Rossiya Airlines

Samarkand and St Petersburg. Check in took about 1 hour there was only a few people before us. The agent refused to check in our luggage until our final destination which was Paris. It took 20 minutes to explain that we could not check in them is St Petersburg because we had no visa for Russia. The boarding was very long and they made everybody go out to board the oldish 767. It took about 20 minutes standing outside at night to get into the plane. The crew were unpleasant there was no inflight entertainment. The food was okay if you want to eat fish at 4am. We had a 1 hour delay on arrival and it took 1 hour to get off from the aircraft by bus. The following flight between St Petersburg and Paris was also a bad experience.

I flew from St Petersburg after switching from the international to domestic airport. We all crowded on buses to get to the plane then we all rushed up the stairway to the plane with no lines no order no controls. The plane was full the seats were horribly tight I am only 5'11" but could not slouch even enough to let my head rest on the seat. The food was pretty bad though I was expecting worse. The lights kept flashing on and off getting bright dim flashing. It was about the longest 5 hours of my life.

FV245 LED-FRA 7/9/13. FV246 FRA-LED 14/9/13. Flew this airline last month to and from Frankfurt-Main on vacation. The fare was quite high but I had connection with other family members in FRA so had no choice. The Airbus A320 was okay satisfactory and clean. The seat pitch well I'm 1.82m and it is rare that an aircraft is comfortable for me this one wasn't but it's a common issue. The flight itself was okay the flight crew were informative. The cabin crew were terrible. Not a single smile. Unkind and impolite. Fellow passengers asked about the reasons for the delay and got a very rude answer. Inflight meal was awful as always. Can't review the ground staff since I had an internet check-in (which took me half an hour to deal with). The inbound flight was on time the return was 1.5 hours late. Transit passengers lost their connection flights. The bottom line is that this is the worst not low-cost company I have flown with.

Ekaterinburg - St Petersburg direct flight. Check in was fast and easy. Flight left and arrived on time. Aircraft was an Airbus 319 and I had good leg room. Flight attendant service was OK but in Russian. I did not test their English although announcements were bilingual. Breakfast was served but was fairly basic. There were some problems with offloading passengers at St Petersburg (not sure whose fault) and there was an apology from the chief steward for the delay. Luggage was waiting in the airport by the time we disembarked. While it was a three hour flight there was no inflight entertainment.

On a trip to Samarkand we chose Rossiya for the price. However the service is unacceptable. The comfort of the seat is horrible with a poor pitch. We had delay for all flights and the crew were unpleasant. In Samarkand it took 5 hours to leave the airport due to customs and immigration. Checking in the luggage for the return flight was long and unpleasant. They did not want to check them in to my final destination (Paris). It took about 20 minutes. Boarding took about 35 minutes outside in freezing temperatures.

TXL via LED to Tashkent and back from Astana via LED to TXL. Flight from TXL to LED in an Antonow was great. Flight back from Astana to LED on an Airbus 319 was horror for 4 hours. Even me as a short person could not stretch out my legs. The transfer at LED was a bit unusual. We had to change terminal our luggage could not checked through from TXL to Tashkent. We had to pick it up in St Petersburg. Because nobody spoke English and my Russian is very limited it was difficult to clear the matter with the luggage for the next flight (LED - Tashkent). In the end it worked fine with some unusual handling.

VIE-LED-DYU on 12th Aug 2012. Everything was OK. The price of the ticket was very low. All flights on time. Cabin crew friendly and nice. The food was OK. All planes were A319-Airbus but they were clean. My luggage was sent directly so I didn't have to pick it up at LED.

Online check-in did not exist so I had to use the desk even without bags. On-board experience was ok. The planes were very old B737-500 with non-existent legroom and An-148 where legroom was ok. The crews were mature but welcoming. Their English skills are very basic and announcements were just incomprehensible. Overall ok but very much post-Soviet style. All flights on schedule. For the price paid I could expect more civilised experience. I have never been able to accrue my Aeroflot Bonus miles on their flights despite them being a daughter business of Aeroflot. Overall very mediocre.

Flew Gatwick-LED-OVB have used this company a few times and have never had any serious problems. Flights have always arrived on time food and inflight service very decent. However flight was as usual on an old A319 Airbus that had seen better days and the legroom was a little tight (I am 5'10). Rossiya do not offer Echeck-in for international flights and you still have to collect and re-check baggage at each transfer which is annoying. Also still no in-flight entertainment. They do the important things well but need to modernise their fleet and operations. Overall very good value for money.

LED-AMS. E-checking doesn't exist so 40-minute line at airport. Onboard almost no room between seats very claustrophobic. FAs are average with no charisma. Flights on time. Hot breakfast is probably the only plus of this airline.