Pobeda Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | Stansted to St Petersburgh via Moscow. Pobeda cancelled my flight back from Moscow for my trip in October 2018 without giving me a reason despite me asking why it was cancelled. I had already incurred visa and hotel costs based on them providing an acceptable service therefore a refund was not acceptable. I can also not take a refund and book another flight as I booked well in advance and flights are now 4-5 times the price. I also cannot travel on another day as my visa expires and I have important plans the day before. Compensation is also not an option as apparently I would have to send a letter in the post to Russia and wait for a reply in the post. Knowing the time it takes to post things to and from Russia, and the time it takes Pobeda to handle even the simplest requests I would be lucky to hear back from them before Christmas. Therefore I asked them to find a flight for me provided by one of their other group members as any other respectable airline would and eventually after multiple expensive phone calls they reluctantly put the request through. Aeroflot has multiple flights on that day available. However after 10 days I have received no updates. Figuring that 10 days was more than enough time to process such a simple request I rang them once again to find out what was happening. They could still not tell me why the flight was cancelled and apparently it was impossible to find out what was happening with the request or how long it would take. When I asked to speak to someone who could sort the situation out, as their call centre was useless, they promptly hung up on me. I then contacted Aeroflot about the situation and they were quick to deny any liability as Pobeda "is not their problem", despite it being their direct subsidiary. I couldn't possibly imagine receiving that response if I rang Lufthansa up with a complaint about Eurowings for example. This has been the worst customer service I have ever experienced.

✅ Trip Verified | Travelling by Pobeda from Moscow Vnukovo to Krasnodar on Sep 15th. Vnukovo Airport is easy and comfortable. This is also the main hub of Pobeda. Pobeda, being a lowcoster, does not use jetways and they bring the passengers to the plane by bus. No problem with if it is managed professionally. I was boarding the bus at 16:05 (not the first one) and leaving the bus to board the plane at about 16:45. So rather than efficiently managing the boarding, they simply bring people to the bus far too early and let the passengers to wait there for next 40 min. (or more). As you know, there is a very limited number of seats in airport buses. In an overcrowded bus there were elderly people and mothers with a small kids standing all that time and waiting. Pobeda, by managing the boarding in this way, demonstrates its unfriendly customer attitude. They clearly missed the fact that the whole experience from the flight does not start when boarding the plane and when leaving the plane.

✅ Trip Verified | Cologne to St Petersburgh. Starting with my booking some weeks ago the experience was quite normal, booked a cheap flight with a low-cost carrier. After reading the baggage allowance, I noticed I must pay an additional fee to take my trolley with me up to 10kg, everything was fine. Some days before my flight, I wanted to check-in online to save time at the airport. It was time for the first surprise, online check-in was only available for flight departing from VKO in Moscow. Okay never mind so I took a train earlier and arrived two hours before at the airport. There was already the big queue because only three desks were opened. I was wondering what all people doing with this blue “bagsizers”, how they call it. The carry-on item is only allowed to be 36x30x27cm, if the item is only one cm bigger, you must pay. Yes, for them it is not longer a fee they changed the wording to “punishment”, fair enough. The check in agent was very unfriendly and does not say anything like: “Have a good flight”, etc. There were just waiting for possibilities to punish you with an additional fee. Walking to the gate, I checked Flightradar and saw that our airplane is at least thirty minutes delayed. No information, nothing! Boarding was planned at 18:30 and surprise, the boarding call started at 18:30, I was wondering how it is possible to board if the airplane has not even landed. Again the information if your hand luggage and Duty Free Item does not fit in the “bagsizer” you have to pay a punishment of 30,-€ and of course it was again checked, because your bag may have increased while shopping in the airport. After boarding you were squeezed in a very small part at the airport and waiting for the airplane, so you had to stand one hour until boarding via bus started. And there was no information at all, old people, family with children etc. had to stand one hour queued. Finally, we reached the aircraft, at least it was a modern aircraft, again unfriendly staff guided you to boarding as fast as possible. Again, an information for you, take the seat on your boarding pass, even if there are free seats, if you changed the seat it was time for - exactly! Another punishment. No seat pockets are usual in low-cost carriers, no problem at all but I was wondering where the menu card is? Maybe they handle them after departure to the passengers. After the seatbelt signs were switched off the flight attendants distributed their inflight magazine, but it wasn’t more than an advertising paper. Some experienced passengers began to call the flight attendants, because if you press the Call Button they will bring you a small glass with water free of charge. But there was no Board Bistro, Board Shop, nothing. So, if you did not take anything with you, you may fly hungry or thirsty. Strange business policy, normally low-cost carrier earn money buy selling products on board. But Pobeda airlines policy is to punish you as most as possible. For me it was the first and last time flying that airline, for me it is the worst airline in the world.

✅ Trip Verified | Moscow to Milan. I am used flying low cost companies in Europe and Asia, but had the worst experience possible with Pobeda. I had a small backpack only with my headphone, a computer and a jacket and it could not fit in the cabin baggage size. I was forced to pay for my backpack, but after this, they did not checked in my bag because they were out of time!! So I paid to take the bag with me. The staff is unfriendly and can not speak English, even for the World Cup. I will never fly this company again.

✅ Trip Verified | Samara to Moscow. I've flown a lot of budget airlines in my life, but I've never flown one as bad as this. At check-in we were told to put our cabin bag into a metal container to see whether it fit the cabin bag policy. It did, fantastic. Not our first time on a budget airline as we made sure ours was compliant. But then the our check-in person tried to close a lid on our bag! At first we were a bit confused, then we we realised that our Ryanair/Easyjet/Air Asia cabin sized bag had to fit into this tiny box (I've attached some pictures) which I honestly doubt a standard sized knapsack could fit into. We then realised we weren't alone in complaining about this. The staff were unsurprisingly unhelpful and told us it was in the T&C's. After much scrolling, we found it and by the way, it's not obvious. The only suggestion was the stated dimensions of the hand luggage which gave it way. Hence, we and essentially 95% of the flight had to march to the office on another floor to purchase check-in luggage allowance. If you want to limit cabin luggage to tiny dimensions, make it explicit so consumers can make an informed choice. Fellow travellers, don't make my mistake.

✅ Trip Verified | . Flying from Moscow to St.Petersburg on May 7th. My first Pobeda experience, but flying regularly with EasyJet, Ryanair and WizzAir. Compare to those Pobeda seems to be a bit too much low cost (in terms of service). The boarding started on time and then waiting 30 min in the bus (not a nice experience at 6 am). Seats do not have even any seat pocket so you have to keep your newspapers (or anything else) on your knees. I felt that except of the compulsory safety procedure the main purpose of the cabin crew is to make sure no one is asking for anything. Absolutely no service offered and no presence in the cabin during the flight. Price not that attractive given the service. Flight was on time. Overall, an unfriendly airline.

✅ Verified Review | Moscow Vnukovo to Milano Bergamo. I flew with Pobeda today. I bought an access to business lounge at Vnukovo Airport and this lounge was not existing (or nobody at the airport know something about it). Priority boarding was not called and a great confusion was generated at the boarding desk. The inflight experience was less than a standard low cost, the cabin was dirty and the seat doesn't have any pocket to stow a book. A terrible experience, in the end my final judgment is more than awful.

✅ Verified Review | Moscow to Sochi. This is the worst airline I flew! It is hard to buy a ticket without making a mistake. They offer you a different day. You have to be careful before confirming a ticket. You have to pay extra even if you carry notebook. Not possible to call them for free.

✅ Verified Review | I have had many experiences commuting between Germany and Russia for the past 20 years. Yesterday I finally made my maiden flight with Pobeda Airlines. I purchased most of the options offered by Pobeda such as XL legroom (Row 15), Priority Boarding, Cabin Baggage etc. The final price with all the Extras incl. Credit Card charges was about 14.000 RUB or 240 EUR within less than 24 hours prior to departure which is quite close to the cheapest Aeroflot Y-class fare if booked one week in advance. (The next day flight for the same route was about 4.000 RUB / less than 100 EUR by the way!) in general, Pobeda met and even over-met all my expectations. Booking was easy and less time consuming than most of the airlines I have traveled before, Check-in agent (AHS) provided fairly good service (three counters open), Gate D40 (terminal position, bridged) dedicated to DP at CGN airport is right in the middle of T2 with two integrated immigration control counters. One minus - gate is a bit small to accommodate 189 PAX with no snack / beverage service or vendor machine. I purchased optional Priority Boarding in advanced, but finally decided to board with last passengers (189 in total, 100% load factor) in order to check capacity of the overhead bins to accommodate all the hand luggage - surprisingly there were more than enough space for all 189 passengers personal belongings. Inflight crew did really an excellent job to get all the passengers satisfied. All four girls served all three hours of flight time long with no interruption providing water, helping passenger with infants, etc. Seats are slim and very comfortable. I used to travel Aeroflot business class for the past 7 years, and my impression was that my Pobeda XL seat at Row 15 provided slightly more space that Aeroflot's business class. Deboarding at VKO was really fast over the front and rear doors. All in all - I would definitely recommend Pobeda to all my friends/colleagues.

✅ Verified Review | Moscow to Cheboksary with Pobeda Airlines. The price was around £50 return ticket + £25 for an extra hand luggage. Pobeda's website was excellent for booking tickets, and what I liked was that all fees and charges were communicated in a very clear and user-friendly way. Check-in at Moscow VKO was done effectively, in a friendly manner. At Cheboksary the check-in was a bit messy, as airport was very small, though still fast and friendly. The planes on both legs were new Boeing 737-800's. Although seats did not recline, legroom was fine. No food was served during flights, but FA offered water at any call. Staff was all about speed and efficiency and were very good at it. All in all, a very good low-cost airline.