Originally Posted by
luitje
I have arrived to a way of curing it after awhile. Once you hear that kind of c**p, calmly and slowly take out your pen and a piece of paper and ask for the name of the person you are talking to and name of his/her manager; then (if they are still giving you attitude) put down their exact phrase and repeat it to them, asking if you put it correctly. Works like a charm every time. The only community which is immune to this technique is bloody government officers (border guards, customs, militia). Didn't figure out this lot yet.
It surely works with some of them, but not with all, unfortunately.(
As I'm bilingual, and I have the card required for the priority check-in, I always look at whichever woman on the registration stand behaves more proper, and there I am-) It helps in the following way: as they have the 767s on their flights to LAX and JFK(I flew only those after they stopped SVO-SFO via Seattle), there are smaller rows of two(not three, as in the rest of the plane) seats in the back of the plane. If I'm alone, in 10/10, even if the plane is full, I'm getting those two all for myself. If I'm with a friend or a relative or someone else, I'm getting the three middle seats for two of us. It's just plain talk, and when you fly from SVO often they remember your face and are nice.
The trouble with government officers like customs, militia, etc is that they
do not report to anyone in the airport or anywhere near. They are employed by their agencies regardless of where they are stationed. That's a major pain youknowwhere, hopefully, they are kept under control for the most of time.
Originally Posted by
jbcarioca
luitje makes good points. SU is my preferred choice to get in and out of MOW. Their ground service is admittedly lousy but nobody has good ground service at either DME or SVO. In flight the onboard service is very good and the international J seats are far nicer than the inter-europe converted Y seats nearly everyone else uses. SU also has far better on time performance than most of the others. As in all aviation experiences recency counts more than frequency because things do change quickly. I am an SU fan!
The seats are indeed very nice, and sometimes they are on time, but that is sometimes. When I flew with them I counted in two extra hours as a must. Proved to be a good idea. And I can say that out of my last 4 transatlantic flights with LH only one was late, and one was almost an hour early. If it'd been SU, all 4 would've been late.
Originally Posted by
fairviewroad
Are Aeroflot employees friendlier and more helpful during the summer? Weather is no excuse for poor customer service.
Nah, that doesn't have anything to do with the weather. They just don't care. And they're rude by their nature. Welcome to mother Russia-)
Originally Posted by
xyzzy
I pointed that out once to SU and they didn't care. They still denied me access.
Originally Posted by
luv2ctheworld
Interesting... my *A elite status allowed for domestic connections (outside the US of course). Well, I guess I can't fault them if that's company policy. I was SVO-LED from an incoming int'l flight.
If my memory's right, there are two lounges in SVO. One of them is(was when I last flew from there) currently being remodeled, so they direct passengers to the other one, a so-called first-class lounge.(again, if my memory's correct). And, as it is with most of things in Russia, you have to prove to them that you are entitled to access the lounge, but that doesn't work well as their knowledge of English is so limited they just don't understand what you want from them, or pretend not to understand, so they don't really care. If I were (I am myself, but that's not about me), a *A cardholder, I'd forget the SVO as a bad dream and stick with DME-there's at least a *A lounge there. And the airport itself is quite better than good ol' SVO. I haven't been to the new D terminal, but I'd rather stay with DME, even though SVO is 25 minutes from my apartment and SU flights are not those red eyes with 7AM departures I get from DME.
Originally Posted by
Medic1
Well, I've flown them many times throughout the 2000s, 5 times alone last year. I can honestly say that I think their in-flight service is much better than some of their American counterparts.
Totally agree-the in-flight service, as well as the flight attendants, are much better than many others.)
Originally Posted by
jredknapp11
To the OP.... no one likes a delay, especially in either DME or SVO but we are talking about January in Moscow. There's less gambling in Vegas and Monaco combined then having to make a run through Moscow in the winter.
I don't quite understand the thesis.. First two weeks of January are holidays, everyone's drinking. The city is so clean and quiet, I even start to like it again during this period. On the other hand, that might be an explanation of the delays - those guys have to work when the rest of the nation's having a good time, so they're not in a hurry of any kind.
I almost missed the plane once - it was a flight scheduled to take off at 3-30Am on January 1st, and the reason was that the customs officer in SVO's designated VIP lounge was sleeping because he got wasted a couple of hours ago, and no one could wake him up!
Originally Posted by
luitje
Aeroflot does allow selecting a seat at the time of reservation on all of the flights operated on their metal. They block exit rows though, these could only be given by there airport check-in. This aeroexpress thing could be a bit tricky though. You are supposed to have a seperate code for the train. You will need to key it into the ticket machine at the station to get your paper ticket. Or did they sms it to you?
They do block them, but they have the new program that allows the use of those seats by *A Silver and Gold cardholders for free, or for 700rur(roughly 25$) for anyone else. It works if seats are available, and you have to ask them at the check-in counter. Used it once for my GF - worked out fine for her.
Ok, I think I got some areas covered, hope this info will shed some light on the subjects regarding SU and whatever stuff that goes with that.
I'll happily answer any questions, should anyone have them!