the food to be quite good. I did experience a horrible lack of organization and enforcement of the rules. No one would take their seat and flight attendants would not intervene to get things moving faster. Thus my flight from JFK was 20 minutes late taking off. Other than that the service was professional. Dinner was served quickly along with several rounds of drinks none of which were alcoholic. During landing I experienced the same disorganization and lack of enforcement of rules. When were on final approach to Moscow a woman entered the bathroom and would not leave. There was some attempt at removing her but not nearly enough. The flight to Kiev was more of the same passengers refused to take their seats until the plane was actually moving. There as little to no attempt by the crew to seat them. Our flight was delayed over a half hour because of this. Inflight service was good perhaps better than the flight between JFK to Moscow. Despite the short flight a meal was served and drinks came frequently. Overall my complaint was the lack of effort to get the passengers seated. The flight attendants knew enough English to make ordering food and drinks easy despite me not knowing a word of Russian.

It seems the common thread with most fliers on Aeroflot is that planes and flight service is good but the Airport in Moscow is no where near international standards. I agree! I flew one way from Yerevan Armenia to Moscow and on to Los Angeles. New Airbus planes good leg room and above average meals. The flight crew seemed like they would rather be elsewhere and were not very interested to assist when someone had taken my seat. I had to stand for a while and then took matters into my own hands and found another seat.

Oslo - Moscow - St Petersburg return. Fine crew meals and planes. Boarding in A319 in Oslo took some 40 minutes most of which were spent inside the aircraft waiting for other passengers to take their seats - thanks to lack of management and guidance from the cabin crew. Due to this arrived to Sheremetyevo D with a 35 minutes delay cutting my connection time down to 40 minutes. Passport control /customs very fast. Waited for luggage about 15 minutes. Ran to the transfer desk where two of the three staff said they can offer re-booking for a later flight to LED. However the third representative was extremely helpful did few phone calls to warn the gate that I am coming and basically ran with me through the corridors carrying my luggage to the LED flight gate. Unfortunately the flight to LED was delayed people were standing at the gate for 40 minutes hearing no info but only "5 more minutes!". Finally the gate personal announced cancellation of the flight and we were rescheduled for the flight departing in 2 hours. On the way back from St Petersburg everything went smoothly I even did not need to pick up my luggage at Sheremetyevo for customs clearance. Service and flights were just great. Aeroflot does change for the better but has to put more effort into ground staff training and customer service. English training for the crew is necessary as well. As for lack of smiles - I guess this is simply a cultural feature - Russians generally reserve smiles for situations of fun and/or pleasure and apparently Aeroflot staff do not feel much of either at work.

I expected to fly from Moscow to Stockholm on December 26 2010 but the flight was first delayed several times and then cancelled. As a result I reached Stockholm on December 28 - after waiting in Sheremetyevo for more than 2 days and nights without any information food or lodging. The electronic screens displayed misleading information about many flights that were delayed or cancelled. I found out that my flight was about to depart merely by chance from my fellow travellers. After registration it was impossible to find any representative of Aeroflot in the international terminal D - they were just afraid to get out to the angry crowd and when they finally ventured they could not answer any questions and would not give their supervisors names. The new beautiful terminal is a mess without those who are responsible for customer service. I felt trapped and betrayed.

Amsterdam to Bangkok via Moscow Sheremetyevo. Amsterdam to Moscow can be compared to a flight with any European airline you get even a warm meal. Moscow to Bangkok was excellent service was good even though the crew did not speak good English. Announcements in English were very difficult to understand. You get a warm meal twice and in between drinks and snacks. The selection of drinks is awfully poor for a long haul flight. Aeroflot does not serve any alcohol on flights to Bangkok but they also have not replaced those alcohol drinks with anything else. You are served only Cola Fanta Sprite water tomato juice apple juice or orange juice tea and coffee. Inflight entertainment was excellent with many films and games as well as music. The only negative thing we could find was the fact that Russian passengers do not take safety matters very seriously. We heard mobile phones ringing and passengers going to use the toilet during approach! Apart from the routine announcements and checking seat belts the crew was not interested in telling passengers to behave.

Bangkok-Moscow-Prague and return. I tried Aeroflot again and my decision was made on the basis of the facts that they use new A330 on their longhaul which is a big step forward compared to their Il96 Russian aircraft and Aerflot flights and Skyteam partners moved to the newly opened Terminal E and D in Sheremetyovo which is supposed to shelter the passengers from the horrors of what is now called Terminal F. The flight from BKK was okay check in was problem free the boarding process was chaotic as usual and staff completely uninterested to help. To my horror we parked at the older terminal and it was the same story all over again. Horrible terminal with sad staff barking at passengers overcrowded old terminal with people sitting on the ground. I consider it as false advertising and clearly the airline lied as my reservations stated all flights were to fly to/from the new terminal. The A330 new and still clean onboard entertainment limited but okay a small number of films and a very limited music choice. The food was good and portions sufficient only one drink then totally zero cabin presence. After the meal the crew hid for at least 8 hours at the back of the plane and ignored many calls for service. They shamelessly kept hauling business class food for what it seems as their own private party at the back galley. Toilets filthy as no one checks on them. The same thing at the return flight. Beware that Aeroflot Bangkok flights are predominantly family oriented so there will be a large % of infants on board which can get very tricky with a plethora of babies yelling all through the red eye flight in unison. Aeroflot's greatest weakness is in its crew - sad robotic and no eye contact whatsoever. Thanks for the flight but I guess Ill give someone else my business until I see a considerable move forward from Aeroflot.

Athens to Moscow Sheremyetevo return. New A320 polite staff good food. Price was cheap. I would fly again with Aeroflot.

London-Moscow-Bangkok price way cheaper than competitors when we booked planes seemed pretty new decent choice of films music games etc so-so - food. Staff extremely unfriendly no alcohol in economy 3 hours in Moscow. Would always have to be way cheaper than better alternatives such as Thai Etihad Emirates for me to use them again. However much better than Royal Jordanian who we used to BKK last Christmas - they were truly appalling.