Quick review of a couple of recent SU flights as part of a trip to Moscow and a Baltic cruise:
6/16 - SU2579 LHR-SVO - A330-300 - Business Class
I booked Skymiles Biz class award tickets for my wife and I. We flew from ATL to LHR on Virgin Upper Class, transited from T3 to T4, relaxed in the Skyteam lounge, then it was time to board Aeroflot.
When the boarding gate was announced, we headed downstairs to our gate. The boarding process was orderly. Our passports and visas were checked prior to boarding and we boarded through the Sky Priority lane. The seats were angle-flat in a 2x2x2 configuration in business class. Biz was less than half full although economy was fairly full.
We were offered champagne or orange juice prior to departure and given menus and wine lists. Didn’t get a pic of the wine list – sorry.
We received amenity kits, which were pretty basic, and headphones. An announcement was made that no electronics (even in flight mode) were allowed during taxi, takeoff and landing. I thought this was a little odd, but perhaps its due to the language barrier or something like that??
The flight attendants were all very friendly and attentive. After takeoff, meal service began. I ordered their special cocktail with whiskey and apple juice. I also ordered a glass of ice water, but the flight attendant apparently misunderstood and brought me both the cocktail and a separate glass of straight whiskey on ice. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, so I drank both
The food was actually very good. I ordered the ham appetizer and my wife ordered the salmon. We both had the cod main course and tiramisu dessert. The pretzel rolls were particularly good as well. The table was set nicely, but then the appetizer was served on a cheap-looking plastic tray.
I decided to watch a Russian movie (with subtitles) as when else would I get to see one? It was really good – The Battle for Sevastopol – about a female Soviet army sniper from WWII who was part of a delegation that met Eleanor Roosevelt in Washington when the Soviets were seeking assistance on the Eastern front. It must have been one of the biggest budget Russian movies ever due to the realistic battle scenes .
After the meal, the cabin chief came around and asked us how we liked the service, which was a nice touch. He even leant me his name badge so I could use the pin to try and pop out my SIM card and switch to the Russian one, but of course the SIM was cut to the wrong size so I would have to get it fixed in Moscow.
We landed about 20 minutes late and had a long taxi to the gate. Immigration took about 20 minutes in line - no problems with our 3 year visas. We got our luggage fairly quickly and met our driver in the arrivals area.
6/19 - SU2210 SVO-ARN - A320 - Economy
We were picked up at our hotel around 7:15am. There was no traffic at that time on a Sunday morning, but it was slow getting into the airport as every car receives a security check before driving to the terminal. He dropped us off and we went to check in for the Aeroflot flight. As were flying economy this time, we stood in a long line. Luckily, they opened a new line and took several of us to that line. Luggage was fine – I had expected them to make us check and pay for my wife's extra rollaboard.
We went through immigration and security (very efficient) and then looked for our gate. Ugh – a bus gate. We were glad we had eaten as there was only a Burger King near our gate. We boarded our bus about 30 minutes prior to departure and drove out to the plane. The weather was nice so it wasn’t bad.
The flight to Stockholm took about 2 hours, but we gained an hour on the way. They did serve a snack on the flight, but it was just a dry sandwich of some sort. There were quite a few fellow cruisers on this flight who had flown from JFK or DC to Moscow overnight and connected to this flight. They said Aeroflot was a good deal on the airfare.
Aeroflot was efficient, the service was friendly and we enjoyed our experience. Wouldn't hesitate to fly them again.