Aeroflot Russian Airlines

Hong-Kong-Moscow and Moscow-Shanghai. I have to say out of all international airlines I've flown Aeroflot is the most out of date with their entertainment technology. The seats while old were leather and soft and I slept for the first time on a flight. Hong-Kong to Moscow was 1.5 hrs late due to winter storms. Trip to Shanghai was on time and the plane almost empty so every passenger could occupy an entire row. The food was average and the staff do not smile but that's just the culture. I would fly with them again one of the better airlines in the cheaper price bracket.

Aeroflot are not a bad airline though I do feel that for the most part it's fleet and it's service offerings are several years behind those of the competition. I flew Barcelona - Moscow and was swayed by the price. The first leg was in a fairly new airbus A319 with comfortable seats and a clean interior. The only thing of note was the general demeanour of the crew who did nothing to make me feel welcome and were almost hostile in their dealing with the passengers. The pre-flight safety demonstration was multi-language and clear and I found most of the crew spoke English with no problem. In flight refreshments offered were a variety of fruit juices only. Alcoholic drinks are not available though after almost pleading I did get a diet coke. The meal was among the worst I have tasted in my many years of flying. The second leg Moscow-Shanghai was a real eye opener. The Aeroflot website shows that this flight is operated using one of its newer A330 aircraft with in seat entertainment but checking the entertainment listings I found that they been updated for 4 months. Not important of course but an indication of the haphazard approach to service. When I actually boarded I found that the flight is actually operated by (and has always been) by one of the airlines older Boeing 767 aircraft. Aeroflot Boeing 767's are much older than the rest of their fleet and come with little in the way of comfort or amenities. None of our seats or others around us would recline more than 2 or 3 cms. Walking up and down it was clear that no seats offered any noticeable ability to recline. They also had no adjustable headrests. All in all it was a very uncomfortable 11 hour flight. Added to the discomfort was the fact that there was no personal entertainment offered. The aircraft used the old system of large screens placed above the seats around every 10 rows. There were movies played - in Russian often with English subtitles however the quality of the screens and the placement made it an unpleasant experience. Once again the refreshments and food were very disappointing. The omelette breakfast was the only edible thing I had all other food was very poor. The staff on this second flight were more attentive than those previously. My return journey was merely a reverse of the outbound - equally as uncomfortable and equally poor food. The only significant difference was that I had coffee poured over me by one of the cabin crew who gave me a towel to dry my now soaking trousers but still failed to apologize or help in any other way and finally they lost my luggage and once located failed to get it to me for almost a week.

I flew Moscow SVO to Helsinki with Aeroflot I'm very happy with the service very helpful staff. Spacious Economy Class and a very good value for more than an hour flight. No delays on time.

Moscow-Volgograd round trip on new and clean 737 & Airbus 330 planes. Check-in and inflight service was excellent in spite of our very limited Russian skills. Good inflight meals at no charge. We had switched our overseas flight from Aeroflot to Delta because of poor Aeroflot reviews (should not have done that). The return Moscow-JFK Delta flight was 3 hrs late causing many on the plane to miss connections at JFK while two Aeroflot planes left on time and made their connections. SVO terminal was beautifully clean modern and bilingual with efficient service in stark contrast to the poor arrival image given by JFK.

Omsk-Moscow-St Petersburg. Small problems with check-in at Omsk and only received one boarding pass. Breakfast was good and the service leisurely for a 3 hrs plus flight. Plane was full and the flight left and landed on time. Was surprised that they had an English language paper on board. This is an improvement on previous internal flights. Moscow-St Petersburg is a short 80 min flight and received a quick and light second breakfast which was just adequate for this flight. Again the flight left and landed on time.

SVO-BKK in Business Class and was quite surprised. Flight attendants are 40+ ladies but cool and friendly food was very good even though it was a low calorie pre-order meal. The plane was without individual IFE but we received portable movie players with a decent selection. Overall on-board experience was great while airport experience was so-so. Business lounge at Sheremetyevo airport was awful with plastic forks almost no food available no A/C. Aeroflot Business Class is a very good value for money.

New York-Moscow to Delhi return. On our way to Moscow we found the flight attendants to be rude and unhelpful (and of course not smiling). During the 7 hr layover we became concerned about the mere 1 hr layover on our return trip. It sounded good when we booked it but realizing that we would have to run through security and the length of the airport to get to our flight we didn't think it would be possible. We stopped to ask a woman behind a customer service desk and she said "yes not enough time" waved her hand at us and we were dismissed. Getting onto the plane to Delhi we realized our seats were not together. We once again tried to get an answer and was ignored. Very unhelpful and rude. For the return flight we had to change flights in the office in Delhi. Come to find out that there was another flight out of Moscow with a 3 hour layover. We switched to that flight. The office workers in Delhi were also cold and rude. As it turns out by the time we landed from Delhi in Moscow and got to the terminal to fly out that 1 hour layover flight had already left. We would have been stranded in Moscow for who know how long because nobody would have acknowledged our existence let alone get us onto a flight. Oh and did I mention I had ordered veg. meals? On the way to Delhi I did receive delicious meals on the return flights no such luck. I had bread.

FRA-SVO-OVB. New and spotless A320 plane. Comfortable seats and decent food on both legs. Colleagues had warned me about SVO but found Terminal D in SVO to be first class: very efficient good signage good services. Both planes late by 30 mins but that's about the only negative thing I can say. All in all a good value for money.

SVO-HKG (return) in April 2011. I decided to take this trip because Aeroflot recently replaced old fleet on this route with new Airbus A330 and because ticket was quite cheap. The plane is really good food and service are good too. On both legs boarding was efficient and flights arrived on time. The drawback is departing from old terminal F while most Aeroflot flights depart from new terminal D. Check-in and security are much easier in D.

I use Aeroflot pretty often on my flights from Los Angeles to Moscow and domestic flights to Russian Far East. Food is great new A330-200 entertainment systems are very good with a big choice of movies. I am loyal to SkyTeam and was forced to used Delta a few times on my journeys to Russian. I realize that Aeroflot staff do not smile always but other things compensate for it. I'd rather not be hungry and bored with okay staff then be hungry and bored onboard of Delta planes.