futurism

I was playing with the oneworld online timetable and decided to have a look at s7's website, http://www.s7.ru/en/index.html

It seems its possible to book flights starting from Sydney on their website.

So You can go Sydney to Moscow return via Frankfurt each way on QF5/QF6

For the total price of $1225 including all fees and taxes.

Seems damn cheap, with availability on most days too. The cheapest Sydney to Frankfurt fare on the Qantas website is $2309

I recall that theres often money to be saved on Qantas fares by booking through another oneworld site, but I thought you had to depart from that country.

Am I missing something?

Screenshot below

TPJ

The conversion rate seems to be correct...

But... you was just playing with the system or you really need to fly to MOW? You will have to have a Russian visa (expensive and takes time to get one) plus MOW is very expensive - I mean it - expensive: I normally pay some AUD 350.00 for a standard room at Courtyard Marriott, room at a similar hotel located in the States would most likely be priced AUD 100 or less...

futurism

I was just playing
Im actually planning to go to Osaka, Beijing, Shanghai using points, and though Vladivostok is a nearby place I could go for a night to say ive been there

hence I ended up looking on their site and was surprised to see Sydney, and even more surprised to see it use qantas all the way to frankfurt and be so cheap

futaris

stopovers
4 free stopovers permitted - 2 in each direction.

sailrob81

I understood that you could get a free transit visa on arrival that is good for 48 hours.

Wouldn't you just fly to Moscow - turn it round then take a stopover in FRA on the way back?

The question is now how to get a stopover without needing to call Russia.

number_6

A good TA should be able to ticket this for you, stopovers and all, provided you can find one that plates for S7 ticket stock. With e-ticketing that shouldn't be too hard, and S7 does have ticket offices outside of Russia, though BKK looks to be the closest to Oz. Also http://www.travelocity.com will ticket for S7 as of April 27, 2011 -- so that might be the easiest way to book.

cyncynangel

just wondering what site is this?

futurism

as per my original post which you quoted in yours,

http://www.s7.ru/en/index.html

newformula

Wow. Bizarre.

An absolute steal for a flight to Europe if it could somehow be made into a logical, not too intense routing into and out of somewhere more mainstream for the AU traveller - I guess a stopover in FRA and/or MOS and attach some ongoing travel - and it was possible to easily get a stopover quoting online...
Matrix won't price it up and Travelocity is not giving me s7 options, despite number_6' previous post.

As the fare is available in either direction, options are either
SYD-FRA-MOW-XXX (stopover in either FRA or MOW to ease the long-haul pain), returning XXX-MOW-FRA-SYD
OR
XXX-MOW-FRA-SYD, SYD-FRA-XXX where XXX is your actual intended origin or destination (one less flight here as you could discard the final FRA-MOW).

So only really makes sense for destinations not too far from MOW - anywhere east of Poland, maybe Scandinavia, eastern Europe etc. Shame it's not doable as a one way. Unless my logic is flawed?

TPJ

Could I respectfully disagree...

These are full transit visa rules for Russia:

[quote]

TWOV (Transit Without Visa):
Visa required, except for Holders of onward tickets for a max.
transit TIRULES/R32 time of 24 hours.
- Not applicable if next country en-route is Belarus.
- If continuing to Belarus or if the airport of arrival is
different from the airport of departure within the same
Russian city (e.g. arriving at Sheremetyevo-2 and departing
from Sheremetyevo-1 airport in Moscow) then a transit visa
is required.

R32) TWOV
....

Transit Without Visa (TWOV): Passing through an international
transit area of the airport in order to board a connecting (or
to proceed by the same) flight, without entering the country
(i.e. clearing immigration).

Passengers wishing to TWOV must:
- be en-route to a third country (e.g. itinerary TYO-LON-TYO
is not considered TWOV);
- prove that they will continue their journey within the
prescribed period (e.g. hold onward tickets or proof of
sufficient funds to buy an onward ticket);
- have documents required for entry into the country of
destination and for transit through countries en-route;
- remain in the transit area (airside).TWOV is not intended
for those holding ISA (If Seat Available) tickets, e.g.
airline staff or other passengers travelling on industry
discount.


[unquote]

So itinerary FRA-DME-FRA will not be treated as transit itinerary

Himeno

Though you could do SIN-FRA-DME-LHR-FRA-SIN

TPJ

Should work (but no S7 DME-LHR flights)...

Himeno

True, though BA does. If the S7 site gave a cheap QF flight as a connection, then it might do the same for a BA flight.