Aeroflot Russian Airlines

At Beijing we had about 2 hours of delay boarding an aged B767. After another 45 minutes captain said sorry today we do not fly: the plane is broken. By about 0430 in the morning the Aeroflot airport staff said to me that I must spend my night with an unknown other traveller. After having been sent to the miserable hotel at about 1330 next day I was able to leave Beijing to Moscow with a better A332 aircraft. Staff is incompetent and very rude. They just don't know a word of English and if you have a problem it remain a your problem. They have to learn a lot.

Moscow to Vladivostok. The worst flight I ever had chose economy as biz class is a rip off for domestic flight - service is terrible. I called many time the hostess for a glass of water during the night - no one came. No need to talk about food it was terrible. Service is like the food. My last experience with this airline (beside the one hour flight to St Petersburg I do regularly) I don't understand how they can be SkyTeam member.

Beijing- Moscow. The customer service is appalling! Unfriendly unhelpful and rude staff! Tried to call service helpdesk in Moscow and no one would answer the phone or speak sufficient English. They have a long way to go to improve customer experience.

Kiev-Moscow-JFK. Experienced more of the same disorganization that I saw on my previous flights. I have found that flight attendants to not enforce the rules because they are half the size of their very pushy customers. Flight smooth except for passengers attempting to remove heavy bags and dragging every other object out of the overhead with it. Upon landing in JFK we were delayed getting to our gate. While we were stopped passengers got up and got their bags and raced for the exit. There was no effort made to stop them because of the size difference with the FA's. Plane was new and seats were reasonably comfortable. I feel sorry for Aeroflot staff having to deal with stubborn and highly combative passengers. Aeroflot tickets are cheap enough to entice me to fly with them again even if the passengers act like a mob.

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.