greg999
Aug 17, 08, 12:21 am
This is my first time writing a trip report and I took this trip back in May. I didn't take any pictures of the cabin but hopefully the text will be interesting to someone.
IAH - DME (and return) Singapore Airlines economy
I had flown singapore airlines once before in first class on a mileage award ticket, but this was my first time flying in economy class. I had an event to attend in Houston before my Russia trip so the newly introduced flight worked out perfectly for me. Singapore uses their newly configured 777-300 ER for this flight with the new business, first, and economy cabin. It is possible to upgrade only with singapore airlines miles at 40,000 miles oneway. I did have enough starwood points before they ended their relationship with singapore airlines but felt that was too many points to upgrade so decided to stay in economy. Of note the cheapest fares don't earn miles on mileage plus so I ended up paying about $200 more for a mileage earning (and upgradeable) fare.
As a star alliance gold I had access to the lounge. Singapore uses the BA lounge which has a decent selection of drinks (including shiner, one of the famous local Texas beers) but was fairly small. Near the gate there are various NASA pictures for decoration which was interesting to pass the time.
Although a coach flight will never be enjoyable Singapore's was one of the better economy flights I have taken. There is less legroom then economy plus but the entertainment was superior. They have a large screen with on demand video at each seat. Another nice design feature was the reading light was underneath the screen. It is more localized light so if you're trying to sleep and your seatmate wants to read there's less light pollution into your seat compared with an overhead reading light. The food was edible but nothing special (I didn't save the menu and can't remember the dish). The flight to Moscow was packed but I had an aisle seat so felt the legroom was fine. On the return flight there were many fewer passengers so by asking at check-in I got a row to myself.
I would say that if someone was flying to moscow from the U.S. I'd take singapore airlines coach over united economy plus with a connecting flight. Assuming you can get a aisle seat it will be a tolerable flight and the better entertainment makes it preferable.
In Moscow / Travelling to Star City
I stayed at the Sheraton Moscow which has been well reviewed on flyertalk and I can confirm it is a good hotel.
When researching my trip on flyertalk I found much helpful information but nothing on visiting star city, so I though I'd post my experiences for future visitors. Star city, also called the Yuri Gagarin cosmonaut training center (which seems to be it's preferred name for Russians, but they call it by the abbreviation GCTC) is about an hour from Moscow and is still used as an active training center for cosmonauts and US astronauts when training on Russian equipment. They have an English language website with some information (http://www.gctc.ru/eng/index.html)
Because of their financial problems the Russian space program has made various activities available on a sliding scale depending on how much one wants to pay. It can range from a simple tour of the facility all the way up to a private spaceflight for $20 million. In between are activities such as going on a simulated spacewalk in a pool and going in a centrifuge to simulate re-entry.
I tried booking a tour through the starwood platinum concierge. Originally they didn't know what I was talking about and just gave me information on standard city tours. Eventually after several calls they quoted a price of $1350 for a half day tour. This was $450 entrance fee, $450 for the driver, and $450 for the interpreter. (as an aside this was my first time trying out the platinum concierge and I wasn't impressed) This was out of my price range so I emailed star city directly and heard back from a Russian travel company called Vegitel plus. They were able to arrange a half day tour for $575 including the car, driver and interpreter. This was the per car price so it would be the same for 3 - 4 people as for one person. I wasn't able to find anyone to share the tour with so ended up paying the $575 for myself. The car was not luxury but was fine. For those who might want to do this the contact information was Igor Rudyae - Vegitel Plus Marketing Director +7 985 220 60 82 email irud@inbox.ru. I discussed with him over the phone once and the rest was through email. No deposit was required I paid the interpreter in cash (rubles) on the day of my tour)
It was about an hour drive to get to star city and the tour lasted about 2 - 3 hours. The tour guide was a former employee at star city and I was the only one on the tour. I saw the most powerful centrifuge in the world. It apparently can go up to 16 gs but that is for testing equipment as most humans can survive up to 9 gs (not sure if those numbers are correct as the tour was a few months ago). You can touch the outside of the centrifuge but not go inside it.
Other stops on the tour were the neutral bouyancy laboratory. This is a large pool with a submersible platform on which mock-ups of space equipment can be placed. There were no cosmonauts training the day that I was there but the workers were assembling a mock-up for future training.
I also saw the training area for soyuz simulators. This is a large hall where there are 3 different simulators. The guide said it used to be packed with computers but as the technology advanced there became much more open space. Two of the three were in use but I was able to stick my head inside the unused one. The guide did not let me sit inside the simulator, however.
The final stop was a mock-up of the former Mir space station. The hall also had survival equipments for emergency landings and space food.
Of note the current wired magazine (September) has an article on training for private space flight. Virtually everything pictured in that article was on the tour.
I did see some larger groups at the center, mainly Asians (Koreans according to the guide) in groups of 20 - 30. However, the timing was such so I was alone with my guide for part of the time at each stop.
Although expensive, I found it a fascinating tour and would highly recommend it for someone interested in space.
I had a great time in Moscow as well and would recommend it. There are two space sites in Moscow. One is the Cosmonaut Museum accessible by subway at the VDNK subway stop. Unfortunately it was closed and the area was under construction surrounding the museum so I'm not sure when it will re-open. If you do make a trip out there the VDNK exhibition site is an interesting example of communist architecture and worth a trip if you have extra days in Moscow although it's not a top tier site. The other space site is the Buran shuttle in gorky park. The Buran is a copy of the U.S. shuttle and made an unmanned orbital flight. This is an actual Buran shuttle that has been turned into an amusement park ride (I don't know if the one on display actually flew). The only original part left is the outer shell and it's not in a museum setting at all. It's probably not worth a special trip but if you're walking through that part of Moscow it's worth a 10 minute stop.
Other advice I'd give is that the subway is fast and cheap (I think around $2 a ride). The signs are only in Cyrillic so make sure you have a subway map with both English and Cyrillic (obtained before your trip). I also enjoyed going to the Bolshoi for a ballet so would advice this. I booked the ticket online before I left. I then gave the print-out to the box office several days before the show (speaking no Russian) and got my ticket.
I arranged for a car pickup from the airport and was very glad I did so. On return I decided to use the airport train to save money. It was not easy to find it as going from the subway station to the train station is not clear and was not marked in English. It was not obvious how to get to the train station from the subway, and even once inside the train station it wasn't obvious how to get onto the airport train. I did make it eventually to the correct train but would recommend arranging for a car transport both ways to the airport. It was not worth the hassle and stress of being lost to save $50.
Hopefully this information will be useful for the future traveller to Moscow.
IAH - DME (and return) Singapore Airlines economy
I had flown singapore airlines once before in first class on a mileage award ticket, but this was my first time flying in economy class. I had an event to attend in Houston before my Russia trip so the newly introduced flight worked out perfectly for me. Singapore uses their newly configured 777-300 ER for this flight with the new business, first, and economy cabin. It is possible to upgrade only with singapore airlines miles at 40,000 miles oneway. I did have enough starwood points before they ended their relationship with singapore airlines but felt that was too many points to upgrade so decided to stay in economy. Of note the cheapest fares don't earn miles on mileage plus so I ended up paying about $200 more for a mileage earning (and upgradeable) fare.
As a star alliance gold I had access to the lounge. Singapore uses the BA lounge which has a decent selection of drinks (including shiner, one of the famous local Texas beers) but was fairly small. Near the gate there are various NASA pictures for decoration which was interesting to pass the time.
Although a coach flight will never be enjoyable Singapore's was one of the better economy flights I have taken. There is less legroom then economy plus but the entertainment was superior. They have a large screen with on demand video at each seat. Another nice design feature was the reading light was underneath the screen. It is more localized light so if you're trying to sleep and your seatmate wants to read there's less light pollution into your seat compared with an overhead reading light. The food was edible but nothing special (I didn't save the menu and can't remember the dish). The flight to Moscow was packed but I had an aisle seat so felt the legroom was fine. On the return flight there were many fewer passengers so by asking at check-in I got a row to myself.
I would say that if someone was flying to moscow from the U.S. I'd take singapore airlines coach over united economy plus with a connecting flight. Assuming you can get a aisle seat it will be a tolerable flight and the better entertainment makes it preferable.
In Moscow / Travelling to Star City
I stayed at the Sheraton Moscow which has been well reviewed on flyertalk and I can confirm it is a good hotel.
When researching my trip on flyertalk I found much helpful information but nothing on visiting star city, so I though I'd post my experiences for future visitors. Star city, also called the Yuri Gagarin cosmonaut training center (which seems to be it's preferred name for Russians, but they call it by the abbreviation GCTC) is about an hour from Moscow and is still used as an active training center for cosmonauts and US astronauts when training on Russian equipment. They have an English language website with some information (http://www.gctc.ru/eng/index.html)
Because of their financial problems the Russian space program has made various activities available on a sliding scale depending on how much one wants to pay. It can range from a simple tour of the facility all the way up to a private spaceflight for $20 million. In between are activities such as going on a simulated spacewalk in a pool and going in a centrifuge to simulate re-entry.
I tried booking a tour through the starwood platinum concierge. Originally they didn't know what I was talking about and just gave me information on standard city tours. Eventually after several calls they quoted a price of $1350 for a half day tour. This was $450 entrance fee, $450 for the driver, and $450 for the interpreter. (as an aside this was my first time trying out the platinum concierge and I wasn't impressed) This was out of my price range so I emailed star city directly and heard back from a Russian travel company called Vegitel plus. They were able to arrange a half day tour for $575 including the car, driver and interpreter. This was the per car price so it would be the same for 3 - 4 people as for one person. I wasn't able to find anyone to share the tour with so ended up paying the $575 for myself. The car was not luxury but was fine. For those who might want to do this the contact information was Igor Rudyae - Vegitel Plus Marketing Director +7 985 220 60 82 email irud@inbox.ru. I discussed with him over the phone once and the rest was through email. No deposit was required I paid the interpreter in cash (rubles) on the day of my tour)
It was about an hour drive to get to star city and the tour lasted about 2 - 3 hours. The tour guide was a former employee at star city and I was the only one on the tour. I saw the most powerful centrifuge in the world. It apparently can go up to 16 gs but that is for testing equipment as most humans can survive up to 9 gs (not sure if those numbers are correct as the tour was a few months ago). You can touch the outside of the centrifuge but not go inside it.
Other stops on the tour were the neutral bouyancy laboratory. This is a large pool with a submersible platform on which mock-ups of space equipment can be placed. There were no cosmonauts training the day that I was there but the workers were assembling a mock-up for future training.
I also saw the training area for soyuz simulators. This is a large hall where there are 3 different simulators. The guide said it used to be packed with computers but as the technology advanced there became much more open space. Two of the three were in use but I was able to stick my head inside the unused one. The guide did not let me sit inside the simulator, however.
The final stop was a mock-up of the former Mir space station. The hall also had survival equipments for emergency landings and space food.
Of note the current wired magazine (September) has an article on training for private space flight. Virtually everything pictured in that article was on the tour.
I did see some larger groups at the center, mainly Asians (Koreans according to the guide) in groups of 20 - 30. However, the timing was such so I was alone with my guide for part of the time at each stop.
Although expensive, I found it a fascinating tour and would highly recommend it for someone interested in space.
I had a great time in Moscow as well and would recommend it. There are two space sites in Moscow. One is the Cosmonaut Museum accessible by subway at the VDNK subway stop. Unfortunately it was closed and the area was under construction surrounding the museum so I'm not sure when it will re-open. If you do make a trip out there the VDNK exhibition site is an interesting example of communist architecture and worth a trip if you have extra days in Moscow although it's not a top tier site. The other space site is the Buran shuttle in gorky park. The Buran is a copy of the U.S. shuttle and made an unmanned orbital flight. This is an actual Buran shuttle that has been turned into an amusement park ride (I don't know if the one on display actually flew). The only original part left is the outer shell and it's not in a museum setting at all. It's probably not worth a special trip but if you're walking through that part of Moscow it's worth a 10 minute stop.
Other advice I'd give is that the subway is fast and cheap (I think around $2 a ride). The signs are only in Cyrillic so make sure you have a subway map with both English and Cyrillic (obtained before your trip). I also enjoyed going to the Bolshoi for a ballet so would advice this. I booked the ticket online before I left. I then gave the print-out to the box office several days before the show (speaking no Russian) and got my ticket.
I arranged for a car pickup from the airport and was very glad I did so. On return I decided to use the airport train to save money. It was not easy to find it as going from the subway station to the train station is not clear and was not marked in English. It was not obvious how to get to the train station from the subway, and even once inside the train station it wasn't obvious how to get onto the airport train. I did make it eventually to the correct train but would recommend arranging for a car transport both ways to the airport. It was not worth the hassle and stress of being lost to save $50.
Hopefully this information will be useful for the future traveller to Moscow.