crescatfloreat

I'm interested in flying to UUS with a couple of friends. The people in our group will be flying out from the eastern/midwestern US and London.

I was wondering if anyone has experience with UUS and with flying there.

From LON it seems like a flight via Moscow on one of the Russian carriers makes sense.

From North America, transit via Seoul, or perhaps Beijing?

Any ideas or experience reports will be much appreciated!

Al.

christep

For non-cyrillic readers, thats Sakhalin. Curiously, the Airport Code lookup on this site doesn't include UUS (where do I report that bug?), but it is Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Airport. Wiki suggests that Seoul and Sapporo are the only places outside Russia with scheduled service, but I've no idea how current that is. Personally I would go via Seoul even from London so that I could use Asiana and avoid Russian airlines.

sbm12

I see service on XF (Vladivostok Air) to NRT, OZ (Asiana) to ICN and HZ (dunno) to CTS and ICN. I'm guessing there is more. In many cases the service is not daily so that adds to the complexity of getting there.

Good luck!

crescatfloreat

hello chris - many thanks for replying. yeah, sorry, i couldn't resist spelling sakhalin in cyrillic, also was curious to see if it worked; i presumed that the people in the know would recognise the exotic airport code.
going via asiana would be nice but i'm afraid the cost might be prohibitive. for some reason the search engines don't show it so i might have to force it by going on their own website.

al

crescatfloreat

Hello sbm,

Many thanks for this.
Where do you find these timetables? On the wandering aramean? This seems very interesting, i need to look into it!

HZ is SAT Airlines (Sakhalinskie Aviatrassy) by the way, I have encountered them already in my search.

The Vladivostok Air flight/charter to NRT could be an interesting alternative to the ICN action.

Anyone around here who has been to Sakhalin???

Al

dcmike

Hi there. I flew to Sakhalin in October - if you have any questions not addressed below, I'd be happy to answer them.

I flew from Kamchatka and departed to Khabarovsk, so from the U.S. I'm just on general knowledge. From the East Coast you're looking at a long flight either way. You could fly from ATL or JFK to SVO and then on to Sakhalin on Aeroflot, but you're looking at an 11 hour flight followed by a nine hour flight. It's actually probably easier to go East - a 13 hour flight to NRT or ICN and then a 2/3 hour flight to Sakhalin.

I've flown both Vladivostok Avia and SAT. As long as you don't mind flying Russian planes, they're fine. The SAT plane I flew was actually an old Russian prop plane with curtains on the windows. We flew pretty low and it was pretty cool for sight seeing.

Upon landing in Sakhalin you end up outside. Once your bags are ready for pick up, they unlock the door to the baggage area and let you in.

The process for departure is like no where else I've ever done it (and I've traveled a lot in Russia). Your flight gets called, you got through a door marked specifically for your flight, then through security. Once you're through security, you check in. Yes, you got through security with everything, then check in. You're then lead to a waiting area, when boarding is called, you go to a second waiting area to wait for the bus, then you're shipped out to the plane.

On the other hand, I know few other airports that have their own anthem:

http://www.airportus.ru/hymn.php

Sadly, it's only in Russian.

You should definitely visit the local history museum in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, which is located in the building the Japanese used for the local administration until they were kicked off the island in WWII:

http://wikitravel.org/en/Image:Yuzhno-sakhalinsk.jpg

dcmike

There is also a timetable here:

http://www.airportus.ru/shedule.php

Also only in Russian. Although Google Translate (translate.google.com) does a pretty good job with the page ("Action" should really be translated as "Valid"). You'll see a couple other options from China to get to Sakhalin on SAT.

dcmike

Actually, I realized this was in Kamchatka after I posted. Sakhalin was much more straight forward. Sorry.

luitje

I reckon the fastest route from the UK be either SU or BD/UN flights. SU is better service and newer planes, flying BD/UN will give you shorter connection time and save you from hassle of changing from SVO F (voted worlds worst airport) to SVO D (new SU terminal). Total flying time is around 4 hours on LHR-MOW leg and 8 hours on MOW-USS leg; i.e. 12 hours + 2-3 hours layover.

There are daily flights from ICN (2,3,6,7 with HZ departing 1 pm and 1,4,5 with OZ departing 9am). So I reckon best route for your friendsin the Western US would be LAX-ICN and ICN-UUS. Not sure if you can book it on one PNR. This would be 13 hours on LAX-ICN + 3 hours on ICN-UUS leg; 16 hours +2-5 hours layover.

Your friends in the Eastern coast would probably want to consider flying via Moscow - (SU or UA/UN) would be a faster route for them.

crescatfloreat

many thanks to all. i will study and revert with more questions.

al

crescatfloreat

it's on the table again. i think i'm going to fly from lon via moscow with what looks to be a pretty decent bmi & transaero combination. does anyone have experience with transaero? i like the fact that they seem to fly triple 7's whereas aeroflot is using some il-96s from svo to uus.

for some compadres located in midwestern-eastcoast-ish north america, the question still seems tricky when it comes to flights available, prices and length of flight. has anyone flown to far-eastern russia via the pacific recently? newer insights would be appreciated.

many thanks -

al

jbfield

The OZ flight from LHR - ICN - UUS means an overnight in ICN on both the outbound and return sectors. This arrangement was fine for my purposes and the onboard service fine. Plenty of food onboard so you get a decent meal before you arrive in Sakhalin in the late afternoon. The overnight connection might also lend itself to using two-separate tickets if you wanted to risk it (might not save you any cash in the end though).

Recent experience:
UUS airport is fairly small, but close to the city (10-15 mins on the bus). Lots of buss wait outside for the route as it would appear to be the terminus.

When you get off the aircraft you walk across the apron; if you've taken the OZ flight from ICN, you'd best get to the front of the crowd so you don't have to wait at immigration too long (only two immigration officers).

Smallest baggage belt and hall I've ever seen.
They do process the *A priority luggage first (comes off in one go - no idea when the non-priority baggage comes through).

You then have a small room for customs (you need to show your luggage labels to verify your bags are correct) and put your items through the x-ray machines. Customs officials shrug their shoulders when you asked them to stamp the customs forms.

After this a walk through a very crowded arrivals room where the local's waiting for their families to return are pretty much blocking the path.

I recall as sign for an ATM if you need it by YMMV as to whether it works.
Not found anywhere that accepts credit cards, even the local travel agencies.

I was one of the first passengers off the aircraft and through the arrivals process. Took about 15 - 20 minutes and I was already heading into town. No idea how long it would take if you were further back; no places to sit so it could be an uncomfortable wait. At least there is only one international flight arriving at a time though.

No experience with UN or SU. I noticed each had a non-soviet era aircraft parked on the apron at UUS (in fact one of them was being pushed back ready for departure). No experience traveling from the east either, but personally I'd assume OZ is your best choice. I think the Vladivostock Avia flight would be indirect and I have a feeling I some avoid-do not use advice from some official channel recently.

Note that your experience will depend heavily on when you are traveling; deep snowy winter, muddy snowy spring, dry-ish summer or muddy autumn?

sheremetyevo

sure, but why the weird accent on the н (n)?

edit: hmm, the accent seems to migrate to the next letter when it shows up on the thread's own page.

Zhivago

Yep, reading this thread I was wondering why no-one suggested Transaero. It's a good airline, new(ish) planes, and if you manage to get an exit-row seat, there is loads of room. This would be my choice.

I have done Sakhalin before - try to avoid the period immediately before winter and the thaw in the spring - lots and LOTS of surface water being sprayed over pedestrians by cars driving fast without any consideration for pedestrians.

luitje

I wouldn't go with UN for anything long haul where they fly their dated Boeings in 3 class configuration. Hard product on this service is dreadful (no IFE, recliners in business) and considering UN soft product has always been hit or miss, I would rather go with either SU or OZ.

But then again, the moment they start flying their 4-class B777 on this route I will be first to switch.