I'm not so anxious to see AA having any big action with S7 until visa issues between the USA and Russia improve.

At least the Indian tourist visa has a ten year validity, Brazil five years, and Chinese visa a year, but Russian visas can only be issued what, less than a month before travel, need a tourist invitation (additional cost), and valid only for a month? Pass.

Plus, being a Los Angeles resident, I can't send my visa application via mail to the Russian Consulate in San Francisco (they don't accept visa applications by mail), I have to do it via an authorized visa agency which has outrageous prices

I believe this was one of the reasons why AA axed ORD-DME service quite quickly too; a mechanical failure of an AA plane caused passengers to deplane, but Americans were denied re-entering Russia to go back to the ticket counter to re-book because they only had single-entry visas.


Unfortunately, I don't see visa relations to be resolved between the US and Russia thaw anytime soon either.